Jennifer Sluga,\u00a0 six-year veteran of the Wisconsin National Guard, originally participated in the VA\u2019s new oral history program to help her caregivers understand her military sexual trauma, but her ordeal made her a strong advocate for others who had been assaulted.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the beginning, telling about my story helped me heal,\u201d she told me recently. \u201cBut now I want everyone else who has ever experienced sexual trauma to know that they are not alone. By talking about it, we can get back the power that was taken from us.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now a psychotherapist at the Vet Center in Madison, Sluga estimates that 90 percent of her patient caseload also suffers from MST.<\/p>\n
Sluga spent 17 months with the National Guard in Kosovo, but she told Thor Ringler, the \u201cpoet-in-residence\u201d who runs the VA\u2019s pilot \u201cMy Life, My Story\u201d program in Madison, that her PTSD probably started well before her deployment from her military sexual trauma during her military training. (For more about the oral history program, see my previous blog, \u201cAn Oral History Program to Tell Veterans\u2019 Stories.\u201d)<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen he started that program, I told him it was the most amazing program ever,\u201d she said. \u201cTalking this trauma out of my system and using it to help others is just an amazing and powerful experience. It\u2019s important for medical personnel to know that when I\u2019m in those situations, I\u2019m gonna be a little uptight, that I wonder whether I can trust that person, and that I\u2019d prefer work with female doctor.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her ordeal started in boot camp when she and her \u201cbattle buddy\u201d both reported to sick call. Her buddy was sent to the hospital, and that left her alone with the doctor.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had lot of rank on his chest and expected me do anything he said,\u201d Sluga said. \u201cHe wanted me get undressed, then he began touching me and it became pretty obvious that this was nothing in the realm of anything medical.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sluga finally managed to push him away and ran to her barracks, only partially dressed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI ran to our barracks because I wanted to shower and cry, but another woman saw the marks on my body, asked about them, and then called the drill sergeant,\u201d she said. \u201cHe ran over to sick call, and I thought he was going to kill the medic. It was really cool to be validated like that.\u201d<\/p>\n
But it didn\u2019t stop there.<\/p>\n
Several members of Sluga\u2019s unit reported also sexual abuse during their deployment, and she began advocating for them.<\/p>\n
Finally, the medic was charged with sexually assaulting his patients, and Sluga, her battle buddy and her drill sergeant were all required to testify at his court martial. \u201cHe finally admitted to sexually assaulting more than 70 soldiers and excused it by saying he had been raped as a child,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
No wonder Sluga was severely traumatized. But she didn\u2019t realize it until after she had left the National Guard and returned to college.<\/p>\n
“I didn\u2019t recognize that I wasn\u2019t doing well until I went from an A student and I was failing all my classes, not attending classes, sleeping 20 hours a day,\u201d she said. \u201cI just wanted to go hide.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her breaking point came after she and her classmates got an exam back, and one of the girls was complaining about a bad grade.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe said, \u2018It really raped me,\u2019\u201d Sluga remembered.\u00a0 \u201cAnd I just wanted to jump over the chairs and scream at her: \u2018Did it really rape you? Did it make you feel completely out of control?\u00a0 Did it actually hurt you?<\/em><\/strong>\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n That led to counseling and therapy. It led to Ringler and the \u201cMy Life, My Story\u201d program, which has now spread to six other VA facilities across the country. And it led Sluga to a career helping others as a psychotherapist.<\/p>\n More men than women are sexually assaulted in the military, she said.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of four women reports she has been sexually assaulted,\u201d said Sluga. \u201cThe rate for men is one in ten, but since there are so many more men than women, the number of male victims is greater. Females are assaulted by men and other females, and males are assaulted by males and females as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Rape and sexual assault are not about sexual gratification, she added. It\u2019s all about power and control.<\/p>\n \u201cIn the military, you have no control over much of anything, so if you can find an area you can control, you take it,\u201d Sluga explained. \u201cA lot of people bully up and take advantage of other people — it\u2019s almost like a sport.\u201d<\/p>\n Now look at Sluga\u2019s ordeal in light of our previous discussions on moral injury. She was betrayed by virtually everyone in her chain of command: the medical officer who sexually assaulted her, the officers who let such conduct go unchecked.\u00a0 Those fellow soldiers who are supposed to save your life if necessary and have your back should be the last individuals anyone should need to protect themselves against.<\/p>\n VA psychologist Jonathan Shay argues that moral injury is present when there has been a betrayal of what is right by a person in a position of legitimate authority in a high-stakes situation.\u00a0\u201cMoral injury impairs the capacity for trust and elevates despair, suicidality and interpersonal violence,\u201d he wrote in an article, \u201cMoral Injury,\u201d published last year in the journal of Psychoanalytic Psychology<\/em>.<\/p>\n Sluga would agree that military sexual trauma can lead to PTSD.<\/p>\n When you lose your sense of self, especially from someone who\u2019s supposed to be helping you, and they take your power and use it against you, to me that\u2019s combat,\u201d she said. And we all know that combat trauma leads to PTSD.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jennifer Sluga,\u00a0 six-year veteran of the Wisconsin National Guard, originally participated in the VA\u2019s new oral history program to help her caregivers understand her military sexual trauma, but her ordeal made her a strong advocate for others who had been assaulted. \u201cIn the beginning, telling about my story helped me heal,\u201d she told me recently. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-425","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericnewhouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericnewhouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericnewhouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericnewhouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericnewhouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=425"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ericnewhouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":426,"href":"https:\/\/ericnewhouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/425\/revisions\/426"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ericnewhouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=425"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericnewhouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=425"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ericnewhouse.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=425"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}