Holistic soldier fitness: A concept for healthier tomorrow

“Man is the first weapon of battle. Let us study the Soldier, for it is he who brings reality to it”

Ardant du Picq –Battle Studies

Introduction

The security scenario of nations world over has changed significantly due to constantly evolving diplomatic policies, military strategies and technological advancement in military warfare. The threats and vulnerabilities to which Armed Forces are exposed to, have also undergone an unprecedented change. The future operational environment would have no boundaries and will involve confrontations from all directions.¹ Therefore, soldiers must be prepared to fight against unconventional adversaries, who have no ethics, who can easily blend with general population and rely on the element of surprise. In these circumstances, Armed Forces personnel are at a greater risk of psychological casualties rather than physical injuries.² Therefore, this article is conceptualized to raise more questions than to provide answers about the multifarious human problems faced by the Armed Forces and need to shift the focus from narrow traditional approach restricted only to physical fitness to holistic wellbeing of the combatant of Indian Armed Forces.

Stress and military life

In a military environment stress plays a very crucial role in determining the combat capability and psychological wellbeing of a soldier. Personnel of Indian Armed Forces too are not immune to stress.³ A large study involving 5077 Naval personnel showed high levels of occupational stress among personnel serving in afloat units.⁴ However, what is more important to understand are the type of stresses and factors that can attenuate the effect of stressors and improve the performance of the combatants. This complex relationship can be best explained by ‘‘Soldier combat and emotional wellbeing model’’ provided by Kavanagh⁵ (Fig. 1). This model provides a comprehensive overview of stressors such as combat experiences, injuries and duration of deployment resulting in adverse outcomes like post-traumatic stress disorders, suicides and substance abuse. In addition, it also enumerates a list of protective factors which not only shield an individual against the negative influence of the stressors but also helps in maintaining mental balance and wellbeing in a hostile environment.⁶ These factors viz. personality characteristics, family and social support, and military training increase mental resilience of a soldier and augment his/her ability to withstand stress, adversity and distressing combat experiences.⁷

Fig. 1.

Soldier combat and emotional well-being model.

Why change is necessary ?

Military's ‘business as usual’ response to increase in stress related disorder among service members is to increase therapeutic services. This is achieved through implementation of better and more sensitive screening programs and subsequently enhancing treatment facilities for treating soldiers detected to have psychological disorders.⁸ However, this approach is regressive as it focuses on treatment rather than prevention. For one of the biggest Armed Forces in the world, the target should be to prevent psychological disorders in order to ensure a mentally and physically fighting fit force. Indian Armed Forces follow three basic principles of risk mitigation in handling any kind of threat, which are assess risk, mitigate risk at community level and finally mitigate risk at individual level. These core principles are followed for all types of risk ranging from combat related injuries to vector borne diseases. Similarly, a more promotive and preventive approach needs to be adopted for stress related disorders through positive psychology, which is the study of understanding and fostering behavioral, cognitive, and emotional health. In a nutshell, positive psychology promotes positive emotions, positive traits, positive institutions, and positive social relationships. Finally, as defined by Seligman et al. “Army is a positive institution in the sense that it actively promotes the overall welfare of its soldiers through extensive formalized programs aimed at improving and enriching their lives and those of their families.“⁹ Thus, in order to reduce psychological morbidity and ensure effective performance, it is high time to change our single-mindedness outlook focused only on physical skills to achieving holistic fitness of our soldiers.

Moving to holistic soldier fitness

The concept of holistic soldier fitness involves comprehensively training and arming service personnel and their families with skills to face both physical and psychological challenges of military as well as civilian life. The concept provides equal importance to psychological as well as physical fitness. It involves continuous self-development through specific training targeted towards development of mental and physical resilience skills. The most important pillars of the holistic fitness are conduct of resilience training of soldiers and encouraging familial involvement and support.

• (a)Resilience Training of Soldiers (Battlemind)

  Resilience refers to ability of an individual to overcome or cope up with adversity or stress.⁹ It is typically defined as “the demonstration of positive adaptation in the face of significant adversity”.¹⁰ Researchers have categorized variables associated with resilience into individual, family, organisational, and community factors. Resilience training specifically focuses on individual's intrinsic factors viz “positive coping (e.g. active pragmatic, problem-solving); positive affect (e.g. optimism); positive thinking (e.g. thought restructuring); realism (e.g. realistic expectations, acceptance); and behavioral control (e.g. self-regulation).“¹⁰ Essentially, Resilience Training involves imparting skills of self-actualization which promotes mental well-being and prevents adjustment and stress related disorders. Resilience Programs has been widely used by the United States Army since 2009. Studies conducted to assess the efficacy of resilience training in military personnel have found resilience trained personnel to have more adaptive attributions, less self-blame, more positive affect, and less distress than those without resilience training.^11,12 Mindfulness is a technique of focusing one's attention in an non-judgmental way on the experience occurring in the present moment.¹³ Mindfulness Based Mental Fitness Training has shown to reduce stress, anxiety, depression and increase psychological wellbeing and resilience.¹⁴ In an Indian study conducted on 69 students in an industrial area, it was observed that the students who underwent mindfulness training had significantly lower perceived stress score and higher Five Factor Mindfulness Questionnaire scores at 8 weeks than baseline. In addition, the study also found a significant increase in Personal Resilience Questionnaire scores after 8 weeks of mindfulness training, thus providing concrete evidence of positive association between resilience mechanism and mindfulness.¹⁵

• (b)Role of Family

  Being married to a serviceman or women is different from being married to a civilian. Personnel in uniform are obligated to serve their country, for them the call of duty takes precedence over family life. Apart from normal stressors of any marriage, service members and their spouses face certain specific stressors which are unique to military service such as frequent moves and trips, unaccompanied assignments, long working hours, combat deployments, and potentially dangerous work environment. Yet, at the same time, military has been called family friendly, military looks after its families and provides many benefits unlike many other employers. Research has indicated that marriage affects every aspect of a soldier, happily married individuals have been found to have not only better physical and mental health but they also perform better professionally.16, 17, 18 However, the incidence of marital discord are on the rise in military families across the globe including India. To address the issue various militaries have instituted promotive and preventive measures such as Prevention and Relationship Enhancement Program by US Armed Forces, Welfare support services by Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen and Families Association (SSAFA) UK Armed Forces etc. The time has also come for Indian Armed forces to initiate necessary action for relationship enrichment of service personnel as a preventive measure rather going in for counseling of disturbed couples.

Conclusion

Human dimension is the most important aspect in the “human and biological era of war,” in this era the success of any military operation is determined by individual intelligence, intuition, and ability to maintain logical thinking rather than availability of sophisticated armaments. Human dimension encompasses the moral, physical, and cognitive components of a soldier and he must always be prepared in all aspects to confront unconventional enemies who believe in unethical warfare and work to exploit our weaknesses. In this scenario, development of psychological fitness of Armed Forces personnel is as important as development of physical fitness.¹⁹ Therefore, in response to the observed need, it is imperative to apply the same resources to ensure psychological fitness as has traditionally been applied to achieve physical fitness and technical excellence.