COMBAT STRESS Richard J B Willis
Not an order or a piece of advice, but a reality of life! A new survey of mental health problems in the UK has highlighted a growing concern – up to 20 per cent of all military combatants will show some degree of post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Soldiers are used to being guinea-pigs in that they provide a homogenous mass for experimental purposes. The cocktail of drugs given service personnel before the first Gulf War without prior knowledge of the effects of the mixture has likely contributed to what is now known in the western world as Gulf War Syndrome.
Only recently was it discovered that the common cold experiments, at the Ministry of Defence's Porton Down Biological Weapons Establishment, were in fact nerve warfare agents. This came to light when the 'volunteers' involved started to deteriorate in their health with the only common factor being their stay at the Establishment.
Combat stress, whilst not new, is nevertheless a recent and recurrent problem. Already since being involved in the second Gulf War more than 460 soldiers have been discharged from the services with mental health problems, with 50 of these diagnosed as PTSD. Some do not make it to the surgery. The suicide rate following the first Gulf War was 5 times higher than combat fatalities during the war.
The service personnel get a raw deal for fighting, with military psychiatric hospitals scaled down in current defence cuts in spending. There are around 600 new referrals of combat stress annually, with a 6-month waiting list for treatment. It may take up to 10 years for a diagnosis to be made and appropriate treatment given. Some of those receiving treatment started it after the PTSD of WW2.
Typically, the PTSD sufferer has poor concentration, intense fear, insomnia, and recurring, intrusive flashbacks to scenes better forgotten. Lacking any real help alcoholism rates rise as these distressed people try to drown their sorrows. Many find themselves in trouble because of their eccentric or explosive behaviour and end up in prison. At the present time approximately 5000 ex-service men and women are imprisoned.
War, even by military personnel, is seen as an unpopular and controversial issue with close quarter – hand to hand fighting – the most horrific. The carnage caused by so-called 'friendly fire' does nothing to instil confidence. Whatever our personal views on war and bearing arms we can at least recognise the tremendous pressures under which large sections of our society work.
'Combat stress' should be an order, it should also be advice, and we should help provide the kind of environment that will put an end to the activities that cause it. Whilst we serve a God of peace let us remember and help those whose peace has been so tragically damaged in our service.