Friday, May 27, 2005

NAZI SOLDIER SYNDROME / Iraq Veterans' Unspoken Epidemic

By Matt Frei, BBC News, Washington

They are getting restless at Fort Hood. The flight from Iraq should have arrived mid-afternoon, but there is a delay and it is now getting dark.

But they have already waited for a year - they can stretch it out for another few hours.

Then the moment that every soldier, and every family dreams of - the return from war unharmed.

But it is the injuries you cannot see that are beginning to worry the Pentagon.

"My nightmares are so intense I woke up one night with my hands round my fiancee's throat," says Lt Julian Goodrum.

'A suicidal wreck'

"Another night she woke me up. I was really kicking and really getting violent in my sleep.

"So now I sleep on the couch until I can get my sleep, my nightmares, more under control."


Lt Goodrum is a veteran of two Gulf wars. He returned from the first a hero, from the second a suicidal wreck.

He suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress disorder (PTSD) and he is not alone.

More than 10,000 returnees from the Iraq war have sought help for a condition in which the mundane becomes a menace.

"The smell of diesel takes me back to Iraq," Lt Goodrum says.

"I am getting better with crowds, but still if it is a very confined space and I am totally surrounded I have issues with that.

"When I am in crowds I tend to watch people's hands."

Unseen consequences

It is the nature of Iraq's insurgency of unseen snipers and roadside bombers which has fuelled the trauma.

And so the Pentagon has gone to an unlikely source for help: video games, designed in Atlanta to recall the streets of Falluja and thus exorcise the ghost of war.

Ken Grapp, CEO of Virtually Better - a company that creates virtual reality environments to help treat anxiety disorders, says: "It can be totally debilitating to where a person would rather choose suicide than choose to live.

"Persons with PTSD may go back to the streets of Falluja every day in their own minds.

"We are just providing a shared experience where therapists can work with the person and have a better understanding of where they were, and help them process that information."

The Pentagon says it is taking PTSD seriously.

But Lt Goodrum and many other veterans disagree bitterly. It is the epidemic that dare not speak its name.

"For the majority of people - especially military - it is easier to accept and understand a physical injury than a psychological one," Lt Goodrum said.

These are the unseen consequences of a war that will change lives long after the last bullet has been fired and the last soldier has returned home.

(C) BBC MMV

2 comments:

Windbender said...

POSTED BY BTXUSA VIA REBELNED

I wonder if this could be a reason that people in the South are still fighting the "war of agression" (chuckle -- we are from the deep south back to 1686) or civil war? I don't think people in the North are as conscious of that war as Southerners are, or are they? I know that when we lived for a short time in Virginia, we were amazed at how recent that war seemed, when we in Texas were more conscious of the Alamo than the civil war. Perhaps this Nazi Soldier Syndrome affected the South the same way? Just a thought...

Anonymous said...

Hello and my deepest respect and gratitude to ALL war veterans, no matter where they are from or who they have fought. Thank you for defending our freedoms.

I have a question which I thought perhaps one of you may address:

There is mention here of all kinds of syndromes and one of them mentioned was Nazi Syndrome. I thought I had actually coined that phrase myself! I am not nor ever have been a war veteran. What I am is a first generation Canadian whose parents came over from Germany right after the 2nd World War. My father served in the German army and was a prisoner-of-war in England for five years. He is actually more like a hippie than a Nazi and learned English while there. Decided that Canada was the place to go as it was the wild west and peaceful - far from the torments of Europe. We ended up in a small town in the west where we were relentlessly persecuted(I was even punched in the stomach by a boy 5 years older than myself when I was 5 years old and visiting a friend's house). I felt that we were being made to atone for the sins of our race, even though I was actually born here. There was a lot of hatred out there back then. Remembrance Day was traumatic for me because of this. I have lived with what I have called a kind of survivor's guilt.... The guilt of my race and what happened during the war. Has anyone heard of this? Thanks... German Hausfrau