Stories from a Wartime Psychiatrist

One might think it’s unusual for a man in his mid-forties with a private practice in psychiatry, with a wife and two kids, and with and a comfortable home in the Milwaukee suburbs to enlist in the U.S. military. But that’s exactly what Major Mike McBride did.

He joined the Army Reserve Medical Corps in 2001 “as an emotional reaction to nine-one-one.” Since then, he has treated emotional reactions of a very different caliber: insomnia, hyperactivity, isolation, detachment, paranoia. These symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder have mentally wounded many young soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

McBride just returned from a six-month tour in Iraq. When I pulled into his driveway last week I felt well acquainted with the science and politics behind PTSD.

However after talking about his first-hand experiences with the disease, my knowledge seemed shameful to say the least.  

I sat on his back porch in Elm Grove, Wisconsin, and listened to his stories from overseas. Many of them seemed similar to Sunday features in the New York Times or pre-commercial segments from the evening news, but there was no page to turn and there was no channel to switch, and I had no desire to do such a thing.

McBride spoke of his experiences treating the war struck psyche with ambivalence.  When referring to PTSD he hinted at hope, noting recent successes where generals acknowledged the disease. Still, his voice often shuttered with dismay recounting the times when soldiers were “mocked and ridiculed” for seeking treatment.

Take a look at this video to get the full story straight from a wartime psychiatrist.

To Party or to Protest

The Mifflin Street Block Party has been a Madison tradition for thirty-nine years. This event originated in 1969 as a community based protest to the Vietnam War when a group of young activists and leaders in the Mifflin Street neighborhood hosted a street dance.

People gathered on porches, listened to music and danced until police eventually ordered the crowd to disperse. The confrontation turned violent and ended that day’s protest, however the gathering caught enough attention to become a Madison tradition.

Each year in early May students from around Wisconsin celebrate the Mifflin Street Block Party.

Recently however, this party has signified something far different from an anti-war protest. Students no longer gather to contest worldly conflict or voice their political unrest, instead they get together to celebrate the end of the school year, the arrival of spring, and the last weekend before finals.

I attended this year’s block party to ask the questions: “Should our generation be protesting the war in Iraq like others protested the war in Vietnam?” “Are we, as youth, politically apathetic?” “What makes our generation different from generations before us?”

See what people had to say.