PTSD growing problem per CNN report! “It’s embedded in (the service member) to do that,” Meshad said. “It looks brutal, it is brutal, it’s horrible, it’s heinous, but they switch on like that because they haven’t been switched off.”

http://www.cnn.com/2012/01/17/us/veterans-violence/index.html

CNN reports in above follow-up link on the recent Rainier National Park Ranger killing by a former Iraq combat veteran.  They really have a hard time “turning off the switch” following hard combat and stress connected with weeks and months doing and seeing horrific in-human actions.  I have posted several times regarding the “soul leaving the body” per Dr. Edward Tick’s book, War and the Soul.  My book, Reconciliation: A Son’s Story, shows how my Dad, Vernon could not put his pain in check creating a highly toxic home culture.  In Laura Hillebrand’s book, Unbroken, WWII Pacific POW’s lived with PTSD for a lifetime.  The only way to get a handle on the problem is to create the kind of discipline in civilian life that effectively “turns off the switch” for combat veterans who suffer from the symptoms of PTSD.  All of this will happen eventually with continued focus and awareness.  In the meantime, the problem grows and the incidents of acting out and abuse will continue.  Listen to your loved ones and friends who return from combat.  Even though the problem is often invisible, these individuals are in great pain most of the time unless they seek out consistent treatment with appropriate medications and psychotherapy.

Steve Sparks
Author
Reconciliation: A Son’s Story