Patriot Game: Groups Promote Hunting as Therapy for Veterans

[BlueGin]

Good read. Both for the pros and cons of this type of therapy. I can see both sides.

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Psychiatric experts say hunting has the potential to help returning troops, but the pastime poses dangers too

Shortly before sunrise, the veterans received their instructions and marched into the darkness. Each man had a job. Some wore headlamps as they planted hundreds of decoys at precise intervals across the wet, patchy field near Easton, Md. Others hauled brush through the cold air to camouflage their post. Then they sat shoulder-to-shoulder on a long plank, loaded their guns, and waited in silence for the snow geese to appear.

Though seven men sat in the blind on that February morning, the hunting trip was really for just three of them: combat-wounded veterans invited by Freedom Hunters, one of dozens of non-profit groups across the U.S. who believe that hunting can be therapeutic for returning troops. Organizations like Wounded Warrior Outdoors in Florida and Hunters Helping Heroes in New Jersey organize donations of equipment and guides, trumpeting the benefits of getting veterans outdoors for distracting adventures. Some outfits say outright that their work will aid in “physical and emotional healing.”

Psychiatric experts agree that there are benefits—with a big caveat. Hunting can provide opportunities for teamwork and goal-seeking that are often absent from civilian life, but any activity involving guns poses dangers too, especially for individuals with mental health issues that are common among U.S. veterans. In Maryland, the three veterans emphasized that common does not mean universal. They said they’re tired of the stereotype that returning troops are loose cannons who can’t be trusted around guns, a stereotype they feel organized hunting trips can combat.

Read more: Patriot Game: Groups Promote Hunting as Therapy for Veterans | TIME.com

 

[Luddly Neddite]

There's something really sick about dealing with ptsd of killing with more killing. Sure, you'll find some vets who have no problem with more bloodshed but there are just as many, if not more, who never want to see another killing, as long as they live.

This is just as sick as taking dying children out to kill something as some sort of celebration of - what? That the child is dying?

As for it being an opportunity for "teamwork and goal-seeking" .. so's a baseball game.

Sick and very very sad.

 

[daveman]

There's something really sick about dealing with ptsd of killing with more killing. Sure, you'll find some vets who have no problem with more bloodshed but there are just as many, if not more, who never want to see another killing, as long as they live.

This is just as sick as taking dying children out to kill something as some sort of celebration of - what? That the child is dying?

As for it being an opportunity for "teamwork and goal-seeking" .. so's a baseball game.

Sick and very very sad.

Some people enjoy hunting. Your approval is neither required nor asked.

So shaddap and let vets be helped with what works for them.

Dumbass.

 

[whitehall]

I bet you that the "Time" writer Katy Steinmetz never came near a duck hunt on her best day. It's the kind of fiction that Time likes. Typical of the radical left, Time Mag. treats Americans Vets who spent a year in harm's way in Afghanistan as some kind of hopeless psychiatric patient gang. Veterans are like everybody else. They hunt if they like to hunt. The image of a bunch of Vets issued orders and marched to a swamp with duck decoys and shotguns is offensive and insulting to say the least.

 

[BlueGin]

There's something really sick about dealing with ptsd of killing with more killing. Sure, you'll find some vets who have no problem with more bloodshed but there are just as many, if not more, who never want to see another killing, as long as they live.

This is just as sick as taking dying children out to kill something as some sort of celebration of - what? That the child is dying?

As for it being an opportunity for "teamwork and goal-seeking" .. so's a baseball game.

Sick and very very sad.

Did you even read the article. The therapy was about the camaraderie and ritual involved . Not the "killing".