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Arab American Veterans, PTSD and YIN Yoga
A 1924 study by Princeton professor Philip Hitti found that 13,965 Arab Americans served in World War I.
Professor Hitti claims that a higher percentage of Syrians served in WWI than any other ethnic community in the U.S.
Most scholars agree that 15,000 Arab Americans served in World War II.
In a December 2012 report the Department of Veterans Affairs showed that since 9/11, nearly 30 percent of the then 834,463 Iraq and Afghanistan War veterans treated at V.A. hospitals and clinics had been diagnosed with PTSD.
There are now over 2.3 million American veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. 50% of those with PTSD do not seek treatment.
Americans of Arab descent in the military have also experienced conflict between their American identity and identity related to their heritage. Such individuals may have encountered pejorative statements about Arabs and Islam as well as devaluation of the significance of loss of life among the enemy. [2]
One month after war trauma exposure Veterans may be diagnosed with Acute Stress Disorder/ASD.
The diagnosis of ASD requires that the individual has experienced at least three of the following:
(a) a subjective sense of numbing or detachment
(b) reduced awareness of one’s surroundings
(c) derealization: alteration in the perception or experience of the external world so that it seems unreal
(d) depersonalization: the feeling that one is watching themselves act from a distance without having a sense of complete control
(e) dissociative amnesia: disruptions or breakdowns of memory, consciousness or awareness, identity and/or perception. Dissociative amnesia occurs when a person blocks out certain information, usually associated with a stressful or traumatic event, leaving him or her unable to remember important personal information. With this disorder, the degree of memory loss goes beyond normal forgetfulness and includes gaps in memory for long periods of time or of memories involving the traumatic event. With dissociative amnesia, the memories still exist but are deeply buried within the person’s mind and cannot be recalled. However, the memories might resurface on their own or after being triggered by something in the person’s surroundings.
Post traumatic stress disorder/PTSD is the usual diagnosis when disturbances last beyond four weeks.
According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs:
<blockquote>It is important to note that psychosocial adaptation to war, over time, is not linear and continuous. For example, most soldiers are not debilitated in the immediate impact phase, but they are nevertheless at risk for chronic mental health problems implicated by experiences during battle.
Also, although ASD is an excellent predictor of chronic PTSD, it is not a necessary precondition for chronic impairment – there is sufficient evidence to support the notion of delayed PTSD.
Furthermore, the majority of people who develop PTSD did not meet the full diagnostic criteria for ASD beforehand. It is also important to appreciate that psychosocial and psychiatric disturbance implicated by war-zone exposure waxes and wanes across the life -span (e.g., relative to life-demands, exposure to critical reminders of war experiences, etc.).</blockquote>
In A Psychiatrist’s Experience Working With Veterans And Other Individuals Healing The Effects of Trauma Dr. Michael Mithoefer wrote:
<blockquote>When people who have not responded to conventional western treatments are offered experiential methods that allow them to go beyond cognitive processing and to access deeper levels–where the burdens of trauma are carried in the psyche and the body–remarkable healing and heart-opening can occur.
Methods for working directly with the body, such as yin yoga, are valuable and often indispensable tools for accessing these deeper levels. They also work as an ongoing practice, so that healing can continue to unfold that has been started by experiential psychotherapy.
All healing–both physical and psychological (which are not separate, but two aspects of a whole)–is accomplished as a result of our innate healing capacity.
When I practiced emergency medicine it was important for me to take action to create favorable conditions for healing by removing obstacles to it, but the body knew how to heal, and did the healing.
If someone had a big cut on their arm I would remove the dirt and bring the edges close together, maybe take other measures to treat infection or other problems that might be obstacles to healing, but I did not know how to heal the wound.
That happened as a result of an amazingly complex and elegant process within the body, and it always moved in the direction of healing. I never saw a seven-cm laceration that turned into an eight-cm laceration when I checked it a few days later.
Complications could impede the healing process, but the body always spontaneously moved toward healing.
The same is true of psychological healing from trauma, or anything else.
The role of the therapist, facilitator, or teacher is to help create favorable conditions for healing. This person supports access to the inner healing wisdom and amazing healing ability of the body/psyche, and helps people directly experience that they can pause in their striving, and trust their own healing intelligence.
Yin yoga practice is a wonderful way to practice and develop this direct experience of letting go, receiving and allowing their own healing to unfold. </blockquote>
This reporter was apolitical until THAT DAY we call 9/11.
I did not react with fear to the events of THAT DAY but with curiosity, which led to eight investigative trips to both sides of The Wall in what many call the Holy Land.
In 2012, I ran for US HOUSE of Representatives seeking to change USA foreign policies that endanger this homeland.
At the top of my platform was my desire to establish every June 8 as USS LIBERTY Remembrance Day and challenge every politician who claims they “support the troops” to actually LISTEN to the troops and act accordingly.
Among the most ignored of America’s troops are the veterans of the USS LIBERTY, but YOU can be a part of their struggle for justice by signing onto this statement:
<blockquote>I support the Liberty crew’s right to a thorough, honest, official investigation of the attack on their ship. This investigation must include their public testimony.</blockquote>
Last September I was scheduled for total bilateral knee replacements.
I cancelled that surgery while in the midst of signing the Pre-Op forms and a few weeks later began attending Yoga classes three or more days a week and doing YIN asanas/poses at home on a daily basis followed by silent meditation. Om_Symbol
This reporter is also a retired registered nurse and last month I began an eight-month training program in the Wisdom Method of Yoga.
If life goes as planned; next year I am hoping to help Veterans with PTSD and all the damaged like me who have been told the only relief for what ails us is joint replacements!
Regardless of outcome, I am writing my fifth book on topic online as I live it: Getting Older Yet Better: YIN Yoga and Yoga Nidra
Eileen Fleming
The Arab Daily News