Army Will Train Soldiers to Cope With Emotions

Source: New York Times

By BENEDICT CAREY
Published: August 17, 2009

PHILADELPHIA — The Army plans to require that all 1.1 million of its soldiers take intensive training in emotional resiliency, military officials say.

The training, the first of its kind in the military, is meant to improve performance in combat and head off the mental health problems, including depression, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide, that plague about one-fifth of troops returning from Afghanistan and Iraq.

Active-duty soldiers, reservists and members of the National Guard will receive the training, which will also be available to their family members and to civilian employees.

The new program is to be introduced at two bases in October and phased in gradually throughout the service, starting in basic training. It is modeled on techniques that have been tested mainly in middle schools.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/18/health/18psych.html?hp

These stupid fuckers don't get it.


I do not believe the stress imposed by hostile interactions with firearms can be counseled ahead of time.

And I doubt they are any better at counseling after the fact than they were when I got out in 1970

I think the middle school experience is hysterical, however. In a gallows kind of way....

Critical incident stress management training prior to my deployment, and good training from our chaplain during the deployment(whose civilian job was was some type of high stress conselor, we were lucky to have him) gave me some tools to identify what has been going on in my head since Feb 2003. I am one of only 3 soldiers in my platoon who has not self destructed since then. The more I learn/learned about PTSD and how different people have symptoms manifest, the better I am able to understand what goes on in my head, why it is happening and how not to let it take over.

now, whether soldiers will accept this training, or go back to their small social groups and clown on it because they think it actually makes them stronger, is another matter.

Actually, we had an old timer in my platoon who was stop lossed for the deployment. He had an extremely hard time being away from his family and not knowing when we would rotate home (dont ever let anyone kid you folks, not knowing how long the deployment is going to last is the #1 morale killer). When we were back home, and would speak about the experiences we had, he would admonish us that we were in fact creating our problems by speaking of them.......then one night he had a meltdown. Then went to see a counselor. He was the first one who had PTSD put the brakes on his life. I speculate he accelerated his condition by trying to box it in.

SGT PASTO

PTSD among our current vets.

I'm glad you found your answers with the new counseling, but if the numbers are even remotely true- and I have no reason to doubt them, my point still stands***


***It could be that 4 tours anywhere can negate ANY form of counseling....

It could be that 4 tours anywhere can negate ANY form of counseling....

yes. The best thing they can do for this is to stop sending them over there.

I'm thinking anything after 2 tours should be considered attempted murder on the part of the DoD.

a state of learned helplessness--feelings of utter despair when confronted with a solutionless situation. Lab rats in learned helplessness experiments run around the maze looking exit several times, finally lying down & dying if nothing changes.

Emotional counseling, while a good solution to some of the military's institutional stupidities is nowhere near adequate to deal with learned helplessness.

Aren't "real men" supposed to suppress their emotions?

just till the booze and the drugs stop working. Then all bets are off......

Problem initiated... er, umm... solved?

and since the mob's in an economic decline these days, why not outsource the training to them & make the whole army a bunch of made men, mr. army secretary?

wasn't this modus operandi tried & tested - by the spartans, the macedonians, the romans, the visigoths, the vikings, the arabs, the mongols, the samurai, the british, the germans and maybe thousands of other militaries - across time & the planet? so how'd all of those work out?

Until I read the article and now I like what I read:

snip

The general agreed to the interview after The New York Times learned of the program from Dr. Martin E. P. Seligman, chairman of the University of Pennsylvania Positive Psychology Center, who has been consulting with the Pentagon.

snip

Seligman is very realistic--very practical. He is, in fact, my all-time favorite author. I've gotten more from his books than just about anything else I've read in life.

This is a good sign. Not everything is going downhill in America.


Cher

that is the height of arrogance

they have tested this on middle schools
OMG

Information and knowledge should never be laughed at. But if we continue to engage in pointless acts of aggression giving emotional counseling will be negated by the conflicting messages.

The Emotionally Resilient usually don't think being repeated cannon fodder for some fucked up war is in anyone's best interest.

I think they mean "How to deal with death and destruction and murder and maiming -the doing to or the the seeing of, as well as recieving-- and not feel like complete shit after--sometimes for years-- while the goverment ignores you as much as possible, or tells you you don't qualify for this and that benefit"

Or something.

*sound of whistles, some bodies being dragged away*