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Mission
Successful reintegration of every Warfighter. Vision
A world where Warfighters are fully restored through a non-medical process. |
Core Tenets
With the first tenant, [Warfighter Advance] acknowledges that there is a direct cause and effect relationship, well-documented in the scientific literature, between the rates of post-deployment suffering and suicide, and the use of psychopharmaceuticals to treat a variety of psychiatric labels. To be clear, it is the treatment, and not an underlying clinical or medical condition, that is causing suffering and unprecedented rates of suicide (Council for Evidence-Based Psychiatry 2019; FDA 2004).
... Second, a careful review of the literature and analysis of scientific merit has led us (and many other scientists, including those at the National Institute of Mental Health, NIMH) to conclude that the categories of mental disorder as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistics Manual of Mental Disorders - 5 (DSM-5) are scientifically invalid and diagnostically unreliable (Jayson 2013), and, therefore, it is unethical for us to use them or to convince warfighters that they “have” them. ... Third, after a careful analysis of the science, the available literature, and the risk: benefit ratio, WA rejects the use or usefulness of psychiatric medications and ECT in the process of warfighter reintegration or trauma response. We also acknowledge the devastating implications, and harmfulness of these treatments for traumatized individuals in general (Breggin and Cohen 2007; Jackson 2005, 2009; Kirsch 2010; Read, Kirsch, and McGrath 2019). ... Fourth, warfighters [at Warfighter Advance] are educated on the tension between practitioner benevolence and patient autonomy, as well as ethical and legal parameters of fully informed consent, which, for the reader’s review, include, at a minimum: To be informed of the risks and benefits of any proposed treatment or interventionTo be informed of the alternative treatments or interventions and their risks and benefits To be allowed to make the treatment decision without coercion. ... Finally, the fifth tenant states that a warfighter must be allowed to determine his or her own successful outcome. At Warfighter Advance, we focus on functional outcomes. These could include, for example, meeting goals such as finding work, graduating from college, re-uniting with estranged family, running for public office, regaining physical health, or running a marathon. It appears to us as arrogant that we should determine for another person what a good outcome looks like, or that we should determine that another person’s suffering, bereavement, response to trauma, or reintegration is “abnormal” or “pathological”. The above is an excerpt from: Vieten, Mary Neal. 2022. “Warfighter Advance: The ADVANCE 7-Day.”The Journal of Individual Psychology 78 (1): 95-103. |
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