Prozac Army

By Cernig

Regular readers know we at Newshoggers are big fans of the blogging veterans over at VetVoice. We'd like to offer Captain Chris LeJeune our heartfelt support and thanks today for going public in TIME about one of the unspoken impacts of the War On Terror - depression and addiction to prescribed antidepressants among those serving in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Seven months after sergeant Christopher LeJeune started scouting Baghdad's dangerous roads -- acting as bait to lure insurgents into the open so his Army unit could kill them -- he found himself growing increasingly despondent. "We'd been doing some heavy missions, and things were starting to bother me," LeJeune says. His unit had been protecting Iraqi police stations targeted by rocket-propelled grenades, hunting down mortars hidden in dark Baghdad basements and cleaning up its own messes. He recalls the order his unit got after a nighttime firefight to roll back out and collect the enemy dead. When LeJeune and his buddies arrived, they discovered that some of the bodies were still alive. "You don't always know who the bad guys are," he says. "When you search someone's house, you have it built up in your mind that these guys are terrorists, but when you go in, there's little bitty tiny shoes and toys on the floor -- things like that started affecting me a lot more than I thought they would."

So LeJeune visited a military doctor in Iraq, who, after a quick session, diagnosed depression. The doctor sent him back to war armed with the antidepressant Zoloft and the antianxiety drug clonazepam. "It's not easy for soldiers to admit the problems that they're having over there for a variety of reasons," LeJeune says. "If they do admit it, then the only solution given is pills."

While the headline-grabbing weapons in this war have been high-tech wonders, like unmanned drones that drop Hellfire missiles on the enemy below, troops like LeJeune are going into battle with a different kind of weapon, one so stealthy that few Americans even know of its deployment. For the first time in history, a sizable and growing number of U.S. combat troops are taking daily doses of antidepressants to calm nerves strained by repeated and lengthy tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. The medicines are intended not only to help troops keep their cool but also to enable the already strapped Army to preserve its most precious resource: soldiers on the front lines. Data contained in the Army's fifth Mental Health Advisory Team report indicate that, according to an anonymous survey of U.S. troops taken last fall, about 12% of combat troops in Iraq and 17% of those in Afghanistan are taking prescription antidepressants or sleeping pills to help them cope. Escalating violence in Afghanistan and the more isolated mission have driven troops to rely more on medication there than in Iraq, military officials say. [Bold emphasis mine - C]

Brandon Friedman at VetVoice writes:

This is tough because it's not something that many in the military want to face.  In fact, it's just become something of an open secret that repeated, extended combat tours have left the professional force so strained that troops are routinely sent into combat while drugged for PTSD and depression.  But Chris--always the consummate soldier--handled the topic deftly, by being frank and honest, so that millions of Americans can see what's really taking place in both Afghanistan and Iraq.

It took guts for Chris to tell his story publicly, but the more people we have who can convey the true experience of war, the better off we'll be as a nation.

And Chris notes in comments there:

One thing to add that this story did not cover very fully.  It is difficult to get your prescriptions in Iraq.  When I was there it involved getting together a four truck convoy and a dozen soldiers, with at least two crew-served weapons.  All so you could go get your damn crazy pills.

There are few things dumber in this life than faux-macho posturing. Chis is a brave soldier and a great man for having the courage to talk about this problem. Now let's see some real leadership and consensus to support the troops from the government, the military and the two candidates.