Posted on 08/16/2005 5:29:48 AM PDT by johnny7
Boston, Massachusetts (AHN) - The Massachusetts state legislature is considering mandatory mental health counseling for National Guardsmen returning from Iraq.
Currently, the uniform regulation for mental health screenings apply only for career military members and is usually done by questionaire. The state wants to screen the Guardsmen for Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome, a mental health disorder that commonly affects people who have been subject to life altering events. Symptoms include nightmares, flashbacks, depression and estrangement.
"There was a road-rage incident up here recently... involving a returning vet and knee-jerk legislation is what the ninnie-nannies on Beacon Hill do best."
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I believe that incident was discussed on this forum when it happened. The road-rager shot the returned soldier. The therapist being interviewed for the article airily presumed, sight unseen that the soldier was a headcase. The usual clutch of entertainment industry, journalist and liberal shrink types are eagerly anticipating another generation of rag-tag, dysfunctional, drug-abusing homeless "veterans" from this war. Just like the vietnam stereotype (which was largely a media-exagerrated myth).
I think mandatory mental screening for political candidates in Massachusetts would make much more sense.
I bet you can statistically correlate crimes, crimes of violence, propensity thereof per capita to zip code. Next would the Commonwealth of Bedlam-chussetts be demanding treatment and prozac (or some such drug) for every one by zip code?
Massoftwoshits can piss off. They don't need counselling, war is hell, they need family and alot of time.
The national marine of the year for 2004 shot and wounded a high school girl in Lawrence a couple of days ago.
I would be depressed and estranged if I had to live in MA.
Interesting and very good point to consider.
Subject: History explained
Humans existed as members of small bands of nomadic hunter/gathers. They lived on deer in the mountains during the summer and, would go to the coast and live on fish and lobster in winter.
The two most important events in all of history were the invention of beer and the invention of the wheel. The wheel was invented to get men to the beer.
These were the foundation of modern civilization and together were the catalyst for the splitting of humanity into two distinct subgroups: Liberals and Conservatives.
Once beer was discovered it required grain, and that was the beginning of agriculture.
Neither the glass bottle nor aluminum can were invented yet, so while our early human ancestors were sitting around waiting for them to be invented, they just stayed close to the brewery. That's how villages were formed. Some men spent their days tracking and killing animals to B-B-Q at night while they were drinking beer.
This was the beginning of what is known as "the Conservative movement."
Other men who were weaker and less skilled at hunting learned to live off the conservatives by showing up for the nightly B-B-Q's doing the sewing, fetching and hair dressing.
This was the beginning of the Liberal movement. Some of these liberal men eventually evolved into women. The rest became known as "girlymen".
Some noteworthy liberal achievements include the domestication of cats, the invention of group therapy and group hugs, and the concept of Democratic voting to decide how to divide the meat and beer that conservatives provided.
Over the years, conservatives came to be symbolized by the largest, most powerful land animal on earth, the elephant. Liberals are symbolized by the jackass.
Modern liberals like imported beer (with lime added), but most prefer white wine or imported bottled water. They eat raw fish but like their beef well done. Sushi, tofu, and French food are standard liberal fare.
Another interesting revolutionary side note: most of their women have higher testosterone levels than their men. Most social workers, personal injury attorneys, journalists, dreamers in Hollywood and group therapists are liberals. Liberals invented the designated hitter rule because it wasn't "fair" to make the pitcher also bat. Conservatives drink domestic beer. They eat red meat and still provide for their women. Conservatives are big-game hunters, rodeo cowboys, lumberjacks, construction workers, firemen, medical doctors, police officers, corporate executives, soldiers, athletes, and generally anyone who works productively outside government.
Conservatives who own companies hire other conservatives who want to work for a living. Liberals produce little or nothing. They like to "govern" the producers and decide what to do with the production. Liberals believe Europeans are more enlightened than Americans are. That is why most of the liberals remained in Europe when conservatives were coming to America.
Liberals crept in after the Wild West was tamed, and created a business of trying to get MORE for nothing. Here ends today's lesson in world history.
what the hell for?
I swear, these post-combat problems would be a hell of a lot less of an issue if we started using boats again, rather than planes.
give the soldiers time to unwind among folks who have also seen the elephant, before dropping them pell-mell in the midst of civilian dipsquats who don't know nothin' 'bout nothin'
A word loved by all liberals.
Mandatory mental health screening for troops?
Why not for drivers, teachers, day care workers, parents, motorcyclists, firemen, policemen, students, waiters, etc.?
You get the picture.
Oh well, suit yourselves. As a Briton I didn't really consider the constitutional aspects. I don't really care either way, as it's not my country :-).
Let's get the story straight. A crowd of drugged up trouble-makers gathers outside his home after midnight (when the clubs closed) and proceeded to taunt the guy for wanting them to quiet down and leave. "Cotnoir, 33, a father of two daughters, told police he feared for the safety of his family after someone threw an empty juice bottle through his bedroom window."
Can you refer us to any competent counselors without using a first person pronoun in your sentence?
Incidentally, whenever I think of PTSD after Vietnam I think of the first "Rambo" film. He solved his problems in a somewhat destructive manner.
The problem's not new: in your Civil War it was called "nostalgia". It's also been known as "shell shock", "battle fatigue" and "paranoid schizophrenia".
I remember reading about many homeless drifters after the Civil War, and about loners living in the wild after Vietnam.
