No Excuse.. just reasons, maybe

Fort Hood: Trauma is contagious– and effects those around the traumatized.
The stress of war damages beyond belief–years and years after serving in the military, troops can still be suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. But one thing we may not have sufficiently appreciated is that the trauma of war is contagious. Witnesses to violence, those who work with people who have experienced war directly, also can become severely traumatized.
Is this the case for Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the military psychiatrist accused of the horrific Fort Hood rampage? Early days yet, and all ‘reasons’ are being investigated. But some reports indicate that his job as a psychiatrist was to counsel many returning soldiers for their symptoms of PTSD. Fort Hood is the gate way for thousands and thousdands of soldiers going into war and coming back from war zones. Part of that therapy is for the soldiers to tell what happened to them in great detail–the ‘talking cure’ as it is referred to in counseling literature. But what happens to those who listen, day to day, as the traumatized solders tell of their horrific experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Judith Herman, in her groundbreaking work Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror, actually describes how contagious trauma can be. Those who witness trauma, who work with victims of rape, battering, torture and with those who have experienced war, are vulnerable to the repeated stress of being present to those who have gone through these traumas. You can’t be an effective counselor unless you understand and to some extent even feel the pain of those whom you are counseling.
I spent several years as a part-time domestic violence counselor and I finally had to quit. I started dreaming of being beaten, I stopped eating well and I was jumpy and startled easily. I had caught a mild case of PTSD from counseling these women. My supervisor told me that I needed to take a break. I came back to this work by doing workshops on spiritual resources for those who work with women who have been battered. I knew what I was talking about.
Major Hasan also told relatives that he had been hassled for being a Muslim, even though his military records list “no religious preference.” He was a Virginian, born to immigrant parents from a small town near Jerusalem. Did this harassment add to his sense of emotional and physical threat and make him even more vulnerable to catching PTSD?
These kinds of insights may come out as this case is examined.
And the families of the killed and wounded, and the whole community of Fort Hood! How much more stress can these people take? Some reports indicate troops were looking at a third and fourth deployment.
The trauma of war is like a huge stone thrown into a pool; the ripples go out in wider and wider circles, catching those who serve, hitting their families, flowing into the lives of those who are supposed to care for them and help them, and finally into our whole nation. The effect of two wars both going on now for the better part of a decade has harmed this country, made it more brittle and divided. The stress of economic downturn only piles on, hurting us all spiritually and physically and certainly communally.
As our thoughts go out to Fort Hood today, let us really see war in its ever widening effects and really count the cost.

copied 11.09.09