Does PTSD cause terrorism? It seems like terrorists have all the symptoms.
Unquenchable anger and the desire for suicide being the chief symptoms in this case. A lack of empathy for others is also a feature.
I’m going to do some further research to see what comes up. So there may be additions to this post. And note: if PTSD is a cause legalizing cannabis and heroin (for more severe cases) is indicated. The Muslim prohibitions against alcohol and other drugs is a way to keep the jihadis angry.
Root Causes of Suicide Terrorism: The Globalization of Martyrdom – Google Books takes a look at the subject. They give hints but nothing definitive.
Was Fort Hood Shooting About Jihad Or Indicative Of How Broken Our Mental Health System Is?
Nidal Hasan needs to be thoroughly investigated and prosecuted for this despicable crime at Fort Hood but it is important not to use him as yet another excuse for the incredible incompetence of the mental health industry. The most important information from the Generals and mental health professionals about the Fort Hood shooting will not be revealed until the media asks better questions and demands hard evidence in regard to these questions. Four important questions were completely missed.
1) What in your opinion causes some to suffer PTSD and why are others not affected. In other words what in your opinion brings about a human emotion and behavior? (One cannot fix it if one does not know how it works and one does not know how it works if one cannot clearly answer this question)
We do know the answer to that question. It is genetic and some of the genes have been identified.
Who Will Get PTSD? Genetic Breakthrough Brings Us Closer to Knowing. The article leaves out the most important cause of PTSD. Child abuse. Dr. Lonny Shavelson found that 70% of female heroin users had been sexually abused in childhood. It is also pretty well known that cannabis is helpful in treating the symptoms of PTSD. Some medical cannabis states allow cannabis for PTSD treatment.
Also see: wiki – Genetics of posttraumatic stress disorder.
Researchers at the Veterans Affairs San Diego Healthcare System and University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, with colleagues in New York and the United Kingdom, have identified genetic markers, derived from blood samples that are linked to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). The markers are associated with gene networks that regulate innate immune function and interferon signaling.
The findings, published in the March 10 issue of the journal Molecular Psychiatry, offer novel insights into the pathophysiology of PTSD. In clinical terms, researchers say they could lead to new ways to not just improve diagnosis and treatment of persons with the mental health condition, but predict who might be more susceptible.
Previous genomic studies of PTSD have focused upon identifying differences in gene expression between persons with PTSD relative to a control group. The new study takes a broader “systems-level approach,” using whole transcriptome RNA sequencing, said first author Michael S. Breen, PhD, at the University of Southampton in England.
“By comparing U.S. Marines who develop PTSD symptoms to those who do not, we can measure differences in genes, but also take into consideration the dynamic relationships between and among them, their connectivity,” Breen said. “Because PTSD is thought to be such a complex disorder, measuring these dynamic relationships is crucial to better understanding the PTSD pathology.”
So it is not just genes.
CNN has a tolerably good article on the subject. Is post-traumatic stress disorder in your genes?
PTSD can occur after many types of trauma: rape, torture, child abuse, natural disasters and car, plane, and train wrecks, to name a few. According to the PTSD Alliance, more than 13 million Americans have PTSD and the societal cost is in the billions. Women are about twice as likely as men to develop the disorder.
Symptoms tend to cluster into three areas:
• Reliving the event via nightmares or vivid images, along with an extreme reaction such as uncontrollable shaking, chills or heart palpitations.
• Avoiding reminders of the event, including becoming emotionally withdrawn and detached from friends, family and everyday activities.
• Being hyperaroused, easily startled, irritable, angry, or having difficulty sleeping or concentrating.
Did they say child abuse? And angry? Yep.
Now here is a real kicker. From the VA. Suicide and PTSD.
Studies show that suicide risk is higher in persons with PTSD. Some studies link suicide risk in those with PTSD to distressing trauma memories, anger, and poor control of impulses. Further, suicide risk is higher for those with PTSD who have certain styles of coping with stress, such as not expressing feelings.
I think we are starting to see a pattern.
