Iraq vets and post-traumatic stress: No easy answers
Story Highlights
Study shows 1 in 5 U.S. veterans of Iraq, Afghanistan has PTSD, depression
One study found about half seek treatment; other study, less than 40 percent do
Kris Goldsmith returned from Iraq depressed, angry and profoundly changed
Today Goldsmith works with veterans' rights groups and anti-war movement
By A. Chris Gajilan
CNN Senior Producer
BELLMORE, New York (CNN) -- Walking through a crowded shopping mall can bring back memories of war. The shifting crowds, the jostle of passers-by and the din can all trigger Army Sgt. Kristofer Goldsmith's post-traumatic stress disorder.
"You get used to scanning what everybody's doing. Your brain just starts working so fast and it's purely instinctual because you want to know what everyone's intent is around you," said Goldsmith, who served four years in active duty.
"You want to know if anyone has the intent to harm you or the capabilities to harm you."
That hyper-vigilance is one common symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder. PTSD, an anxiety disorder, can develop after a terrifying or life-threatening event, or a series of events causing extreme stress.
It's a complex disorder that displays myriad symptoms. People may become more depressed, aggressive, or emotionally detached. For Goldsmith, the chest-tightening anxiety attacks and trouble sleeping he experienced after returning from Iraq in 2005 indicated he was suffering from PTSD.
"With PTSD comes anxiety problems, depression problems ... I get flashes of rage, which goes hand in hand with alcoholism I've been fighting since I got back from Iraq," Goldsmith said.
Dr Gupta: Watch more on Kris Goldsmith's war experience »
As more troops return from the battlefield, the U.S. military faces a burgeoning dilemma of diagnosing and treating PTSD.
According to the latest Pentagon study, published in 2004, about one in six veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan suffers from PTSD, depression or anxiety. Learn more about PTSD
go here for more
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/10/24/ptsd.struggle/
A vet's struggle with PTSD 3:29Iraq vet Kris Goldsmith nearly died from post-traumatic stress disorder. CNN's Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports.
• Health News - Medicine, Diet, Fitness and Parenting from CNN.com
Source: CNN Added October 24, 2008
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/conditions/10/24/ptsd.struggle/#cnnSTCVideo
Showing posts with label Sgt. Kristofer Goldsmith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Sgt. Kristofer Goldsmith. Show all posts
Friday, October 24, 2008
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Iraq veteran relays the trauma, tragedy of war
Iraq veteran relays the trauma, tragedy of war
Christopher Baker
Issue date: 10/7/08 Section: Campus News
The Brown Daily Herald - Providence,RI,USA
Tuesday night, Iraq War veteran Kristofer Goldsmith tried to describe what a dead human body smells like to a wide-eyed audience of more than 50 students, professors and community members.
"I can tell you that it doesn't smell like a raccoon that got run over a week ago. It doesn't smell like road kill. There is a very, very distinct smell to a dead human."
He said he experiences this smell every time he sees gore in a movie like "Saw."
"The smell isn't just your nose. You can taste it. You can taste the iron of the blood floating in the air," he said.
Goldsmith, 23, came to Brown as a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, a group that advocates for veterans' rights and the end of U.S. involvement in the war in Iraq, to speak about his traumatic experience serving in the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry between 2005 and 2007. The talk was sponsored by anti-war group Operation Iraqi Freedom, Students for a Democratic Society, Brown Democrats, Rhode Island Mobilization Committee, Active Minds and Brown American Civil Liberties Union. It took place in MacMillan 115.
Goldsmith, a Long Island native, joined the army when he was 18 in response to the Sept. 11 attacks. He was first deployed to Iraq in January 2005. By the time he returned to the United States in December 2006, he had developed post-traumatic stress disorder and severe alcoholism.
"I didn't feel human anymore," Goldsmith said.
His contract, which was set to expire in May 2007, was extended indefinitely as part of the troop surge announced by President Bush in January 2007. On Memorial Day of that year, the day his infantry was set to redeploy to Iraq, he attempted suicide.
click post title for more
Christopher Baker
Issue date: 10/7/08 Section: Campus News
The Brown Daily Herald - Providence,RI,USA
Tuesday night, Iraq War veteran Kristofer Goldsmith tried to describe what a dead human body smells like to a wide-eyed audience of more than 50 students, professors and community members.
"I can tell you that it doesn't smell like a raccoon that got run over a week ago. It doesn't smell like road kill. There is a very, very distinct smell to a dead human."
He said he experiences this smell every time he sees gore in a movie like "Saw."
"The smell isn't just your nose. You can taste it. You can taste the iron of the blood floating in the air," he said.
