I recently received information from an executive member of the Veterans Affairs office.  The information given is that the military personnel who are currently providing the defense of are country are receiving benefits from the Veteran’s Administration.  However, the problem is that most of those individuals, who are actively receiving treatment, are elderly or retired Veterans.  These individuals have developed needs that require medical attention. 

It is reported that the retirees do not generally report psychological issues.  The returning Veterans who are primarily in their twenties are entrenched into a state of denial.  These individuals don’t seek care until they have some experience or trigger that starts them into a “bad path”. These are such as substance abuse, addiction, failed relationships, or an encounter with law enforcement.  It is at this point that the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress are clearly identified and are directly traced to an individual’s military service. 

Unfortunately for the returning vets it is similar to the current standards of health care.  There is no pro-active effort made to acknowledge  that individuals who have had one or two tours of duty in places like the Middle East or Asia are vulnerable with clinical symptoms.  These symptoms are managed by poor coping strategies and are often times overlooked.  However, they do created significant issues for an individual as well as their family members. 

All of us need to assume the responsibility for our returning veterans.  What that means is that if we know an individual who is returning from active duty, it is important to help them understand that what they have just experienced, especially if they were involved in the Middle East conflict, is very different than in our American Society.  As such, it would be important for churches, social community groups, as well as families, to encourage the returning vets and their families to participate in some form of supportive therapy to determine what issues have been created by the exposure to destruction, violence, and severe deprivation. 

When an individual is exposed over a period of time to these kinds of human conditions it is difficult to be “normal”.  It is therefore all of our responsibility to understand that what our nation has chosen to do, which is to be at war, has residual and long-term consequences which are destructive to our society. 

Our fear may not be terrorists who are outside of the borders, but the individuals who have symptoms as a result of the conflict which they have been exposed to.  It is these individuals who may create greater destruction than any of the outside terrorists which we fear.  The solution is helping the returning gulf-war veterans to reintegrate into their families and into society so that they can be the heroes that they are.  Veterans need to live their lives to the fullest, which will in turn make us a healthier and stronger society.

The more you e-mail, tweet, post messages on Facebook, and read blogs including this one, the less cleaver you become.  With the advent of ever more capable mobile devices, people are online all the time.  You see people texting while waiting in line for their coffee, while exercising, while going up and down elevators.  The opportunity to make the tiniest windows of time productive or entertaining becomes almost endless. 

There is a side-effect to all of this digitalization.  The unexpected side effect is that the higher digital input we receive the less time we get to process information, learn, and become creative.  In other words, we need down time to get new insights and new ideas. 

This is not new for me since being an educator I learned in my early years that when students daydream, they are basically restructuring their neuropathic signals and cooling their frontal cortex activities.  The free association increases their ability to learn new and complex information.  This is why our best ideas come to us in the morning while we are showering, shaving, or eating breakfast.  It is not when we are involved with complex activities such as computer data inputting, or constructing e-mails. 

What is best for ourselves, for our own fulfillment, and for societies’ overall success is the ability for humans to be creative.  It appears that in order to reach our maximum creative potential, we have to be less on-line.  Recently in the New York Times, Loren Frank who is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Physiology at the University of California in San Francisco stated that “Down time lets the brain go over experiences it’s had, solidify them, and turn them into permanent long-term memories.” 

While the down time for the brain may be a good recipe, it would be hard to sell it in this age of increasing digital addiction.  Almost a century ago Americans found it better for their people and society when alcohol was forbidden.  It was not a successful experiment, and I am not proposing that we have digital prohibition.  I am not recommending or suggesting such a solution.  However, I wonder where we are going when we would more and more replace the digital experience with a real one.  I recall when I was young and wanted to play with a friend, I went to his house, knocked on the door, and hoped he was there.  Now my grandchildren check out their status on Facebook, and do not even have to make a phone call, let alone, go out and make an unexpected visit to find that this may lead to unexpected real life experiences. 

There is a strange loneliness when out-going communication is more often with someone who is not next to you.  Digital communication is not the real thing.  People send e-mails when they find it hard to make or call or even face the person they have a message for.  I have seen so many e-mail trails leading nowhere other than to confusion or alienation between people, that I now choose not to read any e-mails that I am copied.  I find that these e-mails are usually attempts for people to cover their backs.  When you need someone, call her or him, or better yet make a visit.  Modern communication is great, but as it is with alcohol, moderation and responsibility are required to really enjoy it.