PTSD Reflection

Hearing about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in WWI, is very easy to understand the surface level of reasons PTSD occurs. Of course, there is tons of danger in the trenches and because the war was fought on such a global scale, there were clearly problems with PTSD worldwide. However, the issue is not something that is easy to understand to its deepest level. PTSD has occurred as a result of every war in mankind. Through reading these articles and hearing all the stories, I have begun to grasp a much truer understanding of what it is that causes PTSD, and how much of a problem it really is.

Hearing that, for example, millions of people have suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is not nearly descriptive enough to paint a picture of what soldiers and veterans go through. What captured me was the specific stories of people who are alive today, or have recently died as a result of the trauma they faced in the military. It is tragic to hear stories about people who have come home from the war and never gotten the graphic war scenes out of their heads. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder causes people to never forget the images that they saw in battle, which has a lasting effect on them and others. Many people practically lost their hearts in battle and never got them back when they returned home. It is almost like even when they come home, they never leave the war.

Just as much pain PTSD causes soldiers, it has a similar effect on people close to the people who were traumatized. Certain videos talked about what a terrible effect the mindset of soldiers leaves on people around them. Many people who came back from war after terrible experiences practically radiated their depression. Family members said that just after being on the phone with the person, they would hang up and be quite depressed themselves. The stress that people have after visualizing their war experiences leave feelings of pain, guilt, depression, and fear. These emotions penetrate the minds of soldiers in such a deep way, that suicide is a somewhat common response. This is of course worse than anything else for people who know the person who killed themselves. Just one person's war experience often leaves such a mark on a family. It can leave somewhat of a domino effect, because the person who will kill himself because of what he sees, is causing the same pain on his family that caused his stress in the first place.