PTSD and you!

When learning about PTSD and its affect on our soldier it opened up my eyes to what other side effects war has on peoples lives. We see the war as something horrific for our soldiers and we think that it's amazing when someone makes it back from places like Iraq. But when you look at it the war doesn't stop for soldiers coming back.. It's a battle on and off the field some would say. PTSD has showed people the side affects of war and ultimately if you do even come back from the war, your fight with your mental state is your next mission. Not only is PTSD a problem for soldiers but a problem for the people around them. They put them and the people around them in danger as we've seen from the documentaries that were shown in class. The scariest part of looking at PTSD is the worry of one recovering from something so severe. Ultimately the fear of death that was put into the eyes our soldiers will ultimately cause problems for society. Bring the rise of drinking problems and drug problems that will put people in danger.

Ultimately the war doesn't only commence bloodshed but it affects the brain of those that were involved in war and have survived. Making it impossible for people to rub away the stain that war brings into their lives

Reflection on PTSD

In my family I have a connection with PTSD because my grandfather fought, and four of my great uncles fought. One of my uncles actually I thought might have had PTSD because whenever anyone one mentioned war to him he would distance himself from the conversation. I heard about one of his experiences in the war which was when he was serving there was a battle and teenager was fighting and he shot my uncle and my great uncle had to shoot him even though he was a minor, and because he was in the war. My great uncle was then discharged because he got shot, and he was sent home with a purple heart, but many of his family members realized that he had changed because he was more closed of from most people and he never wanted to talk about his experiences in the war and with the teenager. So what I read about post-traumatic stress disorder it would point to him having PTSD because he really was changed by that and he never really was the same. When I was researching I saw some stories that reminded me of my great uncles story, like the story of when guys that came back from the war In Iraq seemed distant to their friends and family and they developed alcohol addiction and drug addiction the alcohol addiction and drug addiction did not really had to do with my great uncles story, but the distant from family and friends is almost exactly like my great uncles experience. That experience with the teenager really must have traumatized him because the thought of having to put someone down that young is something I cannot even imagine doing. That would terrorize someone inside forever because that is something that cannot be undone, it will remain in you forever. That is something you would do all the time in the War, that is why I believe all of the the people who have had experience with fighting and killing the war, if they are returned home they are changed they know inside what they have done and that is what causes them to have alcohol addiction and drug addiction it causes them to sometimes even to commit suicide so they can maybe repent for what they have done in the War, that is the true face of PTSD it makes men women go crazy, it destroys them inside.

Reflection on PTSD

In my opinion, there should be more research about PTSD being done just like they do for any other disease like cancer or AIDS. PTSD affects nearly 50 percent of war veterans, and I think there should be more haste in trying to look for a cure for PTSD. After the soldiers return from battle, they would have experienced very traumatic events and these kind of events would haunt them for a long time, and it would cause them to do some strange things like Gast in the NY times video. PTSD can cause the deaths of not only veterans but also the victims of their uncontrollable actions after returning homes. It is a much bigger problem than is publicized probably because the armywants more people to join it so they do not discuss the after effects of going to war. 50 percent is a lot of people. That statistic stood out to me. Before I really didn't know much about how grave a problem PTSD is for our war veterans who should be commended for their bravery for fighting to protect our country. In fact, the job of a soldier is not romanticized as much as it used to either. Probably because of the mixed opinions of the war on terror. Before soldiers were considered to be very heroic, and while many still do consider their job heroic, a lot of people believe that this war is unnecessary and hence, they don't not only care as much they lose pride in this country. I believe the war is unnecessary but that doesn't make a soldiers job any easier. They still have to go across the pond to a strange country and kill tons of people, including some innocent civilians as well. When they see some of their comrades get killed while they themselves are near the jaws of death, strange things can happen to their minds even after they come back. The millitary should set up some sort of rehabilitation program if they don't already have one, for vetarans to recover from PTSD. In my opinion, if the military puts a better attempt to stop this problem, I believe that they could in the near future to maybe not cure, but drastically decrease the symptoms and save quite a few lives along the way.

