Page 650 - Total War on PTSD

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 has aggressively pursued multiple programs to address this challenging issue. This includes revising the Comprehensive Soldier and Family Fitness (CSF2) program to include family members, launching the Ready and Resilient Campaign to guide the Army’s efforts to improve the performance, resilience, and readiness of Soldiers, implementing Advanced Situational Awareness (ASA) training, and incorporating the Human Dimension within the Force 2025 vision. In essence, perhaps we can put ourselves out of a job treating PTSD on the backend, by doing a better job on
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