PTSD and the Power of the New Media

I heard a very affecting and powerful report on the impact of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and its impact on soldiers coming home from Iraq on NPR this morning. The military is doing far too little to help this psychologically scarred individuals, and instead are kicking them out of the Army, in some cases.

During his five month investigation, Zwerdling closely examined individual experiences of the soldiers he spoke to at the base's mental health unit. They claim that even when they seek help, the fort's mental health unit is too overwhelmed to provide the help they need and that when their supervisors learn of their emotional crises, they're punished. Soldier William Morris explains, "You really don't want to be that guy going up to mental health when you're trying to be a career soldier. You don't want to be that guy, `cause as soon as you are, you're done."

Former soldier Alex Orum added: "I will continue to encourage any soldier who isn't sleeping, who is having nightmares, who is having PTSD not to go seek help. Because as soon as they go and seek help, their life is going to get ten times worse."

Indeed, the main drug that they're using to combat PTSD is actually no more effective than a placebo.

While saddened and disgusted by this tragedy happening to so many of our troops, I was also happy this was finally getting the attention it deserved. And that's because I first learned about PTSD online, most notably from ilona at ePluribusMedia, a collaborative media community that sprung up in 2005. The media still perceives bloggers as wild and crazy yahoos ranting and raving from their bedrooms, but ePluribusMedia is actually dedicated to investigative research and issue advocacy at the level of citizen journalism. These reports on PTSD, which I'm sure most listeners today found shocking, I already knew about because of the great work being done in the blogosphere.

It really is changing the model of who are the gatekeepers of the news, who decides what matters and what doesn't. I'm proud to have met Ilona Meagher, an ordinary American who decided to look into this issue from a nonpartisan perspective and raise awareness. She's written a book on this subject called Moving a Nation To Care, and if this interests you I'd suggest you pick it up.

I'm not necessarily a blog triumphalist, but it does consistently amaze me what a few committed people can do.