Reflecting on PTSD

Today in class we looked in depth on the causes, symptoms, and affects of PTSD. I browsed through many videos and pictures of soldiers suffering with PTSD. I read stories of soldiers coming home and killing their loved ones, or developing drug problems; each story seemed to end with the death. though all of the stories were somber the one on Sgt. Jacob Blaylock was especially dark. The short clip begins with a video entry from Blaylock days after he witnessed the death of two of his friends. It shows him as a troubled young man, with obvious symptoms of PTSD. It then goes on to tell the story of his eventual suicide, with interviews from his girlfriend at the time and more video entries from Blaylock there to provide the viewer with a picture of just how dark his situation was. the reason that this video struck me more than any of the others was because the video diary of Jacob showed me exactly how frightening PTSD is and mostly made it obvious to me why people with shell shock seek drugs and alcohol. The genuine fear in Blaylock's voice definitely showed me how horrible PTSD can be.

PTSD - The Harsh Realities of War

All this nationalism talk has stirred up a little patriotism in me! We learned about how Europe’s superior technology and burgeoning nationalism helped create many new country’s. Nationalism was universally agreed upon by the class, as seen in our World War I projects, to have played a role in starting the Great War. Even though the horrors of the war were apparent afterward, at the time, the people of the involved European countries were supportive of their soldiers. But all the talk on the grisly nature of World War I did little to my now gung-ho attitude toward war.

I think that being a teenage guy pumped up with testosterone and other hormones and my false sense of war being a camaraderie filled and noble experience contributed to my being pro-war. In the back of my mind I always knew about war’s many darker sides. But for some reason my image of the bond that war veterans share after their shared experiences overrode my logical side. Camaraderie and friendships mean a lot to me and they blinded me to the death and destruction in war.

I also think that the might of America’s military wouldn’t allow such cases of PTSD to occur. Sure, more militarily inferior countries would have to deal with the deaths and PTSD cases because they weren’t good enough.

Reading about the widespread effects of PTSD on the Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans though has sobered me. There are pretty high percentages of PTSD (about 16% ) and there have been 121 cases of domestic violence in in these returning veterans.

When the soldiers suffer from PTSD, they bring the war home with them and it injures other people, too. It takes a toll emotionally on other family members. The effects of PTSD also have led to the murder and deaths of other people. I read accounts about soldiers who abused their kids, murdered their wives and committed suicide. When these soldiers actually carry the weight of the war with them when they return home, it gives others a taste of the war.

Before I didn’t have these personal experiences of the horrible potential of soldiers suffering form PTSD. I mistakenly lumped them into the category of having vivid flashbacks and waking up sweaty from nightmares. Seeing them come home and harm innocent people has rocked my view of war.

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.

PTSD Reflection

In our cruel and chaotic world, the life goals of many are simply to find peace. Happiness, love and tranquility are what we all strive for, so why do so many people die in gruesome fights every day? Some people fight under the illusion that they will ultimately create a more peaceful world. But I believe that the future world is being created right here, right now. A beautiful country renowned for its calm prosperity will not be born out of the blood of its enemies, but by the strength of its friendships.

It is true that sometimes fighting is necessary. To refuse to hurt someone who is about to kill you will not result in anything but your own death. However, unncessary and unjustified violence will harm more people than it will help. During world war one, the entire human race was affected by the death and destruction inflicted. Soldiers and civilians alike were subjected to trauma and immediate danger, and many others felt the ripples of influence as relatives or family members injured either mentally or physically. Those who were suffered mental conditions because of the war often became nervous, angry, violent, or depressed. These people had seen what no one should ever have to, and they suffered with that knowledge for the rest of their lives.

Violence is an inbred part of human nature. It is how we can settle disputes, protect ourselves and our families, and assert our dominance. However, I believe that in our current society, violence poses much more harm than usefullness. We have evolved enough to treat criminals with dignity and a fair trial - now can't we do the same with our rivals? If people could just let go of their fake alliances to countries and states and feel their true alliance to the human race, we could all stand together as equals with no need to fight for land or politics again. We need to learn to cooperate, and to distinguish between friendly and deadly competition.