Some one wrote a book on the subject. War, Religiosity, Ideology, and PTSD in the Middle East. However the author does not come to any definite conclusion. He does suggest further avenues for study.
A commenter at Reason asks about the “Assassins” who were notorious for hashish use. My response:
Well if heavy cannabis use is a marker for PTSD what better recruiting tool?
And I only looked at the medical aspects. Culture also has an effect. “Feeling like suicide? Kill some infidels. That will solve your problem. The infidels will kill you. After you kill some of them.”
Comments
17 responses to “Does PTSD Cause Terrorism?”
many things cause terrorism also it is misapplied john paul jones was called the pirate jones which meant terrorist during the revolutionary war.
PTSD is also being inflicted on the Muslim youngsters via manipulated, circumscribed social media, which is shared and adopted by some in the west. Where they excel is with imposed ignorance, directed indoctrination and the usual religious distortions used for justification.
“Does PTSD cause terrorism?”
Yeah, becuz it just couldn’t *possibly* be caused by the culture of Islam. [/sarc]
So. Why do we not see terrorist, etc behavior from former combat troops from Western Civilization? Lots of them have chronic PTSD. How many former US soldiers from the second Gulf War and Afghanistan have been running around cutting the heads off of cartoonists and blowing themselves up after shooting up concert venues?
Instead: we have Oathkeepers. Dar el Islam produces ISIL.
I’m thinking there’s a less tenuous connection there than there is between PTSD and terrorist behavior. [no sarc at all]
Ironbear,
Up until the end of my post I was looking at a dimension of terrorism different from culture. An aspect not well studied.
You will note that I did address culture some. A topic that is well worn.
Also CWPJR had a few words on the culture in the comments.
The short version:
Where do suicide bombers come from?
Men who are inclined to suicide.
What is the recruiting pool for that? Men with PTSD.
Is there a conundrum when you consider marijuana and heroin therapy on the one hand, and on the other, hashish as used by the assassins? That is a big jump from the beginning of your post to the very end, acknowledged.
“Ironbear,
Up until the end of my post I was looking at a dimension of terrorism different from culture. An aspect not well studied”
*nod* Fair enough.
I’ll note, though, that until you can document an equivalent number of similar atrocities and terrorist acts that have been perpetrated by Western PTSD sufferers – the predominant majority of which come from and are former and current Western combat soldiers, despite the equivalency brigades attempts to attribute PTSD to all “traumas” suffered by the special snowflakes – then what you have is a theory in search of data rather than data that requires a theory to explain it.
Theoretically, perhaps, it’s an amusing notion to chase down the rabbit hole. In practice, I suspect that you won’t find evidence to support it. In theory, it’s glib, nifty, and oh so elegant and appealing. Behold! We have a Root Cause! In practice, it’s hogwash.
For as we all know, there is no difference between theory and practice, except when in practice there is.
Because the evidence just isn’t there. There aren’t equivalent cases of similar behaviors from Western PTSD sufferers, not in kind, nor in quantity.
And there were: we would have *noticed* by now.
Besides which, amusing and entertaining notion to chase down the rabbit holes of “What if?” or no – it’s irrelevant.
Let’s go far, far out on a limb here… so far that the limb creaks and bends beneath the weight of your supposition. Let’s go out even further a bit, and suppose that you actually *find* supporting evidence, against all odds.
And then what?
You have a Root Cause. Congratulations. The line for your Nobel in the sciences forms on the right.
And then what?
Treat them?
How? And then what?
We don’t even know how to treat normal PTSD among our combat veterans successfully. (Believe me: I *know* PTSD sufferers, the real thing. It’s like alcoholism: at best, you get recovery, not a cure.) But let’s go even farther out on the limb until it quivers beneath the strain, and suggest that we *can* treat the Super Malignant Psychopathological variety of Mega-Terrorist PTSD.
And *then* what?
Meanwhile, they’re still trying to kill you and to destroy our civilization.
*shrug*
It is irrelevant.
We are at war.
And the understanding of the enemy that you are hunting for in this snark and boogum hunt is far, far beyond the scope of what you *need* to know and understand about the enemy in order to fight and defeat them.
