The Life Of A Soldier After Battlefield: Do we understand soldiers’ post war mental health and wellness issues?

Posted on November 8, 2011 by Mind Body Spirit Healer

Are you aware that Vietnam vets and a large population of the military who served in both past and recent wars are suffering from what American Psychiatric Association (APA) classify in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) as “PTSD” (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder), and that many of them have been on multiple psychiatric medications since the end of those wars?

Do we truly care as a nation that the men and women we sent to wars came home and began another battle for their lives with what I have correctly identified as Battlefield Induced Psychic Disturbances (BFIPD? BFIPD is not a disorder and does not need medication for healing to occur.

These soldiers have been receiving for years conventional cares and medications that absolutely do nothing for the quality of their lives and wellness?

If you are the Defense Secretary, Chief of Army Staff, Generals, are in Pentagon or in any position of authority to help the soldiers, you must read this article mentioned here in.

Soldiers, you must match to order. The order is to take charge of your wellness issues and fight for this change in your care recommended in the above referenced article. Your quality of life depends on it. Quality of life after your sacrifice for your nation matter a great deal. Do not let special interest group play with it any longer.

Here is the link: http://internationalinstituteforwellnessandintegratedhealing.com/battle-field-induced-psychic-disturbances-bfipd-the-cause-and-why-conventional-western-treatment-approaches-for-%e2%80%9cpost-traumatic-stress-disorder%e2%80%9d-ptsd-are-ineffective%e2%80%94mind/

If you truly care about the soldiers and not a lip service, quality of their lives after we sent them to wars, their family and national security of the nation then do something about the subject matter addressed in this article referenced here in. Do not stand on the side line anymore. They are our brothers, sisters, uncles, aunts, moms and fathers. They are our national treasures.

By Dr Chris O’Banye

Contact me at: drobanye@iiwih.org; tweet me at: drobanye@iiwih.org;

http://internationalinstituteforwellnessandintegratedhealing.com

We Are As Good As The Generation We Leave Behind: Lessons from the youth crisis in London.

Posted on August 15, 2011 by Mind Body Spirit Healer

Every generation is as good as the one that generation leaves behind. Recent crisis in London raise serious question older citizens of this generation must be asking one another and that question is: Are chickens coming home to roost? One cannot help to ask whether the character of this youth is the product of our creation. If we, the gatekeepers of the future of these young people are honest and sincere about our responsibilities to these young people the answer to this question would be a capital yes.

We have failed. We have failed this generation we are leaving behind in just about every aspect of life. When I was growing up in Onitsha in the Eastern part of Nigeria in West Africa, I had only one choice as a kid. That choice was to go to school. My only job and responsibilities as a kid were to go to school, make good grades, be a kid and enjoy being a kid. As a kid growing up in Onitsha, I and the kids in my community had no doubts we would have a bright future if we went to school. Every healthy educated person in our community growing up had a job. There were jobs waiting for High School, technical school and college graduates upon graduation. We had faith in the system. We believed in our dreams.

We had a sense of community. We were supported by our immediate families, extended families, elders and every adult member of our community. The adults in our community were deeply interested and committed to our upbringing. They invested in our future by their actions. They loved, nurtured and impacted wisdom on us, bearing in mind we were the future gatekeepers of the people that would come behind us.

Our school teachers took special interest and pride in their profession. They understood the importance of their position and their influences in the life of a young person and took their responsibilities extremely personal and serious. These teachers went extra miles in their commitments to the lives and futures of young people they were entrusted with. These teachers made rounds to weekdays and weekends activities their students were involved in. The teachers praised, cheered their students on and also disciplined them when appropriate with deep and sincere love. They were educators, mentors, role-models and in many cases played the role of parents.

The elders and adults in my community took raising every kid in our community as their responsibilities. The adult who disciplined a young person did not have to be the kid’s parent/s or even his/her relative. After a kid was disciplined, the adult took time to find out who the kid’s parents were and paid them a visit about the behavior the young person was disciplined for.

We were taught respect for self, life, for other people, authority figures and the community we lived in, all rooted in the values of our cultural child and adolescent rites of passages handed down by our ancestors. These rites of passages addressed integration of a child’s mind, body, and spirit with all the important components of child and adolescent well being.

It really takes a village to raise a kid. It took every adult member of my community to raise the kids in my community. More were expected from those who were blessed with more and they gladly shared. A kid like me and my siblings who lost a dad very early in our childhood did not have to feel the pain and emotional loss of a father because there were many fathers in my community who proudly filled the role of fatherhood to us and other kids like us.

Since the end of the Nigerian civil war in 1973, things have not been the same in the community I grew up and the country at large. Many infrastructures and resources including schools were destroyed in the war. Even thought the country is very rich in oil and other natural resources greed, corruption, selfishness and total lack of consideration for others became the other of the day for those in power. Emphasis on education, job training and jobs became the things of the past.

