"War is going to be hell," said Pre-TSD sufferer Henry Gerard,
looking ahead to the possible death of a potential best-friend-in-arms.
NORFOLK, VA—Pre-traumatic stress disorder, a future-combat-related
psychological condition previously thought to afflict only young
soldiers drafted against their will, is now found in growing numbers
among National Guard members, Army, Navy, Marine, and Air Force
reservists, semi-retired officers, and the newly recruited, according
to a government study released Monday.
Marines prepare to be shipped off to Iraq.
"When soldiers are put in the extreme situation of facing the
possibility of large-scale death and shocking violence, many experience
sleeplessness and outbursts of anger," said Walter Reed Army Hospital
psychologist Capt. Sidney Mullenthauer. "We’re seeing more victims
experience vivid, ultra-realistic flash-forwards of roadside bombings
that tear through a group of innocent children, or rocket attacks on
their convoys that leave fellow soldiers charred and smoldering."
"Many of these poor souls are forced to prelive, over and over
again, a landmine blowing their legs off, or large pieces of shrapnel
becoming lodged in the sides of fellow soldiers’ faces," he added.
Army Pfc. Henry Gerard, 19, who suffers from acute Pre-TSD, said he
blames the federal government for putting him in this mentally
debilitating state.
"The government knows exactly what they intend to put me through,
and they still haven’t done a damn thing about it, man," said Gerard,
who, nearly three weeks before reporting to Fallujah, suffers from
nightmares in which his potential best friend is beheaded. "I can’t
sleep, I can’t eat, my hands constantly shake. I’m going to a place
where people I don’t even know will try to kill me. What the fuck?"
"I’m not the same man I once was," Gerard said, adding that he
spends every night drinking to drown out the screams and cries for help
he expects to hear. "War is going to be hell."
The study, conducted by the Department Of Future Veterans Affairs,
found that 80 percent of part-time soldiers reported no signs of
Pre-TSD while carrying out their obligatory one weekend of duty a
month, but quickly developed severe symptoms upon receiving orders for
active combat.
"This is also the first time we have observed both pre- and
post-traumatic stress disorders occurring simultaneously," said
Mullenthauer, who explained that the phenomenon is found most often
among reservists who have returned home after completing their tour of
duty and before being called up for an extra assignment.
A growing number of reservists suffer from flash-forwards of gruesome urban combat in Iraq.
Researchers said the disorder can be brought on by the thought of
holding a lifeless body in one’s hands, the unshakable sense of dread
accompanying an imagined nighttime ambush, and the stress of realizing
one will spend 18 to 24 months in a foreign land thousands of miles
from home in which death or severe injury seem all but inevitable.
In addition, a significant number of those who will enter a war zone
say they are plagued by repeated visions of atrocities, torture, and
the CNN logo.
One reservist, who has chosen to take the disease head-on by
reporting to Iraq on his scheduled date, is Pvt. Franklin Mitchell, 31,
husband and father of two. According to Mitchell’s wife, Marian
Mitchell, her husband’s Pre-TSD was brought on by the proto-memories of
being taken hostage.
"At first, of course, he was excited to get some money for college
to study computer programming," Mitchell said. "But when he came home
after learning he was going to Iraq, he broke into a cold sweat and
grew extremely depressed remembering how he will eventually have to
shoot and kill another human being at close range."
Researchers have recently identified new segments of the population
also considered to be at risk for Pre-TSD, including parents of
children approaching military age, Iraqi citizens, and any person who
watches more than three hours of television news per day.
