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A significant infraction on someone's moral beliefs.

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In short, moral injury is the aftermath someone is left to reconcile with after a disturbing, inhumane, or stress inducing singular or continuous event(s) that affect a person's psychological, behavioral, social, and spiritual well-being.

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Guilt, shame, disgust, and anger. These feelings are common and normal to feel after an insult, assault, or infraction to one's personal moral beliefs, compass, or ethos.

Essentially, a person is condemning themselves (and/or being condemned by others) for the lack of character, integrity, and assuming a heightened sense of responsibility for the outcome of an event.

As a result of the prescriptive assumption associated with guilt, shame, disgust, and anger. It then becomes very difficult for someone to forgive themselves, accept what has happened, and process that the sense of responsibility they have assumed is not as high as once assumed.

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Effort Prior & Post Course to Understanding Moral Injury (MI)

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Effort Prior & Post Course to Understanding Moral Injury (MI)

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Numerical Value Prior to Course: 3

Numerical Value at the Conclusion of the Course: 7

On a scale of One to Ten. Zero being no-effort given or attempted. And 10 being a high-degree of effort seeking or obtain effort I would rate myself at a 7.

Most recently and notable during this term, I was able to attend an in-person conference through my 2nd Internship Site. The two and a half-day conference was actually dedicated towards Crimes Against Children. However, there was a new presented with an abundance of information on Moral Injury. His presentation was catered towards the military and veteran population. As I sat through his presentation I was able to acknowledge my surface level assumptions and understanding of Moral Injury. I quickly learned that MI is a force multiplier, it's inherently moralistically individualistic, and is an infraction on one's perception of their faculty.

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Nonetheless, I would like to continue to take my foundational understanding by remaining flexible and hearing as well as learning about the perspectives and experiences of other veterans or active duty service members.

While I find it important to have a 'lens' and backdrop to the perceived experiences of someone. I would like to remain committed and humble enough to know that not everyone fits into a certain 'box' because of their occupation.

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Learning Prior & Post Course to Understanding Moral Injury (MI)

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Learning Prior & Post Course to Understanding Moral Injury (MI)

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Numerical Value Prior to Course: 2

Numerical Value at the Conclusion of the Course: 6

I'm using the image (above) to highlight a very important takeaway for me from this course as it relates to moral injury. Prior to this course, I would have categorized hurt, pain, and personal suffering as something affecting a person's mental, emotional, and spiritual well-being. However, as I have learned moral damage and injury as are just as relevant.

Additionally, I've learned that moral injury is a continuous infliction of damage on a continual process. A process that may begin with religious or faith beliefs and psychological challenges resulting in substance abuse, lack of warrior readiness, or depression.

I would still like to better understanding the compounded stressor of time on a spectrum when evaluating moral injury. For example, when did the dilemma occur and has it been consistent? Was the injury a result of an institution? Someone else? Or, a group of people? By a Higher Power? Additionally, remembering that one or more answers of any of the above questions are true then to expect an exacerbation of symptoms.

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Mastery Prior & Post Course to Mastery of Moral Injury (MI)

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Mastery Prior & Post Course to Mastery of Moral Injury (MI)

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Numerical Value Prior to Course: 0

Numerical Value at the Conclusion of the Course: 8

While not a master of the concept and understanding of Moral Injury (MI) by any stretch of the imagination. I, however, feel simnifically more confident in this arena than I expected. For example, I'm not able to reference my notes on the 10 symptoms of MI which include: Guilt; shame; betrayal; moral concerns; loss of trust; loss of meaning; self-condemnation; difficulty forgiving; religious struggles, and loss of religious faith.

**Guilt and Shame also overlaps with PTSD Criteria D

The main source of information for me has been the Journal of Nervous & Mental Disease (which is included at the top of this column).

Additional scales and assessment measure I would like to incorporate into my counseling work if warranted are: MI Event Scale (MIES); MI Questionnaire (MIQ-Q); MI for Survivors and Abuse, and MI for Public Safety Personnel. Quite frankly, just knowing I have a resource library at the disposal of my fingertips is reassuring enough and facilitate my confidence as well as sense of mastery with the subject.

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Examining the Overlap Between Moral Injury and PTSD in US Veterans and Active Duty Military - PubMed

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Moral injury (MI) is a syndrome thought to be separate from posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), yet having some overlap. To determine the overlap, we examined the relationship between MI and the four DSM-5 PTSD symptom clusters (B, C, D, E) in US veterans and active duty military (ADM). The 45-ite …