Cultural infrastructures that gave hope, inspiration, confidence for life and future, which also provided spiritual foundation and planted the seeds for young people to dream went out the door. Adults stopped caring for the youth like they did for centuries. Young people gave up hope, faith and dreaming.

Young people who are viciously angry and without direction began to emerge. Desires and motivation for education and job training among the youth drastically diminished because there were and still no jobs for them to take. College graduates roamed the streets with their degrees and few jobs.

The rich got richer and no longer willing to share their wealth while the poor got poorer. The condition began to bread viciously angry young people who developed hatred for their community, authority figures, success and people who are successful. Young people drifted to crime and lawlessness as a way of acting out, survival and also simply as a way of spiking people in government and authority.

What just happened in London is a snapshot of the monster we as a society have created over the years around the world. This vicious hate and gross disregard for life and community the world just witnessed in London from young people was long coming.

Here is what the society has given this generation of young people. We have given them no directions in their lives. We failed to teach this generation of young people values, respect for self and community. We failed to give them the same education and job training opportunities our fathers’ and their fathers’ generation gave our fathers and us.

We made it extremely difficult for young people to get education and job training by exponentially raising the cost of education and job training out of their reach. Young people who desire to be education and don’t mind borrowing money to go to school will have that financial burden hanging on their necks most of their lives. The worst part of the raw deal these kids have is that there is no job guarantee for them after graduation and they still owe the cost of education that earns little or nothing.

These young people are smarter than we give them credit for. Their respective governments have all the resources in the world for fighting wars and not enough to invest in their education, job training and creating jobs.

We have told these young people for years that all the the government has to do is keep wealth in the hands of few citizens and these few wealthy citizens will create jobs for the rest of us. The rich keeps getting richer. Majority of these young people still do not have job. Many of them are coming home to dad and mom sitting at home because both parents have lost their jobs.

Many of these young people have lived or may still be living with their parents in the streets and under the bridges of their city high ways. Can we see why this generation of young people is so viciously angry and also so emotional detached from their communities and infrastructures in their communities?

Can we not see the monsters we have created among this generation of young people? What will it take? What will it take for us to wake up and pay attention to our young people and their concerns? What happened to our souls and spirit of human decency that prevented us from feeling physical and emotional pain in the eyes of our fellow citizens?

How did we become a generation so selfish and inconsiderate of others to the point we care less about the future of our young people? How did we become a generation that cares more about fighting wars than we care about investments in the future of our young ones? These are questions we as a society must begin to answer in order for us to become a happy, healthy, wealthy and peaceful society.

The truth of the matter is the same adult fingers we are pointing at the behaviors of these young people are also pointing back at us. It is time we look ourselves in the eyes of our souls and take responsibilities for young people in our communities and their lives’ challenges. If we do not, more of the same viciousness the world just witnessed in London this past week will continue to happen around the world. The world better wake up and wake up fast to the needs and challenges of our young people.

Dr Chris O’Banye

http://internationalinstituteforwellnessandintegratedhealing.com

http://iiwih.org

Tweet: drobanye@iiwih.org

Societal Bias on People Suffering from The disease of Addiction

Posted on August 9, 2011 by Mind Body Spirit Healer

In most cases when a loved one comes home from a physician and announces he or she is diagnosed with cancer or other serious illness such as heart, liver, lungs or kidney disorder, most members of the family and friends would wrap their loving hands around this family member. Immediate and extended family members in many cases would offer and extend various levels of support to this individual. Almost every member of this person’s family including close network of friends who are aware of this person’s health condition would show emotional love, tremendous amount of caring and empathy. Friends and family members gravitate closer to the individual and within reach for their loving care and support.

Serious illness in a family appears to evoke a sense of need to care for a family member suffering from an illness. Most friends and relatives would go out of their ways to show a seriously ill member of the family tremendous amount of love and dignity. Family and close friends usually would begin to demonstrate great deal of appreciation of this individual’s life and endeavourer to cherish every remaining moment of it.

In some case, this family member may have been the most hated individual in the family. However, our empathy, fear of the disease itself and also fear of the shadow of death overrides whatever feelings of resentments we may hold on the sick person’s character flaws. The irony however, is that these beautiful aspects of human decency are rarely extended to our loved ones suffering from the disease of addition.

Chemical dependence and addiction is probably the only non communicable disease I can think of with the worst bias attached to it. One can make a very strong case that high risk behaviors and other destructive additive behaviors associated with chemical addition makes the disease of addition just as deadly as cancer and other serious health illnesses.

