Trauma In Military

There were over a million individuals serving in the United States Military as of 2013 (DMDC, 2018) and were engaged in 2 major operations; Operation Enduring Freedom (OEF) and Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF), from 2001 through 2014 (Institute of Medicine (US), 2013; Tilghman, 2014). The U.S. Army alone had 560,000 service members, out of which 411,000 had been deployed at least once to a combat zone and averaging 117,000 troops per year (Baiocchi, 2013). Consequently, the prevalence of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was approximately 17% of those deployed, or approximately 20,000 cases yearly (Fulton et al., 2015). When most individuals think of a traumatic event, they immediately think about PTSD, however, if the trauma has caused an

Subsequently, moral emotions, such as guilt and shame, become associated with thoughts of duty (Gaudet et al., 2016). All individuals entering the military attends Basic training, this is where they learn how to wear their uniforms, march, stand in lines, and hurry up and wait, they are also taught basic infantry training; how to shoot and clean a weapon, setup a parameter, and how to wear a gas mask. Once Basic is completed, they go onto advanced training, some obtain their Military Occupational Skill (MOS) in Communications, Electronic repair, Logistics, Cook, while others go to more advanced combat training such as infantry, tanker, artillery, and possibly continuing to Rangers or Special Forces training. The more advanced combat training allows the individuals to learn in-depth knowledge of combat while using their weapon more often and instill that the enemy are targets, which in turn dehumanizes the enemy, causing more efficient and less hesitation when confronting the enemy. Notwithstanding, there is a lack of research which examines the potential effects of training, and whether these effects are more beneficial differ for certain types of

Seeing how religion, in one from or fashion, has been around as long as humans have existed, it stands to reason that religion would be the bases for moral and ethical principles (Hasanović, & Pajević, 2015). However, morality is subjective and may be influenced by social factors. Hence, individuals may separate their personal moral code from their actions (moral disengagement) so they may be socially perceived as honorable, even though they may personally perceive it as a moral transgression, which this transgression is strongly linked to feelings of guilt and shame (Nazarov et al., 2015). Gaudet, Sowers, Nugent, & Boriskin (2016) have also shown there is a correlation between pre-existing psychological problems, such as social anxiety and Moral Injury. Religion is the basis of many individuals’ morals and beliefs which are considered to be a coping skill to maintain or alleviate the severity of PTSD symptoms (Tilghman2014). Nevertheless, there is a complex relationship between religiosity and it impact and mental health (Intrinsic or extrinsic religiosity and Positive or Negative religious coping). This complexity may not only be a beneficial resource, but they could have negative effects when dealing with stressful life events depending on an individuals’ spiritual beliefs (Wortmann, Park, Edmondson,