Army Field Manual: Combat Stress Control Scope & Definitions
Another exploration of official definitions and standards regarding PTSD. This one comes from the Army, FM 22-51: Leaders' Manual for Combat Stress Control. This post looks at stress terminology definitions provided in the manual, and reviews what the Army considers the scope of combat stress control -- from the battlefield all the way through to post-deployment family and VA support.
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Chapter 1. OVERVIEW OF COMBAT STRESS CONTROL
1-3. Scope of Combat Stress Control
Combat stress control is much more than just a few stress reduction techniques which busy leaders are supposed to learn from books or mental health workers and use now and then when the stress seems intense. Army combat stress control activities must be a part of everything the Army does. Combat stress control must be a natural part of the three continuums of Army life: responsibility, location, and Army mission. Note that a weakness or gap anywhere in these three continuums can cause weaknesses, overloads, or breakdowns in other aspects of Army life.
a. Responsibility. Responsibility for combat stress control requires a continuous interaction that begins with every soldier and his buddies. It also involves the soldier's family members. The interaction continues through the small team's combat lifesaver (when there is one) and the combat medic. Stress control requires special involvement from direct(small unit) leaders. The responsibility extends up through the organizational leaders and their staffs (both officers and noncommissioned officers [NCOs]) at all echelons. Appendix A describes combat stress risk factors and prescribes leaders' actions to control them. Leaders, staffs, and individual soldiers all receive assistance from the supporting chaplains, the medical personnel, and combat stress control/mental health personnel (see Appendix B for information pertaining to combat stress control units). If any link in the chain of responsibility is weak, it is the responsibility of the other members of the chain to strengthen it.
b. Location. The location for combat stress control extends continuously --
The location even extends to the Department of Veterans Affairs and veterans organizations after the soldiers' discharge, medical separation, or retirement. Preventive efforts, and also treatment for stress dysfunction, should be actively accomplished at each location. If stress control is weak at any one location, this can cause stress and breakdown not only there, but elsewhere in other locations.
Section I. STRESS TERMINOLOGY AND THE STRESS CONCEPT
2-1. Introduction
The understanding of the stress process has been refined over time by research and experience, leaving some terms obsolete. This chapter establishes how the Army's combat stress control concept currently defines and interprets stress terminology.
2-2. Understanding of Interactions
a. Stressors. A stressor is any event or situation which requires a nonroutine change in adaptation or behavior. Often it is unfamiliar or creates conflict among motives within the individual. It may pose a challenge or a threat to the individual's well-being or self-esteem. Stressors may be positive or negative (for example, promotion to new responsibilities or threat of imminent death).
b. Combat Stressors. Combat stressors are any stressors occurring during the course of combat-related duties, whether due to enemy action or other sources. Combat duties do not necessarily involve being shot at and may be carried on even in "safe" areas far from the enemy. Many Stressors in combat duties come from the soldier's own unit, leaders, and mission demands. They may also come from the conflict between mission demands and the soldier's home life.
c. Stress. Stress is the internal process of preparing to deal with a stressor. Stress involves the physiological reflexes which ready the body for fight or flight. Examples of those reflexes are increased nervous system arousal, release of adrenaline into the bloodstream, changes in blood flow to different parts of the body, and so forth. However, stress is not synonymous with arousal or anxiety. Stress involves physical and mental processes which, at times, suppress arousal and anxiety. Stress also involves the accompanying emotional responses and the automatic perceptual and cognitive processes for evaluating the uncertainty or threat. These automatic processes may be instinctive or learned.
d. Stress Appraisal. Stress may or may not involve conscious awareness of the threat, but the stressor must be perceived at some level to cause stress. The amount of stress experienced depends much on the individual's appraisal of the stressor and its context, even if that appraisal is wrong. The stress process includes psychological defenses which may filter the perception and appraisal to shield the individual from perceiving more threat than he is ready to tolerate.
e. Physical Stressors Versus Mental Stressors. A distinction can be made between those Stressors which are physical and those which are mental.
(1) A physical stressor is one which has a direct effect on the body. This may be an external environmental condition or the internal physical/physiologic demands of the human body.
(2) A mental stressor is one in which only information reaches the brain with no direct physical impact on the body. This information may place demands on either the cognitive systems (thought processes) or the emotional system (feeling responses, such as anger or fear) in the brain. Often, reactions are evoked from both the cognitive and the emotional systems.
f. Stress Behaviors. These are stress related actions that can be observed by others; for example, moving or keeping still, speaking or not speaking. The behaviors may be intended to overcome and turn off a stressor, to escape it, or to adapt to it. They may simply reflect or relieve the tension generated by the internal stress process. Any of these different types of stress behavior may be successful, unsuccessful, or not influence the stressful situation at all. They may make the stressor worse. They may resolve one stressor but create new stressors.
g. Combat Stress. This is the complex and constantly changing result of all the stressors and stress processes inside the soldier as he performs the combat-related mission. At any given time in each soldier, stress is the result of the complex interaction of many mental and physical stressors.
I'll have more bits and pieces from the Army Leader's Manual for Combat Stress Control in future posts. Feel free and take a look at it yourself if you'd like to learn more.
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2011: Jan