This is a guest post by Jud Kauffman of ExBellum.com and I think it’s a pretty important topic. Jud served in the U.S. Navy for 8 years, first as an intelligence analyst and later as a Navy SEAL deploying multiple times throughout the Middle East on hundreds of combat missions. He later served as the National Program Manager for the Naval Special Operations Mentor Program, selecting and mentoring potential civilian SEAL, EOD, SWCC, and Diver candidates. He helped cofound The Great American Mud Run and Talosorion Security. In 2012, he founded ExBellum.com, a website aimed at connecting Special Operations veterans with civilian employers.
PTSD and Special Operations Forces by solsys
Tags: ExBellum, Jud Kauffman
Jud hits the nail on the head here. Lt.Col. Dave Grossman’s books “On Killing” and “On Combat” give a deeper look into this, but boiled down “stress inoculation” is the term for what the training SOF conducts does for the personnel. Both should be required reading for anyone in this line of work. Maybe Jud will also publish his other white paper, “Death of a Team Guy”? One can hope.
NPY is not the only special sauce in SF. DHEA to cortisol ratios are also better.
I don’t think stress inoculation is the source. All evidence points to a biological, genetic gift for stress resilience. Matter of fact, you can determine who will pass Selection by measuring heart rate variability, BEFORE stress inoculation takes place.
I can see a day when all recruits are hooked up to a ECG as part of MEPS.
In the mean time, if you’re not the MRT poster boy, you can try phosphatidylserine, Adaptogens like Rhodiola rosea, and test boosters at GNC.