In Germany the phenomenon was familiar but not spoken of. After WW1 it was manifested in old-soldiers' clubs with a tendency to political violence. Adolf Hitler is a classic example of a PTSD sufferer who projected his fears to politics.
WW2 ended differently, so the symptoms differed too. A neighbour's friend is still jittery and "wussy" after being buried alive in a trench or something in Russia. There's also a tendency to be somewhat timid and unwilling to face up to conflict. All the ex-Wehrmacht men I have met have been EXTREMELY anti-war and left-leaning. There were in any case far too many sufferers to be treated, they had to work it out themselves.
The suicide figures for British Falkland War veterans (no "wussies" they!) are also not encouraging for the do-nothing approach.
I agree that pyschologists aren't always the answer, it's often the individual personality that counts most. But you'd be well advised to keep an eye on Iraq veterans, if only for their families's sake.
But whatever, they're your soldiers, not mine.
What, me? A counsellor for disturbed soldiers? Not on your nelly! As I said, I'm British; I know zero about American health care or psychology, and anyway it's not my problem.
>>Incidentally, whenever I think of PTSD after Vietnam I think of the first "Rambo" film. He solved his problems in a somewhat destructive manner. <<
Here’s a clue. . .Rambo was a MOVIE, fiction. LOL. . .can’t tell the difference, can you?
>>The problem's not new: in your Civil War it was called "nostalgia". It's also been known as "shell shock", "battle fatigue" and "paranoid schizophrenia". <<
It is not new and you make my point. It has been recognized and dealt with, sometimes well, sometimes not, but in all cases we recognize the symptoms and are prepared to deal with it when it is REQURIED. Oh, and we in the US did not shoot anyone for battle fatigue (didn’t the British Army do that to some poor sap in WWI?).
>>I remember reading about many homeless drifters after the Civil War, and about loners living in the wild after Vietnam. <<
And. . .so what? What the heck does that have to do with anything?
Civil War veterans were out to make a life for themselves, many moved west and settled this country. . .a risky and dangerous effort. They were honest, hardworking, innovative, brave and certainly not adverse to standing up to tyranny. Anytime you see some western movie where some bad guy has the town scared, think again; likely the banker and shopkeeper and the average citizen were veterans of the Civil War, as well as Indian wars, and would not stand for such nonsense.
As far as Vietnam goes, Jimmy Carter is to blame for the “homeless” wanderers. Jimmy’s administration emptied the nut-houses because being nuts isn’t a reason to incarcerate someone against their will, and merely being homeless doesn’t mean they are a threat to anyone. See?
So, he dumps the very people lefty nut-burgers want to “help.” And, by the way, the numbers of supposed PTSD “veterans” from the Vietnam War are exaggerations. It is fashionable for lefty nut-burgers to claim Vietnam Veteran status to a) get sympathy, and b) blame others for their poor choices. If they were true veterans they could get help immediately from any VA hospital.
>>In Germany the phenomenon was familiar but not spoken of. After WW1 it was manifested in old-soldiers' clubs with a tendency to political violence.<<
Here’s another clue. . .we ain’t Germany (thank God)
>> Adolf Hitler is a classic example of a PTSD sufferer who projected his fears to politics. <<
Just where do you “feel” you are going with this? Sheesh, your logic is stunning in its confusion.
>>WW2 ended differently, so the symptoms differed too. A neighbour's friend is still jittery and "wussy" after being buried alive in a trench or something in Russia. <<
Pay attention: Forcing every man to undergo PTSD counseling/analysis is an attempt to wussify every man that ever served in combat. My father-in-law was one of 9 of his platton to survive and he was jittery around loud noises all his life. He dealt with it. He didn’t cry and whine and run to some stick-boy Oprah-Clinton-I-Feel-Your-Pain idiot. He lived his life. He wasn’t a wussy.
>>There's also a tendency to be somewhat timid and unwilling to face up to conflict. <<
Speak for yourself. And that doesn’t track with what you said earlier about PTSD contributing to confrontation and violence—the Hitler and violent charges above are contradictions to your point. Be consistent, please.
>>All the ex-Wehrmacht men I have met have been EXTREMELY anti-war and left-leaning.<,
That’s just Germany and an aberration and a departure from their history and heritage.
>>There were in any case far too many sufferers to be treated, they had to work it out themselves. <<
Funny how many actually did just fine.
>>The suicide figures for British Falkland War veterans (no "wussies" they!) are also not encouraging for the do-nothing approach. <<
Got source data to show they are anything less or more than the average for their age and demographic? Bet not.
>>I agree that pyschologists aren't always the answer, it's often the individual personality that counts most.<<
They (psycho-stick-boy therapists) are the LAST answer I’d look for. Self-RESPECT counts more than any amount of self-esteem.
>> But you'd be well advised to keep an eye on Iraq veterans, if only for their families's sake. <<
A variation of the ol Clinton and liberal “it’s for the chilllren” And in this case it’s for the familes. I’m gonna hurl.
Get a grip, get a life and grow up. Men are men and we have enough support groups/organizations/counselors/hand-holding stick-boys to go around. And now we have you.
From now until the last veteran dies we shall hear from you and others of a, say, liberal bent that anytime a Iraq War veteran does something illegal or violent, “it MUST be the war. It must be PTSD!”
>>But whatever, they're your soldiers, not mine.<<
Thank God for that.
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