JUNE 27, 2024 – Conflict and combat are as old as humanity, but too often they leave silent and ignored remnants in survivors that lead to symptoms that create difficulties in their everyday lives.
“Soldier’s Heart,” “Shell Shock” and “Battle Fatigue” are early attempts to diagnose the symptoms exhibited by Soldiers in war. It took humanity until the 20th century to truly begin to understand the devastating effects of combat, and it was 1980 before post-traumatic stress disorder became a mental diagnosis.
“Everybody who has dealt with trauma, deals with post-traumatic stress. The stress is, ‘I’m having a hard time with this,’” said Chaplain (Col.) Mark Morgan, command chaplain, U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command. “It doesn’t become a disorder until it causes issues or causes you not to be able to relate in society.”
Col. Dennis F. Williams, deputy chief of staff, G-4, for the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command, is among the nearly one in three veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom who have at some point in their lives been diagnosed with PTSD.
He joined the Army Reserves in December 1993 and commissioned as an officer in the active Army in 2000. During his years of military service, he has deployed to a combat zone five times. From October 2006 to January 2008, Williams deployed to Iraq, which he calls the worst deployment he has ever had.
“We lost a total of 17 Soldiers in my battalion that rotation, and at the time, that was deployment number three for me,” Williams said. “And just being over there, and that constant combat for 15 consecutive months. You know, it was just a lot. It was a lot on the Soldier, a lot on the leadership.”
Upon his return to Fort Hood now Fort Cavazos, Texas, he was selected to serve as the aide-de-camp to a two-star general at Fort Carson, Colorado. Within six weeks of his return from deployment, he and his family had moved, and he began traveling extensively for his new position.
“It got to be a little bit overwhelming, because again, after coming out of that intense combat, I never took a knee and never got any help,” Williams said.
Williams said he started exhibiting aggressive behavior, being forgetful and drinking excessively; he was sleep deprived and fatigued; and he began having panic attacks.
“I had a couple of incidents there while I was his aide, and he initially drove me over to mental health,” he said. “I’ve been seriously under someone’s care since 2008 consistently.”
Some common signs of PTSD are: reliving the event through flashbacks or dreams; sadness, fear or anger; feeling detached or estranged from other people; avoiding situations; having a strong, negative reaction to an otherwise normal sound or touch; distorted thoughts about oneself or the event; being irritable; self-medicating; behaving recklessly or in a self-destructive manner; being overly suspicious of surroundings; having trouble concentrating or sleeping; and an increased risk of suicide.
“For me, the main thing is severe anxiety, hyper vigilant. A little paranoia and just restless. And depression,” Williams said. “Certain things trigger previous experiences. It could be a noise; it could be a smell. And you just go into panic mode.”
Williams said that he can no longer have an MRI without planning and help.
“It’s paranoia claustrophobia. It just takes me back to being in one of those vehicles,” Williams said. “Couple that with the noise, and then you can’t move. I can’t do it mentally. I can’t do it. I’m at the point now they put me on anesthesia and knock me out.”
Veterans who experience PTSD are also at an elevated risk for related physical and psychological challenges such as: substance use disorder; other mental health disorders such as depression and anxiety; cardiovascular problems; gastrointestinal issues; chronic pain; and traumatic brain injury.
Williams said that his prescribed medication regiment allows him to manage his PTSD and other health issues resulting from his PTSD diagnosis, such as sleep apnea, high blood pressure and sleep deprivation due to his hyper vigilance.
“The problem with trying to pinpoint it, you take a cocktail of meds, trying to find that right mixture. And sometimes you can find it pretty quickly. Sometimes it takes a while,” Williams said. “The medicine can make you numb to a lot of things, and you don’t want to be emotionless. Then they give you another type of medicine to balance that out. Then you have to take a med to sleep. And I still have to take another med if I start having a panic attack.”
In addition to medications, there are other treatments for PTSD:
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy focuses on developing new patterns of thoughts, emotions and behaviors pertaining to the traumatic experience.
- Cognitive Processing Therapy helps individuals develop new, more helpful understandings of their traumatic experiences through critical reflection.
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing involves recalling the trauma while paying attention to a back-and-forth movement or sound.
- Prolonged Exposure emphasizes incrementally challenging negative feelings and altering patterns of avoidance stemming from one’s trauma.
- Self-help methods such as physical activity, aromatherapy, mindfulness practices and deep breathing.
Williams said he is actively engaging additional therapy avenues because he wants to reduce his medication intake. Some of these therapies are offered at local Veterans Affairs hospitals, but he said that it can be much harder to address PTSD and its associated issues once a service member takes off the uniform.
“In the type of units that I was in, I never had time to do it. I never made time to do it. I did not seek the right, proper help when I was young,” Williams said. “I encourage those who have been in those type of units that it’s okay to go get help. It’s okay to go talk to someone. I make sure I message that anytime I’m doing any type of public speaking, because I didn’t do it the right way. I didn’t manage it the right way. A lot of it was because of the stigma. A lot of it was because I’m trying to self-medicate, and I think I’m okay. I couldn’t see myself.”
Morgan said it is the retiring generation where he is seeing PTSD becoming an issue.
“The guys who’ve been in 20-25-30 years now who are starting to retire, and they have never dealt with it because of the stigma associated with getting help and their fear of not getting promoted, not getting to stay in the military, getting a medical evaluation board to kick them out because they’re not mentally capable of conducting their day-to-day operations in the military,” Morgan said. “I see it mostly in the retiring community and the recently retired.”
Morgan is a first-line counselor for USASMDC personnel where behavioral health or spiritual health is concerned. He said what a chaplain provides is 100% confidential, and they do not have to report to anybody regardless of what they are told.
“It’s probably more prevalent than just the small number of people who actually will admit it or come forward and say, ‘Hey, I need help,’” Morgan said. “There’s still a stigma associated with it. As much as we’ve tried over the past 20 years to say, ‘Hey, it’s doesn’t mean you’re weak because you go see the chaplain.’”
Morgan said he lives by example and is open with sharing that he received counseling after his first deployment. He said he was very angry, and the counseling was very beneficial.
“So, I think with one in three becoming disorders, the keys to it going from just post-traumatic stress and coming back to dealing with it, is being able to talk to someone about it. Being able to get it off your chest. Being willing to get some help when you see things are not going the way they should,” Morgan said.
Morgan counsels service members and civilians as the USASMDC chaplain. If a service member reports PTSD symptoms, Morgan said he will set them up with or connect them with outside resources.
“If someone comes to me and tells me they’re having issues, the first thing I’m going to do is call the VA and ask them what they have to offer and then we’ll go from there,” Morgan said. “From me then, it will be a referral, and then a follow up. I care about you, and I want you to know our command cares about you.”
If you are exhibiting symptoms of PTSD, call the USASMDC chaplain at 256.955.5027 (active duty service member, civilian or veteran); Fox Army Health Clinic at 256.955.8888, ext.1032 (active duty service member); or the Huntsville Vet Center from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at 256.539.5775 or after hours at 877.927.8387 (active duty service member or veteran).
Story by Carrie Campbell
U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command