Research Guides: QPME: Fitness for Marines: Mental Fitness

Mental Fitness

"The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential...these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence."

- Confucius

Psychological Fitness includes the integration and optimization of mental, emotional, and behavioral abilities and capacities to optimize performance and strengthen resilience. It describes a Service member's ability to effectively cope with the unique mental stresses and challenges of Military Service.

Given the current demands placed on our forces. a Service member's resilience -- the ability to withstand, recover, grow, and adapt under challenging circumstances -- is vital to readiness and mission accomplishment. Without resilience, Service members and their families are at risk of burnout, psychological stress, and physical danger due to impaired functional abilities.

Bolstering psychological fitness in Service members can help ensure mission readiness and decrease the potential risk that they may face stress-related injury or illness down the road.

Irreverent Warriors host first silkies hike. 04.16.2016. Civilians, veterans and active duty service members march down Western Boulevard during a silkies hike hosted by the Irreverent Warriors in Jacksonville April 16 2016. More than 300 participants attended the event to raise awareness for the 22 veterans and active-duty service members across the United States who commit suicide every day. (Photo by Lance Cpl. Sean Berry) Photo courtesy of DVIDS.

The concept of Mental Fitness emcompasses a broad range of topics. These links are intended to be a starting point for your learning and exploration, and are not a comprehensive list of available resources.

Anger Management (Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center)
Brainline.org
Resources on living with and treating traumatic brain injury.
DTRESS Line
The Marine Corps DSTRESS Line provides a 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, anonymous phone and chat and referral service using a ‘Marine-to-Marine’ approach.
MCCS Libraries
Keep your mind sharp with the hundreds of thousands of books, ebooks, audiobooks, DVDs, and online resources available from your Base Library.
Minding Your Mental Health
National Center for PTSD
PTSD (Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center)
Treatment, rehabilitation, or recovery from a wound, illness, or injury can be different for every service member. Treatments available for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are effective and help is available. You are not alone.
Relax Relax Toolkit
This toolkit is designed for use by our Sailors and Marines who would like to reduce stress through deep relaxation and to optimize performance. From the Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center.
Sleep Optimization Strategies
Provided by the Human Performance Resources Center at the Consortium for Health and Military Performance (CHAMP).
Substance Abuse
The Substance Abuse Program utilizes evidence-based programming and practices, including prevention education, early intervention initiatives, counseling, and drug and alcohol deterrent activities in order to promote overall health and mission readiness.
Suicide Prevention (Navy and Marine Corps Public Health Center)
Understanding suicide warning signs and risk factors can empower you to help identify, prevent and intervene early to save lives.
Tactical Decision Games
The most current TDC and TDC Archives are available free online.

Recommended Reading

Wounded Warrior doesn’t let injury interfere with Marine career. 07.07.2016. Master Sgt. Berle Sigman is a student in the Faculty Advisor Course (FAC) at the Staff Non-Commissioned Officer (SNCO) Academy aboard Marine Corps Base Quantico. Sigman, who graduated from the three-week course June 29, was wounded in combat in October of 2004 in Ramadi, Iraq. He had been in the Marine Corps for 11 years at that point and was platoon sergeant for Weapons Company, 2nd Battalion, 5th Marines. The injury resulted in the loss of his leg. “I hope that me sticking around and being an example to other Marines shows that adversity doesn’t have to be the end of your career,” he said. (Photo courtesy of DVIDS).

ON KILLING: THE PSYCHOLOGICAL COST OF LEARNING TO KILL IN WAR AND SOCIETY ~[172]~ Dave Grossman
- ~[392]~
FREE ONLINE: Navy Digital Library - at RBDigital and OverDrive
USMC MCCS BASE LIBRARIES: Search for copies
QUANTICO/MCU RESEARCH LIBRARY COPIES: Click on title for available copies and formats
Study of the techniques the military uses to overcome the powerful reluctance to kill, of how killing affects soldiers, and of the societal implications of escalating violence. It includes information on 21st-century military conflicts, recent trends in crime, suicide bombings, school shootings, and more.
ACHILLES IN VIETNAM: COMBAT TRAUMA AND THE UNDOING OF CHARACTER ~[172]~ Jonathan Shay
- ~[392]~
FREE ONLINE: Navy Digital Library - at RBDigital and OverDrive
USMC MCCS BASE LIBRARIES: Search for copies
QUANTICO/USMC RESEARCH LIBRARY: Click on title for available copies and formats

