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Prevention of PTSD with Pre-Deployment Resilience Training
Our lab is also working with the military to create realistic war-like experiences to train soldiers to better methods for coping with the physical, social, and emotional stress of the combat before they go to war. This is especially important when we look at the mental health statistics regarding SMs exposure to combat. One in five SMs who return from Afghanistan and Iraq have symptoms of PTSD or major depression and a widely cited 2016 VA study reported that in 2014 over 7,400 Veterans - 20 per day — took their own lives. Perhaps these numbers could be dramatically reduced with a focus on building psychological resilience in SMs prior to a combat deployment?
Psychological resilience has been defined as the dynamic process of positive adjustment to adverse events. Resilient individuals exhibit positive adaptation when they encounter significant adversity, tragedy, threats, or other sources of stress. In the context of exposure to traumatic events, an indicator of resilience would be considered the absence of psychiatric disorder symptoms, such as PTSD. A proactive approach for better preparing SMs for improving psychological resilience and effectively dealing with emotional challenges is needed in order to improve readiness and reduce the potential for later adverse psychological reactions such as PTSD and depression. The focus on resilience training prior to deployment has received increased emphasis emanating from the highest levels of command in the military. For example, in an 2011 American Psychologist article, General (R) George Casey made the case that “soldiers can be” better before deploying to combat so they will not have to “get” better after they “return” and then called for a shift in the military “...to a culture in which psychological fitness is recognized as every bit as important as physical fitness." In line with this view, the Army
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