Thanks, Cathy—-from some friends of mine..

Do you know, are any permanently affected? Like tardive dyskinesia, etc.

I will check out the site.

There are a few members of the military that post fairly regularly on PaxilProgress.org as they battle the emotional damage from their war experience mixed with the anti-depressant and other psychotropic drugs they were given, as opposed to the real care they needed.  I know I’ve been reading articles about the practice of giving SSRIs to the troops to keep them on the front lines since 2004. 

These drugs are causing more chaos than helping for thousands in the population at large.  How much is this being studied in this smaller population on the bases? 

I do not know how many members of military “lurk” on PaxilProgress to get some insight into what has happened to them beyond the emotional wounds of battle.  We get over 3 million hits a month. 

If you know someone who is suffering in the military and is on these drugs please check out this site.  You could potentially save a life if you know what to look for.  I am only alive today because of this site.  The people here in cyberspace were the only thing that stood between me and strong suicidal urgings when Paxil backfired on me while still on it and during withdrawal.  I can’t imagine combining these horrible drugs with the horrors of Iraq and then the stigma that the Army puts on soldiers who do come out mentally damaged.

In the world of the military, suicide is tantamount to taking something from the government.  You as a soldier, are G.I., Government Issue, and you cannot take something from the government that is theirs.
Hawkeye, these so-called military leaders are not a necessary evil, the way of peace and harmony is the better of the two. Instead of waging war, we need a culture shift, wherein anyone who is talking ‘trash’ about the U.S. is helped to understand that we are not the imperialistic, war mongering people that are portrayed in the media.  The general populace is not the, moneyed elite that always gain from war.
It is high time that there is a revolt in this country, a people’s revolt that will change the culture of our nation from the imperialistic and war mongering nation that we are today, to one of peace.
Wage PEACE not war! Peace OUT!

As a former soldier who luckily escaped Viet Nam by being posted to Alaska, i can say that had I performed in Nam what I was trained to do, I would now be dead by suicide.  Being introspective about what a Fire Direction Control does in the field artillery would have destroyed me.

REF: KDelphi

Agreed. Perhaps you will recall the famous incident in WW2 when Gen. Patton slapped and cursed the soldier in the M.A.S.H. unit in North Africa. Two of my uncles served under “Old Blood and Guts.” Both managed to live through the march to Berlin and I heard them agree about glory of “Old Blood and Guts”: They said, “Our blood and our guts!” Two brothers, one assigned as a scout and the other assigned to a unit to bring up the rear, inspecting and burying the dead. Uncle Gola and uncle Charley.

Gen. McArthur was a hardcase, too. These are battlefield commanders who are expected to order and motivate millions of young men to charge into machine guns and landmines.

These military leaders are a necessary “evil.” Perhaps they should not ever come in contact with the wounded.

Yeah, I’ve seen a bit of the military’s idea of ‘suicide prevention”—-it would make you wish to die, even more, but not allow you to do it.

If they werent getting so much publicity about it, the brass wouldnt give a rat’s a*s.

“Get rid of dead wood” is ther order of the day. If they wanted to help with brain injuries or stress disorders, they would stop using the “limbo ” diagnosis of “personality disorder” , so that they dont have to pay disability claims..

Maybe he should have said “frequent deployments in an unjust cause”?

sometimes I think my generation willed be damned for all we left undone and turned a blind eye to and just went about our day to day affairs untouched and unwilling. like we have some sort of malaise. some lack of spine.