Mental Illness in Service Members

From Christian Lowe's "Mental Illness Plagues Current Vets":

More than one third of American troops returning from combat in Iraq and Afghanistan have been diagnosed with some sort of mental or "psychosocial" disorder, a new report from the Archives of Internal Medicine finds.

Out of 103,788 veterans assessed in the study, titled "Bringing the War Back Home," more than 32,000 veterans of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom who were discharged from the military between 2001 and 2005 were found by Veterans Affairs examiners to have mental health problems, including substance abuse.

The authors of the study – lead by Dr. Karen H. Seal of the University of California, San Francisco – found that a majority of those determined to have mental health problems were diagnosed with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, or more than 13,200 vets.

And those afflicted with mental or psychosocial disorders tended to be the youngest troops.

"Veterans aged 18-24 were at the greatest risk for receiving mental health or Posttraumatic Stress Disorder diagnoses compared with veterans 40 years or older," the San Francisco VA-sponsored study found. "Targeted early detection and intervention beginning in primary care settings are needed to prevent chronic mental illness and disability."

You can read the rest of the article at Military.com.

Aku shared a similar article from ABCnews.com with me. Part of it reads:

"We are seeing a great number of soldiers coming back being treated in VA hospitals and in communities with depression, anxiety and PTSD," said Dr. Michelle Riba, professor of psychiatry at the University of Michigan and past president of the American Psychiatric Association.

In the new study, the authors say their findings signal a need for improvements in preventing mental health disorders in troops, as well as detecting and treating them early.

However, Riba said studies and surveys will only be helpful if action is taken to stem the problem.

"It is good that surveys are being done and the government is trying to address other issues," she said.

"But the question is: What are we really trying to do to help these vulnerable people?"

It's just another one of those things that hits close to home. A month ago I was diagnosed with Anxiety of the Not Otherwise Specified variety. I'm probably a few tick marks away from being diagnosed with depression -- although I doubt that being in this environment is the cause.

Part of me feels guilty about it because I'm not kicking in doors, I'm not scanning my sector for IEDs, and I'm not in a position where I would suffer bodily harm. I'm a fobbit. I ride a bus to work, I go on mail and coffee runs, and I have daily access to a computer and a DSN phone. I get along with my coworkers, I socialize with friends, and my boyfriend -- when he's not on a mission -- is a phone call away. Piece of cake, right?

And yet... I'm having problems and I don't know why. I've growled, yes, growled at Driver, at Wolf, and my friends. I've hit Wolf in my sleep. I lie or omit information during visits to Mental Health. I've thought about going AWOL over leave, getting pregnant, or hurting myself. I've been disrespectful to those who are senior to me, to include hanging up the phone on my First Sergeant and telling my Chief something not so pleasant. I'm almost constantly tired, occasionally irritable, and sometimes cry.

In the back of my mind a little voice says that I'm a fobbit and this shouldn't be happening. It's real. It's happening. And the only control I have over it is to lie, lie, lie.

So why am I not getting the help that I obviously need? I don't want to get sent home -- I need the money, I need the veteran status, and I need the support group that I have here. I don't want my medical records tagged or otherwise marked that I have a mental illness and should be put on restricted duty. I don't want everyone to be whispering "Techno's gone crazy" behind my back. I don't want to be treated with kid gloves when I get home. I want to be normal. Or at least as normal as normal gets around these parts.

Will I get help? Honestly, I don't know. I do go to Mental Health every few weeks, and it looks like that will continue until I redeploy to go home. I talk to Driver, I talk to Wolf, I go to Circle and meditate. I go to my appointments, I've had bloodwork and other labs done, and I report to my Command Sergeant Major on how I'm doing. She's still looking for something physically wrong with me, and I doubt that she'll find it.

There are good days and there are bad days. On the good days no one sees anything wrong and on bad days I just want to curl up in my bunk and be left alone. Today? Not so sure about, but I'm still trucking away.