Las Vegas NowDoctor Discusses the Stress of Battle

Doctor Discusses the Stress of Battle

The stresses of war can make people do strange, out of character things according to one Las Vegas psychiatrist.

Many times we are talking about stress and mental breaks when a solider gets back from war. There's another side of that coin. Psychiatrist Philip Colosimo says stress of a first deployment can be just as great.

We see the pictures from the war zone in Afghanistan. The suspect in the Fort Hood shooting heard them first hand from soldiers just back. As an Army psychiatrist, Major Nidal Malik Hasan worked to help the very soldiers authorities say he killed and tried to kill at the Texas Army base.

Dr. Colosimo says the stress of deploying overseas can cause someone to crack. "There are some people, even in mental health, that cannot get themselves mind-wise prepared to leave. So they get anxious. Many times they have anxiety disorders or panic disorders," he said.

Colosimo spent 20 years as an Air Force psychiatrist. He was deployed in the first Gulf War and experienced the Scud attacks. In private practice, he counsels active and retired military as well as police officers. Colosimo says before a deployment, stress increases just by hearing the horror stories from the war zone first hand.

Hasan's family says he was ridiculed for his outward devotion to the Muslim faith. "If you feel strongly about your religion and you outwardly display it, you are going to face some ridicule, I suppose. It may have been so great it turned him against his very own people," he said.

It all equals extreme stress to Colosimo. The vast majority of military being deployed can deal with the stress, like Captain Bill Scott. As an Air Force doctor, he just returned from a tour in Afghanistan to speak to other doctors at Valley Hospital, where he trained. "We had gunshots to the head. We had land mines to the feet. He had injuries to the belly," he said.

He is well adjusted and able to work through the dark unknown Colosimo says exists for anyone being deployed.

Colosimo says it did surprise him that another psychiatrist may be responsible for the shootings at Fort Hood. He says even psychiatrists must work through issues and stress.