People suffering from the disease of chemical addiction and powerlessness over the chemicals they are addicted to would rob, prostitute and engage in some of the most degrading, deadliest and destructive behaviors most human beings would never engage in even the addicted person when sober. The disease of addiction is vicious, and simply a monster killer that will not let go until it either kills or completely destroys the life of an individual it sinks its claws on. One suffering from the disease of addiction must fight with every arsenal in one’s possession to have a decent chance to win the fight.

I do not want to sound like I am making excuses for addicted persons. I am not. I am simply stating clinical facts. It is difficult to overlook the truth that the brunt of destructive addictive behaviors is on the family members of the addicted person. People suffering from addiction steal, lie, cause tremendous amount of emotional pain and financial burden on the life of their family members. Addictive behaviors destroy family relationships and in many cases cause irreparable damages in family system.

In most cases persons suffering from the disease of addiction appear extremely selfish. The behavior of a person suffering from disease of addiction appear to be all about the person, what he/she want when he/she wants it, whom he/she wants it with and nobody else matters.

It would be easy for one to come to these conclusions and deny a person suffering from the disease of addiction common human decency we extend to our loved ones suffering from other deadly diseases, only when one does not understand the biology of the disease of addiction.

Unfortunately, many of us do not. The disease of addiction and powerlessness over the chemical/s the addicted person is suffering from create/s a monster out of the person. This monster creates the societal bias on people suffering from the disease of addiction and also the destructive behaviors that isolate them all alone from loved ones, and many times to their graves.

A few nights ago, one of my former adult clients who underwent residential chemical dependency healing under my care in state residential facility now closed due to budget short falls called me late at night. This gentleman called because I pledged to every individual who cross path with me in the healing profession that I would continue to support their personal growth wherever they may be. That means they can pick up the phone and call me any time and expect me to either pick up the phone then or return their calls in a timely manner.

Many times these individuals who became my adopted families would call simply to inform me they are doing well, sober and making progress in their personal life. There are other times they would call me to tell me they love me and extend their gratitude for helping stair their ships of live in the right directions during turbulence times. There are also other times these individual would call to share with me their life challenges, seek support, encouragement, self validation and guidance.

On this particular night, this gentleman called to inform me that another gentleman he was in treatment with at the same time under my healing care was found dead of drug overdose in his apartment. This gentleman was in tremendous amount of emotional pain from grieving his friend’s death. He shared with me that the autopsy report indicated this gentleman may have died four days after his body was found in his apartment.

Many individuals who come to residential chemical dependence treatment have minimal family support. That means their family also would not be their support in recovery. Many families of individuals suffering from disease of addiction had given up on their relationships long before the individual made it to residential treatment. Many of these individuals also had been in treatment numerous times to the point their family members completely gave up hope on their recovery and a chance for a sober life.

There are two camps in the field of chemical addiction. One camp believes in the disease concept of addiction and the other camp which believe that addiction is simply a behavior issues. There are compelling arguments on both sides of the camp. I personally took a long hard look at the scientific evidence on the biology of chemical addiction before I accepted chemical addiction as a disease. However, regardless where one stand on the issue of chemical addiction, one crystal clear fact everyone agrees on is that people suffering from chemical addiction face some of life’s worst human crises.

Unfortunately, most people suffering from the disease of addiction are some of the most beautiful, intelligent and talented individuals on the face of earth. These people, just like other members of our families suffering from other serious deadly illness deserve our love and support.

The most potent component of recovery and healing for any human crisis is family. It’s even more so for individuals recovering and healing from chemical dependence. Just as we do not turn our backs on family members suffering from cancer, liver, kidney, heart and other serious health illnesses we cannot turn our backs on our family members suffering from the disease of addiction.

Please make those hands that reach to also touch. Support your loved ones win the battle against this killer monster. They need you and all your support. When there is life, there is still a chance for winning any life challenge. Do not wait until it too late.

By Dr Chris O’Banye

http://iiwih.org

http://internationalinstituteforwellnessandintegratedhealing.com

Tweet: drobanye@iiwih.org

The Power of Internal Optimism: A coach’s majestic calming of troubled water.

