Nbadan
05-02-2007, 01:39 PM
Is it, PTSD or guilt?
WASHINGTON — U.S. diplomats are returning from Iraq with the same debilitating, stress-related symptoms that have afflicted many U.S. troops, prompting the State Department to order a mental health survey of 1,400 employees who have completed assignments there.
Larry Brown, the State Department's director of medical services, said that as early as this month the department will e-mail questionnaires to employees who have been posted in Iraq.
The surveys, to be completed anonymously, are intended to determine how many returning diplomats and civilian employees are suffering post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or other problems as a result of exposure to a war zone, Brown said.
State Department employees in Iraq seldom leave the capital's heavily fortified Green Zone. Even there, rocket and mortar attacks are frequent, and the sound of gunfire is constant. Suicide bombers have penetrated the zone on rare occasions, most recently on April 12.
USA Today (http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20070502/1a_bottomstrip02.art.htm)
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WASHINGTON — Dark circles rim Rachel Schneller's eyes, an indication of the trouble she's had sleeping in the 10 months since she left Iraq.
Schneller's tour in 2005-2006 as a U.S. diplomat working with the provincial government in the southern Iraqi city of Basra was marked by tragedy and loss. An Iraqi employee she worked with was murdered in June on the way home from work. An American contractor friend was killed in September when a rocket pierced his trailer. More recently, an Iraqi prosecutor chosen by Schneller to visit the State Department for training this summer was murdered.
Since then, the diplomat says, she's had recurring memories of a nightmare in which she hanged herself from a lighting fixture in her office. "I had a deep sense that Iraqis are getting killed because of me," says Schneller, 33, an economics officer at the State Department in Washington. "All the work I did is worthless."
The war has placed deep strains on many of the 56,000 people who work around the world for the State Department. Some diplomats such as Schneller return home from the war with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Others say resources are being drained from posts elsewhere to cover the growing costs in Iraq.
USA Today (http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-05-01-iraq-diplomat_N.htm)
WASHINGTON — U.S. diplomats are returning from Iraq with the same debilitating, stress-related symptoms that have afflicted many U.S. troops, prompting the State Department to order a mental health survey of 1,400 employees who have completed assignments there.
Larry Brown, the State Department's director of medical services, said that as early as this month the department will e-mail questionnaires to employees who have been posted in Iraq.
The surveys, to be completed anonymously, are intended to determine how many returning diplomats and civilian employees are suffering post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or other problems as a result of exposure to a war zone, Brown said.
State Department employees in Iraq seldom leave the capital's heavily fortified Green Zone. Even there, rocket and mortar attacks are frequent, and the sound of gunfire is constant. Suicide bombers have penetrated the zone on rare occasions, most recently on April 12.
USA Today (http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20070502/1a_bottomstrip02.art.htm)
More...
WASHINGTON — Dark circles rim Rachel Schneller's eyes, an indication of the trouble she's had sleeping in the 10 months since she left Iraq.
Schneller's tour in 2005-2006 as a U.S. diplomat working with the provincial government in the southern Iraqi city of Basra was marked by tragedy and loss. An Iraqi employee she worked with was murdered in June on the way home from work. An American contractor friend was killed in September when a rocket pierced his trailer. More recently, an Iraqi prosecutor chosen by Schneller to visit the State Department for training this summer was murdered.
Since then, the diplomat says, she's had recurring memories of a nightmare in which she hanged herself from a lighting fixture in her office. "I had a deep sense that Iraqis are getting killed because of me," says Schneller, 33, an economics officer at the State Department in Washington. "All the work I did is worthless."
The war has placed deep strains on many of the 56,000 people who work around the world for the State Department. Some diplomats such as Schneller return home from the war with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Others say resources are being drained from posts elsewhere to cover the growing costs in Iraq.
USA Today (http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2007-05-01-iraq-diplomat_N.htm)