Background

According to the VA, in the US there are currently 18 million military veterans (7%) of the population, and according to the MOD in there are UK 2.4 million veterans (5%).  As your department has published, veterans often face misunderstanding, represented in a recurring statement ‘you don’t understand’.

According to the US Department of Veterans Affairs, US Medical records of veterans reveal “that one in three patients was diagnosed with at least one mental health disorder – 41% were diagnosed with either a mental health or a behavioral adjustment disorder, (US DVA, 2019).” 

In the veteran’s assessments of the ease or difficulty of the transition to civilian life, about half of post-9/11 veterans say it was somewhat (32%) or very (16%) difficult for them to readjust to civilian life after their military service.

Veterans who served in combat are significantly more likely than those who did not to say their readjustment was difficult: 46% of those with some combat experience, compared with 18% of those without combat experience, describe their readjustment to civilian life as difficult.   Currently the US Veteran suicide rate is at 16.8 per day, (US DVA, 2019).

In the UK Neurotic Disorders (Adjustment, PTSD and Other Neurotic Disorders) were the most prevalent mental disorders among UK Armed Forces personnel in 2019/20 according to the Ministry of Defense Departments of Community Mental Health (accounting for 1.6% of the population or approximately 2 in every 100 personnel), with Adjustment Disorders accounting for more than a third of all mental disorders in the UK Armed Forces. the UK general population, Generalised Anxiety disorders, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and Phobias were the most common Neurotic disorders, whereas Adjustment disorder was the most common in the UK Armed Forces. Adjustment disorder is a short-term condition occurring when a person is unable to cope with or adjust to a particular source of stress such as a major life change, loss or event. Further, in 2019/20, Depressive Episodes was the second most prevalent disorder and accounted for 32% of all mental disorders assessed at a MOD DCMH. The study asserts that higher rates of Adjustment disorders seen in the UK Armed Forces compared to the UK general population may reflect the impact of Service life with routine postings every few years and operational tours. Another possible explanation is a clinician’s diagnostic habit to assess UK Armed Forces personnel with a condition which is less prognostically, (Ministry of Defense, n.d.).

According to trauma expert Bessel Van der Kolk, who worked with US Vietnam War veterans, trauma has an adverse effect on a person’s emotions and feelings. “Traumatized people are terrified to feel deeply.  They are afraid to experience their emotions, because emotions lead to loss of control.”(US DVA, 2019)  Further, trauma increases feelings of isolation and hopelessness, “as we’ve seen, the essence of trauma is feeling godforsaken, cut off from the human race, (Van der Kolk, 2015).

For veterans, transforming their traumatic experiences into creative writing and/or theatre performances can facilitate a release of the trauma aiding in healing, (Tracy, 2021) (Ali et al., 2019).  For readers and audiences, engaging with stories of war can provoke inquiry, understanding, empathy, and community - ultimately acting as a catalyst to champion the end of war.  Telling stories from an individual perspective humanizes the soldier.  By bringing audiences together and creating a communal experience and exposing the audience to veterans’ stories the empathy that is created can lead to action. 

Currently there is no research that looks into the impact of choreographic events, like mine, into the readjustment, resilience, and well-being of veterans, but there has been some tangential work done by Dr. Allison Winters at Walter Reed NICOE, utilizing dance therapy, Stephan Wolfert and Bissel van der Kolk, utilizing Shakespeare, Brian Doerries and Aquilla Theatre, utilizing Greek plays, and a few more, all working with wounded veterans. 

Overall Approach

Veterans that I have worked with have struggled with the diminishing importance and making meaning of the everyday, and envisioning a path forward, for themselves, post-military – along with a desire to both communicate and distance themselves from an experience that for them was most profound.

My recent research has focused on the prevalence, nuance, and power of military training.  Foucault wrote that military training started its evolution in the 17/18 century when societies discovered that individuals could be trained, at any age, to become soldiers, (Foucault, 1991). Military training is so powerful that through embodiment (repetitive movement), vocalization (sound), and imagination (visualization) military training impresses a way of being and twists the relationship between life and death that motivates the act of killing (McSorley, 2015). In my research I have found that Military Training/Service – twists the human into a double helix of who they are and who the military needs them to be.

The problem is, how do we untwist that double helix when they are done?

 Addressing this issue of moving past the impact of military training, my previous researched focused on releasing trauma in the veteran through choreographic storytelling and increasing empathy in audiences through the resulting public performances.  I utilized the examples of Boal, Stanislavsky and Artaud to imbibe immersive events with participation and ritual to spark introspection, connection, and discussion around the topic of the impact of war on the individual.

References

Ali, A., Wolfert, S., Fahmy, P., Nayyar, M., & Chaudhry, A. (2019). The therapeutic effects of imagination: Investigating mimetic induction and dramatic simulation in a trauma treatment for military veterans. Arts in Psychotherapy, 62, 7–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aip.2018.12.006

Foucault, M. (1991). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison (A. Sheridan, Trans.). Penguin Books.

McSorley, K. (Ed.). (2015). War and the body: Militarisation, practice and experience. Routledge.

Ministry of Defense. (n.d.). UK Armed Forces Mental Health: Annual Summary & Trends Over Time, 2007/08—2019/20.

Tracy, D. (2021). Veterans’ self-expression in poetry. Journal of Military, Veteran and Family Health, e20200005. https://doi.org/10.3138/jmvfh-2020-0005

US DVA. (2019). 2019 US Veteran Suicide Report.

Van der Kolk, B. A. (2015). The body keeps the score: Mind, brain and body in the transformation of trauma. Penguin Books.