I was at work on Thursday when some office mates told me that there had been a mass shooting at an army base.  They were convinced it was a terrorist incident.  I replied that I thought it was a disaffected veteran who was being redeployed.  We were both wrong.

 It's common to think that we are not affected by all of the stories we hear of heinous cruelty.  A military psychiatrist hears tales of soldiers sent back to Iraq or Afghanistan when they are not recovered from their wounds.  Even more, he or she hears stories of young men and women reduced to a red mist, mangled, maimed, and afflicted with head injuries that are only poorly understood and most often untreated.  How could this, day after day, not lead to some dark shift in this helper?

 I am not for a moment defending what Hasan did.  I've never heard of a mental health professional doing something like this.I mourn for all of the dead, and pray for their families.

Vicarious trauma, or the impact on the helper of working with the traumatized, is real.  It impacts caregivers across the spectrum of being--mental, physical, spiritual.  It can lead to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and physical illness. We need to examine why we keep sending physically and mentally disabled soldiers back to fight.  And we need to acknowledge that those who help them suffer too.