Once were warriors

Once were warriors
After the horrors of war, many servicemen and women find themselves facing another battle: post-traumatic stress disorder. But a radical programme involving t'ai chi, meditation and Hawaiian "forgiveness" therapy is helping many of them find peace

• This article appears in Sunday's Observer Magazine
Louise Carpenter The Observer, Sunday 1 February 2009
Peter Stone was approaching the end of a long career in the army when he witnessed an event in Croatia in 1995 that was to ruin the next decade of his life. Walking through a village, he came across three Croatian children, aged 11, nine and seven. A father of four himself, Stone's instinct was to talk to them. He even reached into the pocket of his uniform and offered them some chocolate. Later, passing back through the village, he saw them again. They were lying in pools of their own blood by the roadside, their throats cut - punishment for speaking to the enemy.

Stone was an experienced soldier. He had served in Northern Ireland, the Falklands and Croatia. He had seen death and despair, and he had endured and pulled through explosions himself. And yet it was this singular, horrific event that was to be his unravelling. "Those children were innocent," he says, his voice faltering, "and I could not get the memory of them out of my mind, I could not get the thoughts to go [away] that I was responsible, that if it were not for me, they would still be alive today."

Years later, Stone was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a common problem that usually becomes apparent in soldiers years after the experienced trauma. It is often triggered by a second, unrelated trauma. In Stone's case, it was the death of his son in a car crash, two weeks before his son's 21st birthday, in 2001. He had been out of the army for a year then, his marriage having broken down due to the stresses of his job.
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Soldiers trained to kill now training to heal PTSD with yoga

A Breath of Hope
Walter Reed Tries Yoga to Counter PTSD
By Eileen Rivers
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, May 6, 2008; Page HE01

Derrick Farley, a 29-year-old Army sergeant stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C., has seen many people die. He served in Iraq for three year-long tours of duty with only six-month breaks between them. He remembers driving trucks along the dirt roads of Tikrit, ever alert for telltale signs of a sniper or the sudden blast of a hidden roadside bomb. His vehicle, he said, was hit 13 times.

After he returned home from his last tour, it was often the less tense moments from Iraq that ran through his mind. For months, he had nightmares during which he screamed out in Arabic as he relived run-ins with detainees. At times, the sound of shots ringing out from the firing range at Fort Bragg would launch him right back onto the roads of Iraq.

Farley is far from alone: A Rand study released last month said 20 percent of the approximately 1.6 million U.S. military personnel who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan suffer from symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.

But recently Farley has found a way to quell the symptoms of PTSD. Instead of allowing his mind to flash back to the roadside carnage, the truck driver pictures himself sitting on a yoga mat at the District's Walter Reed Army Medical Center, taking deep, relaxing breaths.

The techniques Farley learned there from yoga teacher Robin Carnes help him to realize that he's "actually here on Fort Bragg and not in Iraq," he explained by phone from the base.

'They're Not as Angry'


The Specialized Care Program at Walter Reed focuses on helping service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan leave their wartime experiences behind.

Yoga, Carnes said, has become a large part of that effort.
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When experts began looking at PTSD, it was not just from the veteran's population. It was from all across humanity. PTSD comes from trauma, which is caused by an outside force.


When the idea of the Purple Heart for PTSD and TBI first came to light, there were reasons given against it. Some say that regular people get PTSD too. While this is true, they also get shot at but not in the line of duty and not while deployed into combat. PTSD and TBI come from outside forces and penetrate into the body, but the target of both happens to be the mind. Our soldiers are still humans just like the rest of us and it's time we fully acknowledged this.


We "can" experience PTSD if we are exposed to trauma. Otherwise, whatever is wrong with us, is not PTSD. This is why they call it Post Traumatic Stress and add in disorder because everything in their lives is out of order, contrary to the character they had before. PTSD has been studied and tested since Vietnam and known to exist since the beginning of recorded history. Yes, it does show up on an MRI and is proven in tests.

It is a normal reaction to abnormal events and there is nothing more abnormal than combat and people trying to kill off as many of the "enemy" as they can as fast as they can.

While I labeled the post title with the word "heal" that does not mean cure. All wounds leave behind traces and with PTSD and TBI, they will never be cured but the quality of their lives can be healed. Yoga, T'ai Chi, meditation, are all being tried and have produced results. Each person will find relief from different sources taking care of the body to help the mind by calming the spirit. When all are addressed there is healing.

