PUBLICATION: The Ottawa Sun
DATE: 2005.06.06
EDITION: Final
SECTION: Comment
PAGE: 14
SOURCE: BY PETER WORTHINGTON, TORONTO SUN
STIFF UPPER LIP BEATS GRIEF COUNSELLING
When Andre Marin was the military ombudsman --before becoming Ontario's ombudsman last month --he investigated post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the <Canadian> military and found up to 20% of soldiers came down with it.
"A disturbingly high incidence of soldiers returning home from missions were burnt out and broken," he reported.
Maj. Wendy White, an Edmonton psychiatrist, was quoted by <Canadian> Press saying roughly 50% of soldiers returning home from foreign missions suffered from PTSD; <Army> Commander Lt.-Gen. <Marc> <Caron> noted that stress disorder among soldiers was twice as high as the rest of the <Canadian> Forces.
Clearly, PTSD is a problem for the <army>.
Retired Maj.-Gen. Lew Mac-Kenzie, who seems immune to PSTD despite a record nine UN field missions, has noted that PTSD seems more prevalent among today's peacekeeping troops than it was in wartime. Perhaps it is more identifiable now than it was when it went by names like shell shock, "lack of moral fibre" or battle fatigue.
When retired Lt.-Gen. (now Senator) Romeo Dallaire came down with PTSD after commanding the UN mission in Rwanda, 1994, it helped popularize PTSD.
PTSD has also given rise to a cottage industry of grief counsellors -- not only for afflicted soldiers, but in schools when tragedy strikes, natural disasters, accidents that take lives, wherever trauma occurs.
To some, like me, there's a lot of hogwash and hype in the grief counsellor industry. Stress trauma is real in many cases, but the formula for dealing with it is self-indulgent and futile.
New research in Britain into PTSD, published by the Cochrane organization based in Oxford and reported in Britain's Sunday Times, concludes that at best grief counselling is useless, and at worst it exacerbates the suffering of people.
The most effective way for individuals to cope with stress trauma is the old-fashioned British "stiff-upper-lip" approach -- put it behind you, and get on with your life.
That sounds easier than it is. But researchers found that those who dwell on a tragedy and endure counselling, group therapy and incessantly talking about the trauma with others, or with a counsellor, ensures that they cannot easily move on and that the tragedy is further embedded in their psyche. This can affect future mental health.
Simon Wessley, professor of psychological medicine who led the Cochrane research, found that in a study of 3,000 British soldiers who'd seen and experienced massacres and cold-blooded killings, only 3% suffered long-term trauma.
"Undoubtedly some people suffer," Prof. Wessley said, but "the toxic effect of counselling is that some people begin to see themselves as having a mental health problem when they do not."
These findings give hope for those who favour the "put it behind you" approach, but it'll be a hard sell in North America.
Even in Britain, the Sunday Times reports, "there are more counsellors than soldiers." Some 30,000 counsellors work full time; 270,000 are part-time counsellors; 2.5 million include it in their work.
Some 9,000 therapists offered their services to New Yorkers after 9/11 -- three for every person who died in the World Trade Towers.
George Bonanno, a Columbia University psychology professor, calls counselling of stress victims "an enormous waste of money.
Compare Sen. Dallaire's story with what U.S. Sen. John McCain endured during five years of torture as a prisoner of the North Vietnamese. McCain managed to put his trauma behind him, moved on, and has promoted reconciliation with Hanoi. Dallaire still seems to be emotionally anchored in Rwanda.
When Victoria Cross winner Smokey Smith was asked if he had nightmares about the war, he replied, in effect: "Naw -- I put it behind me and moved on."
In other words, people opening up and talking about their ordeals and misery seems to cure little, and only makes the trauma worse. A radical view, but possibly correct.
DATE: 2005.06.06
EDITION: Final
SECTION: Comment
PAGE: 14
SOURCE: BY PETER WORTHINGTON, TORONTO SUN
STIFF UPPER LIP BEATS GRIEF COUNSELLING
When Andre Marin was the military ombudsman --before becoming Ontario's ombudsman last month --he investigated post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the <Canadian> military and found up to 20% of soldiers came down with it.
"A disturbingly high incidence of soldiers returning home from missions were burnt out and broken," he reported.
Maj. Wendy White, an Edmonton psychiatrist, was quoted by <Canadian> Press saying roughly 50% of soldiers returning home from foreign missions suffered from PTSD; <Army> Commander Lt.-Gen. <Marc> <Caron> noted that stress disorder among soldiers was twice as high as the rest of the <Canadian> Forces.
Clearly, PTSD is a problem for the <army>.
Retired Maj.-Gen. Lew Mac-Kenzie, who seems immune to PSTD despite a record nine UN field missions, has noted that PTSD seems more prevalent among today's peacekeeping troops than it was in wartime. Perhaps it is more identifiable now than it was when it went by names like shell shock, "lack of moral fibre" or battle fatigue.
When retired Lt.-Gen. (now Senator) Romeo Dallaire came down with PTSD after commanding the UN mission in Rwanda, 1994, it helped popularize PTSD.
PTSD has also given rise to a cottage industry of grief counsellors -- not only for afflicted soldiers, but in schools when tragedy strikes, natural disasters, accidents that take lives, wherever trauma occurs.
To some, like me, there's a lot of hogwash and hype in the grief counsellor industry. Stress trauma is real in many cases, but the formula for dealing with it is self-indulgent and futile.
New research in Britain into PTSD, published by the Cochrane organization based in Oxford and reported in Britain's Sunday Times, concludes that at best grief counselling is useless, and at worst it exacerbates the suffering of people.
The most effective way for individuals to cope with stress trauma is the old-fashioned British "stiff-upper-lip" approach -- put it behind you, and get on with your life.
That sounds easier than it is. But researchers found that those who dwell on a tragedy and endure counselling, group therapy and incessantly talking about the trauma with others, or with a counsellor, ensures that they cannot easily move on and that the tragedy is further embedded in their psyche. This can affect future mental health.
Simon Wessley, professor of psychological medicine who led the Cochrane research, found that in a study of 3,000 British soldiers who'd seen and experienced massacres and cold-blooded killings, only 3% suffered long-term trauma.
"Undoubtedly some people suffer," Prof. Wessley said, but "the toxic effect of counselling is that some people begin to see themselves as having a mental health problem when they do not."
These findings give hope for those who favour the "put it behind you" approach, but it'll be a hard sell in North America.
Even in Britain, the Sunday Times reports, "there are more counsellors than soldiers." Some 30,000 counsellors work full time; 270,000 are part-time counsellors; 2.5 million include it in their work.
Some 9,000 therapists offered their services to New Yorkers after 9/11 -- three for every person who died in the World Trade Towers.
George Bonanno, a Columbia University psychology professor, calls counselling of stress victims "an enormous waste of money.
Compare Sen. Dallaire's story with what U.S. Sen. John McCain endured during five years of torture as a prisoner of the North Vietnamese. McCain managed to put his trauma behind him, moved on, and has promoted reconciliation with Hanoi. Dallaire still seems to be emotionally anchored in Rwanda.
When Victoria Cross winner Smokey Smith was asked if he had nightmares about the war, he replied, in effect: "Naw -- I put it behind me and moved on."
In other words, people opening up and talking about their ordeals and misery seems to cure little, and only makes the trauma worse. A radical view, but possibly correct.