To fight the enemy, you *do* need to understand them. But –
This goes a bit beyond the parameters of the knowledge that’s required to wage a successful war on the enemy. Further, it’s a distraction. It can serve no useful purpose, in my opinion, because whether it is true or not: there is nothing that you can do about it.
The enemy is inside the Gates of Vienna, and he is attacking. While you’re psychoanalyzing him… he’s preparing to burn Vienna (both figuratively and not so) down around its defenders and inhabitants.
Figure out what you do need to know in order to fight him effectively, and do it fucking *fast*.
Else while Paris, Rome, Stockholm, and Copenhagen, Berlin, and Oslo are being sacked and burned and their women are being gangraped by the romantic firelight…
We’ll be busily psychoanalyzing the next wave as they’re preparing the battle space in Oklahoma City, or DFW, or NYC, or Dearborn.
“My, what a lovely thought, and what a lovely rabbit hole – hey! Wait, what’s that sound? Everybody look what’s comin’ round.”
Dunno ’bout you, bud, but I kinda like the women here in Durant when they’re not being gang raped by muslims. No offense to the Europeans and all, but I’d much rather be dealing with the problem while they’re still over there sacking, burning and raping Europe.
Don’t get me wrong. Theory is wonderful. I love theory. Give me a non-alcholic beer or three and I’ll sit around and ratchet jaw elegant theories all night and all weekend with you. Sometime when the difference between nifty theory and grisly practice isn’t quite so dire.
Right now, we best be doing theory that has some applicability to practical matters, and that has some relevance to the real world. *And* that can be *acted* upon effectively.
I truly do believe that it is getting damned near that stark and immediate.
Uh. I got PTSD from abuse by my father. He got it by abuse from his mother.
Child abuse is very underrated as a cause of PTSD.
I was in an outlaw biker gang for a few years. ALL the outlaws I discussed the matter with had been abused in childhood.
You ought to look at a different MO in the US. Criminals. Gangs. They are “hidden” right in front of you.
Yeah. Most of the people with PTSD have nutty politics. You would expect that. PTSD distorts thinking. They also get (if abused in childhood) a “the world owes me a living” attitude.
An honest dealing with PTSD would destroy the left. But no one in America wants that. The left of course needs its shock troops. And the right needs Prohibition and an enemy.
Well you never know what you will figure out if you study a subject. And so far the subject is little studied.
As to your medical points. Yeah. It is in remission. Never fully cured.
Does the study mean we should stop the war? Of course not. But a better understanding of the causes and effects might improve a dimension of the war fighting. It is a long war. Plenty of time to do the work.
Another thing. People with PTSD band together. Why? If you haven’t experienced it you have no clue. Now understanding may be possible. But emotional bonds? Very difficult if you haven’t been there.
I won’t, and don’t, consider the abuse I suffered to have given me any PTSD. I was taught not to love…not to care. All pets I loved as a child were killed or removed from where I could give any help.
Is that PTSD? Maybe. And it may explain why I don’t trust those who supposedly “love” me. And it may also explain my present need to be able to defend.
But I’ll be damned if I’m going to be a victim. And I don’t think the world owes me a living. I’ll make my own living on my own terms.
PTSD can just go take a flying leap.
Kathy,
PTSD has a genetic component. If you don’t have the genetics and sufficient trauma the effect wears off.
Hasn’t worn off. But I’m still fighting. I think you need to stop blaming everything else and start fighting back.
This man died of leukemia shortly after this video.
HE didn’t stop fighting back.
And he knew he was under a death sentence.
PS – it’s NOT your fault – they were the problem. Too many of us blame ourselves.
[…] my recent article Does PTSD Cause Terrorism? I discussed the relationship between PTSD and suicide bombers. But I think it would be remiss to […]
Kathy,
Understanding is not blame. And my PTSD is in remission. I didn’t want it.
The difficulty we have in this world is that some people do want it. And that is not good for them or us.
See my Hitler article (linked in the comments above).