Mental health professionals state that the only thing that can change an adults personality is trauma. Being I turned 18 in 1968 I'm from a group of men that were strongly influenced by the Vietnam war. I witnessed many friends, classmates and acquaintances return with completely changed personalities, many of whom also changed their appearance. Bizarre changes in facial and head top hair, clothing worn, and jewelry. Many were nice people and returned very mean, cynical and obnoxious. Some came back overly interested in high power weapons, by overly I mean an unhealthy obsession. Some came back arrogant with a sense of machismo where women became objects to them and not people. Everyone reacts differently to trauma with some enduring it with no problems, yet can be severely traumatized by events others have no problem dealing with.
An interesting statistic, resulting from multiple research papers, is that for every dollar spent on mental health care, seven dollars of other social costs are saved. What social costs? Law enforcement, child protective services, welfare, unemployment insurance, law enforcement, family courts and emergency rooms. There are more but I can't remember everything cited in one study that a counselor shared with me. Now folks, what is one of the first things targeted in budget cuts, mental health care.
I heard this from a former Boy Scout of mine who later went through Naval Basic Training during the second Bush Administration. It seems the previous administration had funded, to the tune of about $3 million, military research for finding ways of effectively treating PTSD. Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz saw it and cut it immediately saying such things are for sissies. He heard this as he went through basic and then on to his basic military police training. This from students and instructors. We know see how shortsighted that decision was.
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