Increase diagnoses of treatment-resistant illnesses among Post-9/11 United States Military Veterans and what I have seen as a United States Military Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom Combat Veteran.
Ayahuasca inhibits various parts of the brain associated with cognitive flexibility. It produces structural changes within the brain that are responsible for activity within 24 hours of ayahuasca consumption which leads to positive increases in cognitive flexibility. Results show that mindfulness is beneficial and lasting to the first-time or experienced ayahuasca user. Ayahuasca’s use allows the loosening of one’s cognitive grip which helps alleviate the feeling of being stuck and the depression associated with similar behavioral patterns (Murphy-Beiner & Soar, 2020).
United States Military Veterans and other Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom NATO Veterans struggle with assimilating with society after leaving the military. As a result, Veterans Affairs, the United States government entity responsible for providing benefits such as health; education; disability; and retirement to the U.S Military Veterans and/or their dependents offer various veteran transition programs for those seeking relief after they cease their military service.
Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom War Veterans are returning home to a series of trials and tribulations regarding the VA Healthcare system as prescription drugs are pushed on many veterans by healthcare providers despite the high mortality rate due to suicide within the veteran community (Carpenter, n.d.).
For many veterans, the VA Healthcare’s solution to the problem is not received well by the veteran; is unavailable due to physical location challenges of the veteran, or even certain disabilities that prohibit the veteran from receiving the care that they so desperately need. These institutional deficits provide a perspective on the many mental health challenges that veterans face after returning home from war.
Senior Airman Melanie Boling during Operation Iraqi Freedom, Baghdad, Iraq (Imagery Beyond Borders, November 2003).
Most veterans feel that they are not adequately supported because of the lingering stigma that revolves around mental illness, further alienating veterans from actively seeking treatment (“The Potential for Psychedelic Treatment for Veterans,” 2021).
The biggest challenge for veterans is that the VA Healthcare system may be the only option for treatment. Veterans Affairs is a government entity and does not recognize alternative treatment options such as cannabis.
Despite marijuana being legal both medicinally and recreationally in an increasing number of states, those options are completely off the table for the veteran because the government deemed this plant medicine as having no medicinal value.
Slowly, the paradigm is shifting in regards to cannabis use by the federal government; however, it is quite slow-moving simply because pharmaceuticals are still the treatment of choice. The shifting perspectives within the population are going to take a concerted effort by both the scientific community and mass media.
Once plant medicine can win over more hearts and minds is when we will see a dramatic shift in how we move forward as a country and the proliferation of its therapeutic use of entheogens for our society as a whole.
What I have seen as a United States Military Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom Combat Veteran.
Veterans are making a choice to do whatever it takes to find healing. I speak to what I have experienced as an OEF and OIF Veteran of the United States Air Force and now as a scientist. Also, over the last 20 years while volunteering with the United States Army as a family readiness group or “FRG Leader”; a Combat Infantry Battalion Photographer; or working directly with U.S. Military Veterans in the “Outdoor Therapy” Mental Health realm as a Documentary Photojournalist, I have seen first-hand the wide range of programs that are available now to the U.S. Military Veteran.
Alternative Therapy Programs include art therapy; equine therapy; SCUBA; outdoor recreational therapy; cooking; music; service animals; fitness; mountaineering; you name it, there’s probably a veteran service organization out there that offers it.
In recent years, ayahuasca has been the therapy of choice by a growing number of United States Military Veterans, which have led them to venues around the globe that promise the veteran healing and safety. More and more ‘Veteran Service Organizations’ have birthed over recent years with the hope of reaching more veterans, and guiding them toward their own healing paths away from pharmaceutical Band-aids that are common within the American healthcare system.
Potential therapeutic uses for ayahuasca include disorders such as Addiction; Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder; Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder; and Regulation of Sleep are few and dependent on admixtures that can be used for a variety of treatment-resistant illnesses. Studies examined through the use of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) have given a glimpse of the neural basis of this inner perception of the world (de Araujo et al., 2012).
The globalization of alternative means of healing through entheogen therapy is becoming a more common solution for military veterans navigating through emotional traumas brought on by serving our country and participating in someone else’s wars (Carpenter, n.d.).
I believe entheogen therapy for U.S. Military Veterans will become more common due to the overall success it has shown thus far in treatment-resistant illnesses. The barriers veterans face are access because of the restrictions that the U.S. Government has not lifted; as well as the global pandemic we are still currently facing today. Once these variables begin to shift, access to entheogen therapy will provide the veteran improved quality of life; or in some cases, their illnesses may be cured.
Would you like to know more?
Be sure to read back on all of our articles about Entheogen Therapy or Psychedelic Plant Medicine derived from the scientific paper, “Reported results of Amazonian Entheogens for treatment of Complex-Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD); Military Sexual Trauma (MST); and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) among U.S. Military Veterans and the benefits of application through small group indigenous shamanic ceremonies”.
References:
Boling, Melanie (2021). Reported results of Amazonian Entheogens for treatment of Complex-Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD); Military Sexual Trauma (MST); and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) among U.S. Military Veterans and the benefits of application through small group indigenous shamanic ceremonies. The Amazon Rainforest: From Conservation to Climate Change-research. Harvard Summer School, August 9, 2021.
Araujo, Draulio B. de, Sidarta Ribeiro, Guillermo A. Cecchi, Fabiana M. Carvalho, Tiago A. Sanchez, Joel P. Pinto, Bruno S. de Martinis, Jose A. Crippa, Jaime E.C. Hallak, and Antonio C. Santos. “Seeing with the Eyes Shut: Neural Basis of Enhanced Imagery Following Ayahuasca Ingestion.” Human Brain Mapping 33, no. 11 (November 2012): 2550–60. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.21381.
Carpenter, David E. “War Vets With Severe PTSD Find Solace Through Ayahuasca In Documentary ‘From Shock To Awe.’” Forbes. Accessed July 15, 2021. https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidcarpenter/2020/02/23/war-vets-with-severe-ptsd-find-solace-through-ayahuasca-in-documentary-from-shock-to-awe/.
HAVN Life. “The Potential for Psychedelic Treatment for Veterans,” March 11, 2021.
https://havnlife.com/the-potential-for-psychedelic-treatment-for-veterans/.
About the author:
Melanie began attending Harvard in 2020 to complete a Graduate Certificate in Human Behavior with a specialization in Neuropsychology. Boling’s research has examined extreme environments and how they can have a potential negative impact on humans operating in the extreme environment. During her time at Harvard, she has built a mental wellness tool called a psychological field kit. Implementing these tools will allow an individual to thrive in an extreme environment while mitigating negative variables such as abnormal human behavior which can play a role in team degradation.
Melanie Boling, Extreme Environments Behavioural Ecologist and Graduate Student of Neuropsychology, Harvard University.