Examines the psychological devastation of war by comparing the soldiers of Homer's Iliad with Vietnam veterans suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Although the Iliad was written 27 centuries ago, it has much to teach about combat trauma, as do the more recent, compelling voices and experiences of Vietnam vets.
DOWN RANGE TO IRAQ AND BACK ~[172]~ Bridget C. Cantrell; Chuck Dean
USMC MCCS BASE LIBRARIES: Search for copies
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Down range is a timely book dedicated to bringing the troops home and addressing the challenges of the re-integration process from combatant to civilian. Bridget Cantrell, Ph.D., and Vietnam veteran Chuck Dean have joined forces to present this vital information and resource manual for both returning troops and their loved ones. Here you will find answers, explanations, and insights as to why so many combat veterans suffer from flashbacks, depression, fits of rage, nightmares, anxiety, emotional numbing, and other troubling aspects of post-traumatic stress disorder.
ODYSSEUS IN AMERICA: COMBAT TRAUMA AND THE TRIALS OF HOMECOMING ~[172]~ Jonathan Shay
- ~[392]~
FREE ONLINE: Navy General Library Program
USMC MCCS BASE LIBRARIES: Search for copies
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In this ambitious follow-up to Achilles in Vietnam, Dr. Jonathan Shay uses the Odyssey, the classic Greek story of a soldier's homecoming, to illuminate the pitfalls that trap many veterans on the road back to civilian life. The author combines important psychological work and literary interpretation with an impassioned plea to renovate American military institutions. Shay deepens our understanding of both the combat veteran's experience and one of the world's greatest classics.
ONCE A WARRIOR, ALWAYS A WARRIOR: NAVIGATING THE TRANSITION FROM COMBAT TO HOME - INCLUDING COMBAT STRESS, PTSD, AND MTBI ~[172]~ Charles W. Hoge
- ~[392]~
FREE ONLINE: Navy General Library Program
USMC MCCS BASE LIBRARIES: Search for copies
QUANTICO/USMC RESEARCH LIBRARY COPIES: RC550 .H64 2010 (print)

War changes people in ways only other warriors may fully understand. The author, a retired Army physician, addresses the psychological problems returning combat veterans face and the social stigma attached to seeking mental health care. This book is geared toward veterans and their families, helping family members to gain greater understanding of ways they can help their loved ones navigate the "PTSD paradox" while also helping veterans cope with combat stress and PTSD using a specific toolbox of skills.
REDEPLOYMENT ~[172]~ Phil Klay
- ~[392]~
FREE ONLINE: Navy General Library Program
USMC MCCS BASE LIBRARIES: Search for copies
QUANTICO/USMC RESEARCH LIBRARY: Click on title for available copies and formats

Also available in Spanish.
Redeployment takes readers to the frontlines of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, asking us to understand what happened there, and what happened to the soldiers who returned. Interwoven with themes of brutality and faith, guilt and fear, helplessness and survival, the characters in these stories struggle to make meaning out of chaos. In the title story, a soldier who has had to shoot dogs because they were eating human corpses must learn what it is like to return to domestic life in suburbia, surrounded by people "who have no idea where Fallujah is, where three members of your platoon died." In "After-Action Report", a Lance Corporal seeks expiation for a killing he didn't commit, in order that his best friend will be unburdened. A Mortuary Affairs Marine tells about his experiences collecting remains-of U.S. and Iraqi soldiers both. A chaplain sees his understanding of Christianity, and his ability to provide solace through religion, tested by the actions of a ferocious Colonel. And in the darkly comic "Money as a Weapons System", a young Foreign Service Officer is given the absurd task of helping Iraqis improve their lives by teaching them to play baseball. These stories reveal the intricate combination of monotony, bureaucracy, comradeship and violence that make up a soldier's daily life at war, and the isolation, remorse, and despair that can accompany a soldier's homecoming. Across nations and continents, Klay sets in devastating relief the two worlds a soldier inhabits: one of extremes and one of loss. Winner of the 2014 National Book Award for Fiction.
SHADOW OF THE SWORD ~[172]~ Jeremiah Workman
- ~[392]~
~[134]~: ebook
FREE ONLINE: Navy General Library Program
USMC MCCS BASE LIBRARIES: Search for copies
QUANTICO/USMC RESEARCH LIBRARY: Click on title for available copies and formats

Memoir by Marine Corps veteran SSgt Jeremiah Workman tells a story of his service in Iraq and of the emotional wars that continue to rage long after our fighting men come home. Workman candidly reveals the ordeal of post-traumatic stress disorder: the therapy and drug treatments that deadened his mind even as they eased his pain, the overwhelming stress that pushed his marriage to the brink, and the confrontations with anger and self-blame that he had internalized for years.
WAR AND THE SOUL ~[172]~ Edward Tick
- ~[392]~
FREE ONLINE: Navy General Library Program
USMC MCCS BASE LIBRARIES: Search for copies
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The New England Journal of Medicine reports that 16 percent (one in eight) of returning Iraq veterans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder to the extent that they can’t hold jobs, are incapable of intimacy, creative work, and self-realization. In war’s overwhelming violence, the soul—the true self—flees and can become lost for life. The author believes the key to healing lies in how we understand PTSD and shows how to make the wounded soul whole again. When this work is achieved, PTSD vanishes and the veteran can truly return home.
WARRIOR MINDSET: MENTAL TOUGHNESS SKILLS FOR A NATION'S DEFENDERS ~[172]~ Michael J. Asken; et al.
USMC MCCS BASE LIBRARIES: Search for copies
QUANTICO/USMC RESEARCH LIBRARY: Click on title for available copies and formats

This book is about developing mental toughness for combat. Written in a technical/scientific manner and applying principles of military psychology, the authors guide the reader through self-evaluation of fitness for duty, mental toughness, dealing with fear – developing a mental attack plan, strategic vision, how to conduct personal psy-ops and briefings.

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