On this installment of StudioTulsa Medical Monday, a timely conversation with two community leaders who are both involved with the Tulsa Community Service Council, and who are both, moreover, U.S. Military veterans: Dr. Erv Janssen and Jim Lyall. They join us to define and discuss the experience known as moral injury -- an affliction that's similar to post-traumatic stress disorder, yet which also differs from PTSD in several important ways. As was noted of this phenomenon in an in-depth series of articles that ran a few years ago in The Huffington Post: "Moral injury is a relatively new concept that seems to describe what many [soldiers and veterans] feel: a sense that their fundamental understanding of right and wrong has been violated, and the grief, numbness, or guilt that often ensues. Here, you will meet combat veterans struggling with the moral and ethical ambiguities of war. You will hear from some of the researchers and therapists working to help them cope, and you will come to understand some of the demons that veterans bring home from battle. However we individually feel about the U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, these enduring moral wounds, to young Americans who fought on our behalf, must be counted among the ultimate costs."
A Discussion of Moral Injury and PTSD: How They Differ, and How They're Related