Posted on July 22, 2011 by Mind Body Spirit Healer

As much as I personally rooted for my home team USA to win the 2011 Women World Cup Soccer, victory could not have been sweeter for Japan, a country that have very minimal to celebrate and cheer for in the recent time following series of natural disaster that descended on their land.
USA team, in my opinion was the best team in the tournament period. However, the best team does not always win a tournament. USA team has every reason to stand tall and celebrate too. You are a great team.
For a person like me who always is looking for amazing power of human spirit, I could not help observing the majestic calm with which the Japanese coach huddled his players before the free kicks with such an indescribable warrior-like smile in his face. I observed a coach that commanded and at the same time injected this amazing spirit of internal optimism into those players. There was no doubts in their minds what was about to happen. The coach’s body language his spirit of unshakable internal optimism spoke nothing to his players but “go get your world cup.”
It is one of those special moments some of us have seen a few times when a captain of a ship, a general in a battle field or a captain of a competing sports team like we used to see in Michael Jordan and others reaches down to dept of one’s spirit and perform an improbable. That was what I observed from the Japanese coach.
When I made that observation and saw the players responding in calm internal optimism, I could not help to believe that the Japanese would be taking the Women’s World Cup Soccer Championship home.
Congratulations to the Japanese National Women Soccer Team! You have given your country something to cheer and celebrate for. You have lifting your people’s spirit up as your nation continues to heal from your pains.
Dr Chris O’Banye

http://iiwih.org

Adolescent Rite of Passage: A developmental treasure.

Posted on July 8, 2011 by Mind Body Spirit Healer

Rite of passage is an important integration of mind, body spirit during crucial developmental stages of every human being. Stages during which every entity of a human being—the mind, body and spirit yearn for integration and unity.

Developmental stages usually present great degrees of life uncertainties, psychological wars between various levels of a young person manifesting from changes in biological growth process, physical changes in the body, self identity quest and in some cases self-esteem issues. Even the lower animal kingdom observes within their kinds some levels of rite of passage after which they push their offspring away to fend for themselves however, not until the completion rite of passage.

These crises resulting from absence of integration of mind, body and spirit during developmental stages also manifest in the life of the young people negative behaviors, disrespect for parents and authority figures, anger, drugs abuse and dependence; promiscuity; gang affiliation; antisocial behaviors, conduct behaviors and complete lack of direction and purpose for future and life. As a healing clinician working with youth in the Western culture, I observe up close these crises and their impact in the lives of young people. I also observe a dramatic life transformation in the lives of these young people the moment they open up to integration of the mind, body and spirit.

The problem in many of these cases is that the Western psychiatry and psychology labels these children with a diagnosis that completely discounted the child’s spirit self and recommends medicating the child with chemicals in the name of treatment. The other problem however is, crisis of the spirit does not respond to chemical intervention. Healing is not in the medication. Healing is in skillful engagement of the individual’s spirit and the healing process that integrates the mind, body and spirit

Observation of rites of passage is one of the major differences between the Western Culture and cultures outside the Western world. The Western orthodox medicine and psychology does not acknowledge existence of the spirit outside theological principles, as an integral and important aspect of a human being. For this reason, training in the Western healing excludes the most important aspect of a human being—the spirit. In my opinion this is one of the fundamental shortcomings of the Western approach to wellness and healing.

In my native African culture particularly, the Onitsha culture of the Eastern Nigeria, those of us studying generational psychosocial trends have observed dramatic life consequences in the lives of today’s youth as a result of diminishing decline of adolescent rite of passage. These consequences are sharply identical to the previously mentioned crises observed in today’s youth across the Western world.

The Onitsha people of the Eastern Nigeria used to be the most educated, resilient, moral, highly motivated and career driven of any group of people in the continent of Africa. The Onitsha people also have the most amazing culture of any culture in the world grounded in her citizens’ adolescent rite of passage. Most of these qualities are lacking in today’s Onitsha citizens. Many of us watching closely these generational trends have pointed to decline of the ancient rite of passage which integrates mind, body and spirit very early in the lives her citizens and provide structured life direction leading to successful life.

I have been watching powerful documentaries on Nation Geography TV channel “Taboos” showing initiation rituals many of which have been described as rite of passages. It is very important to point out there is a major difference between initiation ritual and developmental rite of passage. Developmental rite of passage does not involve human torture to the point of loss of life, severe body mutilation or traumatization of any entity of the self. Rather, developmental rite of passage facilitates peaceful and harmonious transformation, integration and unification of the mind, body and spirit.

Dr Lynn Freeman who was at a time the faculty chair person for Integrated Health Studies at Saybrook University helped me during my Doctorate program at the University design a course titled Adolescent Rite of Passage: Psychological and Psychophysilogical dynamics. This work allowed me to explore and shared narratives of psychological and Psychophysilogical dynamics of my own adolescent rite of passage. The work will be published in the very near future in the IIWIH website.

Dr Chris O’Banye

http://iiwih.org

Integrated Mind Body Spirit Healing

Mind Body Spirit Healer Dr. Chris O'Banye

The Life Of A Soldier After Battlefield: Do we understand soldiers’ post war mental health and wellness issues?

We Are As Good As The Generation We Leave Behind: Lessons from the youth crisis in London.

Societal Bias on People Suffering from The disease of Addiction

The Power of Internal Optimism: A coach’s majestic calming of troubled water.

Adolescent Rite of Passage: A developmental treasure.