Goldsmith, 23, came to Brown as a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War, a group that advocates for veterans' rights and the end of U.S. involvement in the war in Iraq, to speak about his traumatic experience serving in the U.S. Army's 3rd Infantry between 2005 and 2007. The talk was sponsored by anti-war group Operation Iraqi Freedom, Students for a Democratic Society, Brown Democrats, Rhode Island Mobilization Committee, Active Minds and Brown American Civil Liberties Union. It took place in MacMillan 115.
Goldsmith, a Long Island native, joined the army when he was 18 in response to the Sept. 11 attacks. He was first deployed to Iraq in January 2005. By the time he returned to the United States in December 2006, he had developed post-traumatic stress disorder and severe alcoholism.
"I didn't feel human anymore," Goldsmith said.
His contract, which was set to expire in May 2007, was extended indefinitely as part of the troop surge announced by President Bush in January 2007. On Memorial Day of that year, the day his infantry was set to redeploy to Iraq, he attempted suicide.
click post title for more
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Sgt. Kristofer Goldsmith another face of PTSD
March 17, 2008
The War That Never Ends
Iraq Veterans Against the War’s ‘Winter Soldier’ hearings revealed the awful truths of the occupation and the ongoing struggle for those who have returned home.
By Jacob Wheeler
Last Memorial Day, Sgt. Kristofer Goldsmith tried to kill himself. He had just been stop-lossed along with 80,000 other soldiers as part of the surge of U.S. forces to be sent to Iraq in the Bush administration’s last-ditch attempt at victory. Goldsmith already suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), though Veterans Affairs (VA) refused to diagnose him. His contract with the army was almost up, and he couldn’t bear the thought of an 18-month deployment.
Like the dozens of disgruntled veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan who testified at the Iraq Veterans Against the War’s (IVAW) emotional and groundbreaking “Winter Soldier” hearings, held from March 13-16 at the National Labor College near Washington D.C., Goldsmith had enlisted as a proud American eager to defend his country and trusting of the government that would send him into battle. Goldsmith hails from Long Island, and a day after watching smoke pour out of the collapsed World Trade Center towers, he had told friends that he “wanted to kill everyone in the Middle East.”
Goldsmith arrived in the sprawling ghetto of Baghdad’s Sadr City at age 19. He admits to following the command of his superiors and taking photos of unearthed dead bodies, more as war trophies than as evidence. “The images of dead bodies are burned into my memory,” Goldsmith said. His unit harassed the local population, and stopped cars, even as someone’s wife was going into labor in the back seat. And one day he trained his weapon on a six-year-old Iraqi boy pointing a stick at him as if it were an AK-47. “We were so desensitized. … The U.S. government put me in that position,” he said. “It took a lot of thinking not to kill the boy that day.”
Veterans like Kristofer Goldsmith discovered first-hand how the government sent them ill-prepared into a war under false pretenses, changed their rules of engagement with every deployment, brainwashed them into dehumanizing the Iraqi population, and brought them home without adequate means of caring for those for whom the war still rages on.
go here for the rest
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3585/
The War That Never Ends
Iraq Veterans Against the War’s ‘Winter Soldier’ hearings revealed the awful truths of the occupation and the ongoing struggle for those who have returned home.
By Jacob Wheeler
Last Memorial Day, Sgt. Kristofer Goldsmith tried to kill himself. He had just been stop-lossed along with 80,000 other soldiers as part of the surge of U.S. forces to be sent to Iraq in the Bush administration’s last-ditch attempt at victory. Goldsmith already suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), though Veterans Affairs (VA) refused to diagnose him. His contract with the army was almost up, and he couldn’t bear the thought of an 18-month deployment.
Like the dozens of disgruntled veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan who testified at the Iraq Veterans Against the War’s (IVAW) emotional and groundbreaking “Winter Soldier” hearings, held from March 13-16 at the National Labor College near Washington D.C., Goldsmith had enlisted as a proud American eager to defend his country and trusting of the government that would send him into battle. Goldsmith hails from Long Island, and a day after watching smoke pour out of the collapsed World Trade Center towers, he had told friends that he “wanted to kill everyone in the Middle East.”
Goldsmith arrived in the sprawling ghetto of Baghdad’s Sadr City at age 19. He admits to following the command of his superiors and taking photos of unearthed dead bodies, more as war trophies than as evidence. “The images of dead bodies are burned into my memory,” Goldsmith said. His unit harassed the local population, and stopped cars, even as someone’s wife was going into labor in the back seat. And one day he trained his weapon on a six-year-old Iraqi boy pointing a stick at him as if it were an AK-47. “We were so desensitized. … The U.S. government put me in that position,” he said. “It took a lot of thinking not to kill the boy that day.”
Veterans like Kristofer Goldsmith discovered first-hand how the government sent them ill-prepared into a war under false pretenses, changed their rules of engagement with every deployment, brainwashed them into dehumanizing the Iraqi population, and brought them home without adequate means of caring for those for whom the war still rages on.
go here for the rest
http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3585/
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