There is something out of whack with the way the nation treats its troops’ mental ills. You can see it in the data, sense it in the stories they tell, and feel it when you talk to the surviving family members of those who gave up.
Richard Friedman, a professor of clinical psychiatry at the Weill Cornell Medical College, writes about prescriptions for war in Sunday’s New York Times, something Battleland wrote about in a cover story for the mother ship nearly five years ago. Friedman suggests:
There is an analogy, perhaps, between the military’s use of psychoactive drugs and the practice of pumping athletes full of steroids so they can continue to compete despite physical pain; athletes — and also soldiers — whose performance is chemically enhanced in this way may, however, unwittingly sustain more serious injuries as a result. Perhaps silence about the psychoactive drug canteen the military has been operating overseas is connected with public ignorance about the use and possible misuse of drugs within the military. But it is clear that we need a rigorous investigation of mental health treatment protocols in the military.
Full thing, here.