The Paradox of Fight or Flight - A Leadership Guide to Understanding and Mitigating Operational Stress Injuries

The term operational stress injury is unique to the Canadian Forces. It defines any persistent psychological difficulty resulting from operational duties performed by a Canadian Forces member. These psychological difficulties can include mood disorders, anxiety disorders, adjustment disorders, psychotic disorders and others. Of this wide range of conditions, this paper shall focus primarily on acute and chronic stress reactions, acute stress disorder, posttraumatic stress disorder and combat stress reaction. This paper shall demonstrate that military leaders can mitigate operational stress injuries through a system of preventive and responsive care. To demonstrate this thesis, a lexicon of stress shall be defined that embodies both a traditional and Canadian Forces conceptualization of stress reactions and disorders. The history of stress in military operations shall be examined to expose some of the time-honoured misconceptions surrounding operational stress and some of the early and important roles played by military leaders to address the problem. Following this historical analysis, the medical science behind operational stress injuries will be reviewed. Finally, having drawn upon medical science and lessons from the past, this paper shall demonstrate that military leaders can mitigate operational stress injuries through the practice of preventive care and, when prevention fails, through the facilitation of responsive treatment.