People have claimed to be addicted to everything from red licorice to Gram Parsons’ voice, and the expression is understood as, “I enjoy it very much, and would not want to be without it.” Some speakers give this “I’m addicted” declaration the connotation of, “If I were deprived of it, I might suffer from withdrawal, and be unable to function.” Here lies the difference between red licorice and heroin of any color. Real addiction is non-trivial.

A small group of men — all combat veterans or journalists — have seriously confessed to being addicted to war, and they do not throw that term around loosely. Others may opt to not use the “A” word, but it’s what they mean. In a book about his year in Vietnam, John A. Parrish, M.D., wrote that for some of the wounded men he treated, “the jungle and the bush offered maximum excitement, independence and comradery, physical exercise, chance at heroism, and documentation of manliness.”

He quoted a soldier who had survived one tour of duty, gone back to the States, and then re-upped:

You know, Doc, nothing seemed important. I mean like nothing… Here, everything is important… I don’t fit in, in the States, Doc. Here I do. I fit in just fine. I might get my ass killed but I fit in just fine.

Others war addicts are recognized as such by their colleagues. Journalist Michael Hastings, who eventually died under very suspicious circumstances, was one. Jonathan Darman said of Hastings’ book The Operators, “There’s almost a double consciousness, where he identifies with the war-junkie psychology but is also critical of it.”

The general concept is not new. Many decades ago, British writer Gerald Brenan told the world, “War, however deeply it is hated, is a stimulant like alcohol and leaves a lethargy behind it when its powers of arousing excitement are removed.”

In Men’s Journal, Sebastian Junger asserted that “addiction to combat isn’t crazy.” After WWII, Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, a lot of American soldiers missed “the intimacy of small-unit warfare and […] the high-stakes game of combat… That is an incredibly intense endeavor, maybe the most intense endeavor.”

Junger described the sensation as “completely amped” and added,

The feeling was like a drug. In fact, it was a drug… intense exertion floods the body with natural opiates… That’s what makes fear pleasurable, what keeps people returning to it again and again. Dopamine, the chemical by-product left over in the brain after a terrifying situation, can stimulate the body for hours.

The answer for many has been to go back and sign up as mercenaries. Junger went back as a journalist and wrote of his time in war-torn Sarajevo, “There’s no heavier rush than the sudden realization that you’re still alive, and if you’ve ever experienced that high, you either never want to feel it again or you creep back to it over, and over, furtively…” In a later book, he dug deeper, noting that “adrenaline junkies are actually ‘meaning junkies,’ and danger seekers are actually ‘consequence seekers.’ ”

Karl Marlantes, author of Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War, wrote, “I’ve jumped out of airplanes, climbed up cliff sides, raced cars, done drugs. I’ve never found anything comparable. Combat is the crack cocaine of all excitement highs — with crack cocaine costs.”

Photographer and writer Anthony Loyd’s book title says it all: My War Gone By, I Miss It So. His narrative of the many psychological factors is fascinating, and among many other words about his personal quest, he said,

I wanted to reach a human extreme in order to cleanse myself of my sense of fear, and saw war as the ultimate frontier of human experience. I feel sane as anything in war, the only one there earthed to rational thought and emotion. It is peace I have got the problem with.

Dan Harris gained extensive experience as a TV news reporter “on the ground” in many war zones. After being posted in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Israel, the West Bank, Gaza, and Iraq, he returned home and suffered from depression. In his early 30s, and having never used drugs before, he responded by self-medicating with cocaine and ecstasy, and experienced his first panic attack. Back on the battlefield,

It was not that I was traumatized. It was that I was enjoying it too much. I don’t know that you can describe… this other piece, which is taboo to talk about, which is the pleasure and excitement that people get fighting wars. And that’s why you see a lot of risk-taking behavior among vets, because you’re looking for another way to get that hit of adrenaline, for sure.

Dan Harris, author of 10% Happier, not only liked being a war correspondent, he in fact loved it; and eventually sought help for that. Harris wrote,

The doctor had a couple of theories. It was possible, he said, that the horror of what I had witnessed overseas was too much for my conscious mind to handle. It was also possible that I was subconsciously pining for the adrenaline of war zones — that I was essentially in withdrawal from journalistic heroin.

