Troops Need Anti-depressants to Cope With War
|
Submitted by: Mike Baker  Subscribe to this Author Paste this code into your site to promote this story! |
http://freedom.akweb.com/viewtopic.php?f=56&t=930
Type of Content: Article Seven months after Sergeant Christopher LeJeune started scouting Baghdad's dangerous roads — acting as bait to lure insurgents into the open so his Army unit could kill them — he found himself growing increasingly despondent. "We'd been doing some heavy missions, and things were starting to bother me," LeJeune says. His unit had been protecting Iraqi police stations targeted by rocket-propelled grenades, hunting down mortars hidden in dark Baghdad basements and cleaning up its own messes. He recalls the order his unit got after a nighttime firefight to roll back out and collect the enemy dead. When LeJeune and his buddies arrived, they discovered that some of the bodies were still alive. "You don't always know who the bad guys are," he says. "When you search someone's house, you have it built up in your mind that these guys are terrorists, but when you go in, there's little bitty tiny shoes and toys on the floor — things like that started affecting me a lot more than I thought they would." So LeJeune visited a military doctor in Iraq, who, after a quick session, diagnosed depression. The doctor sent him back to war armed with the antidepressant Zoloft and the antianxiety drug clonazepam. "It's not easy for soldiers to admit the problems that they're having over there for a variety of reasons," LeJeune says. "If they do admit it, then the only solution given is ... Read »
Created 23 weeks 5 days ago
Made popular 23 weeks 5 days ago |
- Flag as offensive
- Login or register to post comments
- 114 reads
some of those who have returned home, seemingly mentally unscathed, will suffer another life trauma that revives memories of all the bad stuff. What they have experienced from being placed in a dreadful fight for no good cause will come back around and bite 'em right on the brain. They will wake in the middle of the night drenched in cold sweat and want to be dead.
Sorry, didn't mean to be depressing-my blood alcohol must be low! Just personal experience.
We don't need to give them harmful pills... we need to get them out of the war. Simple solution.
-Miss Green
"Fear not the path of truth for the lack of people walking on it."
I have a friend who is now home for good due to injuries. He will never be the same. Sometimes he wishes he wasn't home because it is so hard to adjust to civilian life after what they have seen.
My husband is a combat veteran, and he will never be the same. I hate to hear some of the stories, but I really think that getting them out of the situation would be better than keeping them there.
Know what I mean?
-Miss Green
"Fear not the path of truth for the lack of people walking on it."
This sucks. Bring those floks home and get them into the freedom movement. They had no idea what they were getting in to. All of this love of country and protecting freedom crap is just that. If the soldiers were shelling the capitol building they would be doing more to protect our freedom than standing out in the sand doped on anti-depressants serving as human targets. Sorry about the bluntness but I am tired of being polite.
oerwhelmingly support Ron Paul, a fact even the MSM couldn't help but report. They are far wiser to all of this than we think....
My neighbor and good friend was over there for 14 months and is now totally against the war.
Tom Mullen
www.tommullen.net
www.myspace.com/skepticsongs
The most important thing to remember about anti-depressants is the fact that it takes aproximately 6 weeks for them to be effective. When a person is diagnoised with major depression or PTSD, he/she in many cases, is suicidal. Suicidal patients for the most part have a loss of hope, no reason to live mentality although with this comes lack of energy as well. So at this point they don't have the energy to commit suicide. Once they start SSRI's, the serotonin kicks in and gives them energy but the depression hasn't left yet so the first 2 weeks of taking an antidepressant is crucial. If these solders are given a 30 day supply of antidepressents and then sent on their way with weapons in hand, this is not good. When a antidepressant is prescribed to a patient with major depression or PTSD, that patient, in most cases, is monitored very closely for 2 weeks. This is because a majority of suicides happen after a patient starts an antidepressant, especially with the teens and early 20's age group. Wasn't their a story on here about 150 or so troops having committed suicide? I would wager it may, in large part, have something to do with the antidepressants. I could be wrong but, in my experience as a nurse and working in mental health facility's, this was a major contributer to suicide attempts. My patients & patient family members were told to call the doctor immediately if suicide thoughts became overwhelming and/or family members noticed any [out of the ordinary] behavior. I don't believe that our military have this option once they go back to the frontlines. The military is playing a very dangerous game giving antidepressants out like candy and sending them back to the front lines to fight. Any psychotropic medication prescribed and taken should be carefully monitored due to the many dangerous side effects some of these drugs have. Anti-anxiety medications cause drowsiness and lethargy. Ambien, the popular sleeping medication specifically states "do not operate heavy machinery while taking this medication". If fact most psychotropics have this warning. LMW