PTSD: Reflection

After reading about numerous cases of PTSD on returning soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan, I have a better understanding of how the events on the battlefield affect and rub off on everyday life. The constant terror (and excitement) of warfare makes civilian life seem excruciatingly boring, even pointless. Soldiers, by constantly having to shoot at the enemy, are used to having something or someone to blame, for the war and for their own personal suffering. When they return to normal life, they still suffer from war's effects (a.k.a. PTSD) but have no one to blame it on back at home. This struggle to blame something yet having nothing to blame perhaps drives these ex-soldiers to drug/alcohol abuse, violence, and even suicide. The disturbing part about the effects of PTSD is that the victims are necessarily bad people - they are just mentally ill, and there is very little that we can do about it. Counseling during war has a limited positive effect. The fact remains: the brutal circumstances, events, and chaos of war leaves soldiers in emotional vulnerability, eventually leading to mental implosion.