Harris drew some comfort from the knowledge that he was not alone in this aberration. He quoted a study of war correspondents that had found elevated rates of PTSD, depression, and alcohol abuse. Still, many of those journalists persisted in returning to combat zones. “As one veteran reporter put it, ‘War is a drug.’ “:

In a war zone, the rules are suspended… It has an illicit, energizing feel… And then, of course, there’s the added romance of risk. We used to repeat to one another bastardized versions of an apt old quote from Winston Churchill: “Nothing in life is so exhilarating as to be shot at without result.”

Correspondent Chris Hedges, credited by Noam Chomsky as being “an incomparable source of insight and understanding” and lauded by other contemporaries for his “savage honesty,” published the book My War Never Ends. Most of his adult life was spent in war zones where he was variously shot at, ambushed, brutalized, imprisoned, or deported.

He wrote, “I have seen too much of violent death. I have tasted too much of my own fear. I have painful memories that lie buried and untouched most of the time.” Perhaps the continual seeking out of new violent environments helped to cover up the previous memories.

Among other accomplishments, Jocko Willink commanded SEAL Task Unit Bruiser during the Battle of Ramadi (Iraq) in 2006. He wrote,

It was the worst place in the world at the time, and I knew my whole life had sort of been preparing me. It is other people are trying to kill you and you’re trying to kill them and that’s just the ultimate test.

Podcast host Joe Rogan remarks, “One of the craziest aspects of it is many want to be back there. Many experience that life tuned up to eleven and they recall it like it’s the best time of their life.” Sounding rather like the extremists who believe that everyone ought to try LSD or ayahuasca, Willink replies,

There’s no doubt about it, best time of my life… I mean it was so good. It was so good for me and would be good for everybody… There’s an intensity, but having so much pressure and so much at stake, when it goes away, it definitely leaves a hollow, empty space inside.

What feeds this addiction? Some say it’s Hollywood, while others would blame the restrictions placed on the American film industry, which gets no cooperation from the armed services unless the message of their entertainment-oriented movie is pro-war. To include pictures of its planes, weapons, and real estate in a production, the Department of Defense requires an assistance agreement, which basically translates to “My way or the highway.”

Consequently, as of 2017, when the source article was written, the DOD had assisted with 1,800 movies and TV shows promoting the glories of war. A cursory search failed to find a more recent figure. It may be that no journalist has made a FOIA request on this topic since.

Artist George Grosz, who was as far from being a war addict as a person could be, nevertheless recognized the allure that the ambiance of total destruction and misery might hold for others. His autobiography contained the words:

It is true, of course, that war not only arouses suppressed forces slumbering in us, but also really does liberate some people, be it from a hated environment, the slavery of daily work, or the burden of one’s own personality. That is one of the mysteries that will perpetuate wars forever.

Written by Pat Hartman. First published August 2, 2024.

Sources:

“12, 20, & 5: A Doctor’s Year in Vietnam,” by John A. Parrish M.D., 2013.

“Who Killed Michael Hastings?,” New York Magazine, November 8, 2013.

“A Life of One’s Own” by Gerald Brenan.

“The Allure of War,” Men’s Journal, December 4, 2017.

“Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War” by Karl Marlantes.

“My War Gone By, I Miss It So” by Anthony Loyd.

“The Joe Rogan Experience – #940,” Podscripts.co, April 4, 2017.

“10% Happier: How I Tamed the Voice in My Head, Reduced Stress Without Losing My Edge, and Found Self-Help That Actually Works — A True Story,” ReadingGroupGuides.com.

“Chris Hedges, My War Never Ends,” TomDispatch.com, October 25, 2022.

“Jocko Willink — The Joe Rogan Experience #729 • Podcast Notes,” December 2015

“FOIA Docs Show CIA/Pentagon Made 1,800 Movies, TV Shows to Make America Love War,” TheFreeThoughtProject.com, July 6, 2017.

An Autobiography by George Grosz.

Image Copyright: Navy Medicine/Public Domain