mTBI, PTSD and Stress (Catch All)

[Red Rat]

A straw poll of some two dozen serving officers at my current location revealed that while we had all come across suicides among serving and retired peers and subordinates, all of them appeared to have been linked to non-PTSD issues.

This ad hoc military judgement panel felt that the relentless focus on PTSD was obscuring a larger issue of mental health in the round and while there was awareness of some people who had suffered with PTSD, these were very much the exception; more prevalent were people with stress, depression and other mental health issues.

certainly the UK often recruits (especially the combat arms) from a strata of society where disrupted backgrounds are the norm, military life is in itself very disruptive and then on discharge we return personnel inevitably back from whence they came.

[davidbfpo]

This thread was originally called White Paper: PTSD and mTBI. It has now been renamed mTBI, PTSD and Stress (Catch All).

Today I have merged in eight similar threads, all had been closed. There remain a small number of threads on PTSD / Stress, most are in the RFI arena and have been left alone.

IHMO this thread should be viewed alongside: How soldiers deal with the job of killing:http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/...ad.php?t=13523 and How LE & others deal with the job of killing and death: http://council.smallwarsjournal.com/showthread.php?t=15164

[davidbfpo]

A short article 'When the brain is the battlefield' in The Spectator, in a health supplement:http://health.spectator.co.uk/when-t...-armed-forces/

A couple of "take away" points: 4% of all those the UK deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq come back with PTSD; 7% for those in direct combat and 40% with disorders do not seek help.

The UK public expect 90% return with physical or mental health problems.

Yes, this article was the catalyst to re-open this thread and merge smaller ones in (see above Post).

[davidbfpo]

A long article from Huffington Post, the actual title is: These Elite Troops Spent 15 Years At War. This Program Tries To Prepare Their Minds And Bodies For The Next 15.
Link:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/...b0018f9cb991d0