Abuse alters victims' brains: Why your Military Academy CO Hates You

[MedicalCorpse]

During my 19 years on active duty, I was often struck by how much the U.S. Air Force resembled a family...an abusive, dysfunctional family, complete with insane father figures drunk with power whose personalities had been evidently warped by their Military Academy hazing upbringing; and distant, unloving, unsupportive mother figures who facilitated the abuse by the fathers through their cowardly inaction. Yes, "Col. Rusty" and "Col. Hurtus", I am talking about you. I have always been interested in neurobiology, and especially neuroethology, both of which I studied as an Organismic and Evolutionary Biology major at Hahvahd. Today's article from the Washington Post struck me as especially relevant to anyone who wants to go into, or is currently stuck in, U.S. military medicine:

Fair Use Quote from: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/03/AR2006110301476.html

Abuse Alters Victims' Brains

"A new study on monkeys raised by abusive mothers suggests that growing up in an abusive household can alter brain chemistry in a way that makes some youngsters prone to mistreating their own children when they grow up. The findings suggest that abuse is not just something that is learned from living with abusive parents, although that may have an influence, said the authors of the report, published Thursday in the journal Behavioral Neuroscience.

Suffering through abuse appears to permanently lower the brain's production of an important regulator of emotions called serotonin, said lead author Dario Maestripieri of the University of Chicago. Low serotonin can make people more prone to acts of rejection, impulsive aggression and violence.

Most children who were abused do not become abusers themselves. But some do, and the findings may help explain this troubling cycle in which victims of abuse later mistreat their own children."

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Because physicians who went through any of the military academies + USUHS owe the rest of their natural lives to the military (some accrue more than a 20 year active duty service commitment, when you factor in residency), as a newly-minted Captain or Lieutenant in the Medical Corps(e), you are assured to find the majority of your O-6 pointy-haired physician bosses have military Academy experience. Remember the abused monkeys, and prepare yourself to be a victim of the catharted rage of these poor, pathetic, abused ex-Academy souls.

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R

P.S. Ping Ridiculous. Yes, I started a new thread. Here's a quote for you, again from today's newspaper:

"It may not be popular with the public. It doesn't matter, in the sense that we have to continue what we think is right. That's exactly what we're doing. We're not running for office. We're doing what we think is right."

--Vice President Cheney, as quoted here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/11/03/AR2006110301619.html

P.P.S. Yes, I have enough self-actualization to realize that my brain was similarly damaged by the abuse I suffered. Maybe that explains the medicines I need and the essays I post.

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[Ex-44E3A]

Organismic and Evolutionary Biology major at Hahvahd

MedicalCorpse, I love your stuff I had a Beavis and Butthead moment when I first read that...

Cheers!

 

[MedicalCorpse]

Organismic and Evolutionary Biology major at Hahvahd

MedicalCorpse, I love your stuff I had a Beavis and Butthead moment when I first read that...

Cheers!

Heh heh, he said "Organismic"

Ya, you can tell what we called ourselves.

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R