Monday, January 03, 2011

Military Kids Struggle with Repeated Deployments

Notice the No Mention of the Wars of Choice especially by the incoming pols and real noticeable as to those so called outraged teabaggers their supporters and their corporate financed talking heads and cable TV outlet!!

Military kids taking more psychiatric drugs


Prescriptions increase as families struggle with repeated deployments

Mitch Green: From left, Zach Radenz, Army Lt. Col. Blaine Radenz, Tricia Radenz and James Radenz stand in the room where Daniel Radenz, then 12, took his life in June 2009. The room has since been converted into a den.

Jan 3, 2011 - Before his father deployed to Iraq, Daniel Radenz was a well-adjusted fifth-grader earning straight A’s and B’s in school near Fort Hood, Texas.

But shortly after Army Lt. Col. Blaine Radenz left home in June 2008, his 11-year-old son became withdrawn and anxious. His grades at school slipped and his mother noticed mood swings. The child’s longtime pediatrician referred him for counseling.

A psychiatrist at Fort Hood’s Darnall Army Medical Center prescribed the antidepressant Celexa. Daniel also saw a psychologist there. Doctors added to and changed Daniel’s drug regimen, but his problems grew worse, said his mother, Tricia Radenz.

Daniel started cutting himself and once used his own blood to write “the end” on a bathroom wall at school. One day in band class, he began hallucinating and ran into the hall, where teachers found him crouched and hitting and scratching his face.

On June 9, 2009, Daniel hanged himself from a bunk bed in his home. {continued}

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