New Army program aims for emotional fitness and ‘post-traumatic growth’

Pitching a sweeping new program to a crowded auditorium, Brigadier General Rhonda Cornum told officers that being thousands of miles away from their families in the middle of a combat zone can benefit their mental health.

Everybody knows about post-traumatic stress disorder, Cornum, one of the Army’s top health officials said, but that’s just one side of the story. Many men and women come back from war with enhanced leadership skills and a greater appreciation for their loved ones, she suggested. “Most people say they make better decisions, that it changed their priorities to a more mature way of looking at things,” she said.

Just like PTSD, there’s a diagnosis for that: Post-traumatic growth.

Cornum admitted the Army hasn’t done enough to prepare soldiers for the mental rigors of a two-front war. Thousands have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan suffering from PTSD and record numbers are committing suicide. Cornum came to Fort Leavenworth last week to sell officers on a new effort to move soldiers from PTSD to PTG.