Steer Clear of Stereotypes: Regardless of how common the stereotypes of Service Members and veterans may or may not be among civilians, veterans themselves are strongly aware of the stereotypes, and this can widen the chasm between the military and civilian cultures. According to veterans interviewed, the stereotypes would say that Service Members are uneducated, less intelligent than civilians (as evidenced by the fact that they “had to” enlist in military service because they could find no other good career options), politically conservative “warmongers,” automatons who simply follow orders without question, and violent individuals who have no moral compass. The strongest expression of these stereotypes is a real or perceived attitude of condescension, and many Service Members and veterans are hyper-aware of that attitude.
10 Things You Should Know to Help Bring
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Unless you have established a comfortable, trusting relationship, if you say or do anything that is interpreted as reflecting these stereotypes, it is likely to provoke what seems like “resistance” and shut down communication. Just as the amygdala is able to bring up the whole traumatic experience at a single sound that reminds it of that experience, so is the human being able to bring up the whole tangle of stereotypes at a single condescending or judgmental word, gesture, or expression. Given the difficulty of repairing these misunderstandings, it is far easier to listen and “seek first to understand.”
In reality, many Service Members and veterans are highly educated, intelligent people, with interests, talents, attitudes, and opinions as varied as those in the civilian population. This is a group as diverse as any other—many ages, many races, many reasons for volunteering for military service. Their hopes, dreams, and life plans run the gamut, and so do their politics and their feelings about the wars they have fought (Lighthall, 2008).
They are also very much steeped in the military culture, which is a culture of courage, respect, discipline, loyalty, honor, obedience to authority, and patriotism. And each man and woman among them was willing to travel halfway around the world to live in unbelievably harsh conditions and face the possibility of permanent injury or death. Civilian clinicians owe it to themselves and to their clients to learn as much as possible about this culture and the individuals who have chosen to join it.
Understand The Positive Aspects: For the empathic soul who has not been to war but has heard enough to guess at the depth of its tragedies, it may be difficult to think of the Service Member as having had positive experiences in the war zone. But there are many aspects of the military culture and experience that are positive, reassuring, satisfying, and marked by deep bonds of friendship and mutual protection. It is frustrating to many Service Members and veterans that many civilians think of the experience in Iraq and Afghanistan purely in terms of violence and destruction. Here are just a few of the experiences some veterans have cited as positive:
To assume that any particular veteran had experienced any or all of these benefits would be just as inadvisable as it would be to assume the worst about his or her experience. The key is to:
The material on all of the Clinical Pages is taken directly from the draft version of Finding Balance After the War Zone: Considerations in the Treatment of Post-Deployment Stress Effects, a manual under development for the Great Lakes Addiction Technology Transfer Center and Human Priorities. This draft is copyright © 2008, Pamela Woll. Reprint permission is universally granted, but attribution is requested.
Click here for References and Other Resources.
Click here to link to a PDF file of the current version of the clinician’s manual draft.
Click here to link to a PDF file of the accompanying booklet for veterans.