Post-Traumatic Stress
For the past several years I have had the opportunity to teach a class for the local Veterans Center. This class was sponsored by the Center's resident counselor and psychiatrist and consists of about a dozen participants who range in age from early 30's to about 60. While not true for all of these students, it is felt that a number of these men suffer from post traumatic stress syndrome as a result of their experiences in either Viet Nam or the Gulf War.

Let me state at this point that I make no claims to be a psychiatrist or a psychologist, or to have any extensive training in a Western approach to conditions which we might consider mental disorders. It was the idea, as mentioned, of the medical professionals in the Veterans Center to apply a practice like T'ai Chi as an alternative approach to the difficulties experienced by individuals dealing with this type of condition.

In our day and age it is possible to experience intense and lasting stress in any number of different ways. Any traumatic abuse, be it physical, emotional, or mental, will result in an internal injury which can have lasting debilitating effects. In working with the afore mentioned group, I have made a few observations which I hope may be helpful.

The first is that it a natural response to intense trauma for the individual to want to escape the experience, either during or after or both.. Most individuals are not trained nor prepared to handle the discomfort, fear, and overall intensity the experience presents to them. Even a soldier, who goes through extensive training and seeks to develop a particular mind-set, is probably unprepared for the reality of war. How much more unprepared is a woman who is raped, or an abused child?

So there is a natural and probably necessary mental/emotional strategy to escape from the pain and horror. But unfortunately, if continued over a long period, the result of this escape mechanism is that there is a growing sense of alienation and separation from reality. Reality is a pretty heavy term, and can be a bit ambiguous. In using it what I mean is the ability for any individual to pay attention and function reasonably well (clearly) in respect to present moment circumstances. Because the trauma is experienced, either directly or indirectly, through the physical experience, much of the sense of alienation seems to express itself in the lessening of awareness and connection between the mental/emotional levels and the physical body.

What I have experienced and observed in my work at the Veterans Center is that, in a number of ways, T'ai Chi presents a valuable and result oriented approach to help satisfy the needs of people dealing with this condition. First, and maybe most important, T'ai Chi places great emphasis in the mind/body relationship. A student, regardless of past experience, is supported in returning to a greater awareness of their body. This is emphasized as the basis for good physical health, but in reality, its primary importance is that of mental health. The condition of the mind disconnected from the body, and therefore from present moment experience, is viewed as the primary cause for all confusion, delusion, and mental/emotional pain. The need to reconnect mind to body is a step of the healing process that includes not only those who have experienced extreme traumatic stress, but just about everyone in some manner. In varying degrees, we all suffer from post traumatic stress syndrome.

For a beginner through intermediate level student, T'ai Chi emphasizes a few basic principles. These are to strengthen one's ability to pay attention, to connect that attention to the body experience, and then to relax. All of this is looked at as being very "grounding". In Traditional Chinese Medicine there is a tremendous emphasis placed on the experience and relationship one has to the earth. The earth qualities, the earth energy, is what keeps us physically healthy, emotionally confident, and mentally strong. People who suffer from post traumatic stress syndrome, from a traditional Chinese diagnostic view, would be considered to be deficient in "earth Chi". They lack the qualities of stability, balance, and confidence. So the intent of the practice is to facilitate the individual's ability to reestablish that earth connection, not only to the physical ground, but gradually, to that reality base of what's happening now, both internally and externally. During the process of establishing that sense of reconnection, one is required to look at and resolve or heal any obstruction that stands in the way. No small task, but T'ai Chi would ask "What is the alternative?"

A final idea concerning the place a practice like T'ai chi might have in a clinical setting where other modalities, like psychiatry, might be the dominant approach. The doctor that invited me to conduct this class was wise in his insight that different individuals respond to different methods. The value of T'ai Chi is that it addresses the effects of past trauma in a non-intellectual approach; things are not talked about, one doesn't have to express oneself verbally. Some people do not do well with words (intellect). Yet, in T'ai Chi, issues are dealt with very effectively, over time, because the practice requires that the student apply great amounts of attention towards themselves, initially to the body, but eventually to every level. A student explores their feelings, qualities of experience, and levels of comfort, or lack of. For some people, and I would include myself in this category, this body oriented way of dealing with emotional/mental stress can be a most effective tool.
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