The unfolding sense of safety with other vets and families, the welcoming embrace of the Bay and its birds, fish, and harbor seal pups helped reservist Mike name an obstacle and find a crease through which he began to come to life.
The Vietnam War, however, was not only a defining moment in baby boomers' coming-of-age process. Forty years later, the war is still part of many boomers' psyches as they face older age.
Media and official reports on prevalence rates of military war stress injury have focused almost exclusively on escalating rates of well-known war stress injuries such as PTSD, depression, generalized anxiety, substance abuse, and traumatic brain injury (TBI). However, the true impact from war trauma cannot be reduced to a handful of psychiatric diagnoses, as some may want.
Many veterans never dreamed of needing help coping with life following combat deployments. While the impact of surviving in a combat zone has left many veterans seeking help in overcoming posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), there have been significant advances in treatment.
There is no doubt in my mind that EMDR therapy can significantly reduce and/or relieve a lot of pain and suffering for many military members and veterans, and doing so would prevent an untold number of misconduct stress behaviors and chronic war stress injuries such as PTSD and depression.
Now, a new generation comes home from wars that have gone on for a decade, often with no clear sense of victory. For those who have managed to return physically unscathed, how many carry memories of pain that also leave them feeling alienated and unable to communicate?
There is a desperate need to maintain hope that the veteran can win in the final battle -- coming home. So, where does a veteran turn for help? Know there are health care providers who are committed to making a difference both to the veteran and family members. Together we all can make a difference.
The purpose of meditation is not to stop our thinking but to create conditions for rest and peace and understanding by cultivating our attention.
Yellow ribbons and rounds of applause at airports demonstrate how grateful our country is for the sacrifices that a small portion of our population has made. But, today, do American's feel truly connected to the military?
In the game of war, where nothing is sacred except the supremacy of power -- winning -- this is where power stops and humanity begins: You must respect your enemy's dead body.
Simply put, America needs not to abandon foreign aid because if it did so, it would forfeit leadership.
At the outset of World War II, the British Ministry of Information came up with the slogan "Keep Calm and Carry On" for a poster designed to allay the fear that Germany would invade Great Britain. My friend, a commander serving in Afghanistan, uses it for his signature line.
Because of the authority with which words like "clinical depression" or "bipolar" are used in modern conversation, they are given the impression that those words have a permanence and solidity they do not actually have.
Of all the statistics that describe the devastation wreaked upon Iraq by the illegal war, I find the figures describing the plight of Iraqi children the most troubling and heart-wrenching.
Human beings seem infinitely adaptable. But there is no silver bullet, no quick fix potion that will make a soldier, sailor, airman or Marine invulnerable to five, six or more tours of duty in today's war zone and the separations from loved ones.
Mauricio provided comic relief at one retreat. In the large group, he challenged his fellow Marine Kenny by claiming that, of the two Master Sergeants...