PTSD 2

PTSD is a very serious disorder. It changes how a person thinks, feels, and responds to everything. By undergoing trauma, a person’s entire life can be changed. The best thing possible is to try to understand PTSD. If we accept PTSD as a serious disorder, and not a sign of weakness, I think that soldiers (or even others) who have experienced trauma will be far more likely to seek out help, thereby saving themselves, and possibly even the lives of others whom they would have hurt.
To me, one of the scarier parts of PTSD is how people are resistant to help, and how many choose to hold everything all inside. This means that you can never completely tell whether or not a person has PTSD, except by noticing changes in behavior. One of the reasons this frightens me is because one of my family’s very good friends, “Big Alex,” is a General, who has seen combat. I wasn’t born before the first time he was deployed, so I have no idea whether or not fighting changed who he is. Its frightening to think that the big, comforting friend I have known for as long as I can remember may still have aftereffects from his past, and even more frightening still to think that they could suddenly reappear and the wonderful person I know could be gone in an instant.
PTSD essentially removes the control a person has over their life- the only way they can try to fix it is by seeking help, otherwise they are completely at the mercy of their past. Of the many symptoms of PTSD, it seems that anxiety and depression are two of the major factors, and that many other effects of PTSD can be seen as part of either one. For instance, many people suffering from PTSD abuse substances, in order to escape the anxiety and depression. Unlike getting and allergic reaction or a cold, PTSD is not cut and dry: it can easily spiral into a life-destroying force.

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.

Never Escaping War

It is sad to think that someone returning from their horrible experiences in war never truly escapes the war. However, this is exactly what PTSD is.

The video we watched as a class (that I finished on my own) struck me as the most disturbing because I refuse to believe that the affects of PTSD is really the post-veteran’s fault, but it was hard to believe this when you see how much damage they can do. The first veteran, Gast, who killed the man who was on his way to work, ended up in jail for first-degree murder. The judge ruled this way because he said that Gast had been trying to kill himself by crashing his car, and that this was intentionally murdering someone. Gast’s lawyer did not fully mention how Gast had PTSD, and this was why the judge ruled this way. I don’t think this is fair. Although it is a tragedy that the man lost his life, the fact that this was judged as first-degree murder does not seem fair at all. Any victim of PTSD will not be in their right mindset, even when they are not under the influence of alcohol or drugs. When Gast was interviewed later in the movie, he said that he couldn’t believe he was being categorized as a murderer with everyone else in prison who had intentionally shot or stabbed someone, while this was not what he did at all.

The other man in the video had been drunk when he crashed his car into a 16-year-old driving home from work, killing her. I found this even more disturbing, because of how young the girl was. The man was a victim of PTSD and had been abusing drugs and alcohol. The mother of the girl who was killed thought the man should be sentenced to prison, but he was only sent to therapy. One thing the mother said, however, shocked me. She basically said the victim of PTSD should “suck it up” because that was no excuse for killing her daughter. She said that she was a police officer, and that she saw a lot of traumatic things, but she didn’t go around crashing her car into innocent strangers. Although I can imagine this woman was in a lot of grief for her daughter, I think she was being really harsh. I think that PTSD is a serious illness that a police officer cannot relate to. Imagine being in combat and watching fellow Americans get shot, injured and brutally killed, on a daily basis. I can’t imagine a police officer like this woman would be in contact with these things, especially not on a daily basis. One with PTSD cannot just “suck it up,” they need serious therapy.

Even though I don’t think these victims of PTSD should be blamed for the mistakes they made while suffering from the illness, I do think they are at fault for not recognizing sooner that they had a problem, and seeking help. This could have prevented the deaths of these innocent people. It’s unfair how someone who was only trying to help their country by fighting for them should live the rest of their lives with so many problems, and I am equally sympathetic to the post-veterans with PTSD and to the families of the car-crash victims.

Losing a Way of Life

Returning from war should be a happy homecoming, not one haunted by the memories of what was seen and done in the time away. As just after a storm there should be peace, after war there should be comfort. That the world isn’t as it should be is something that humans have bemoaned from earliest experience of unfairness. Ever more cruelly, in this situation, this torture is not just felt by the person who has PTSD, but also by those close to them. It had always seemed, that after a war is passed, things should go back to the way they were; the home front should be returned to a civilian metropolis, the soldiers happily with their families and friends, life going on in a series of busy nothings. I know now though, that the ramifications of war never stop being felt. The outcome will continue to affect later generations, people and politics alike.
Domestic violence is often connected to a case of PTSD, something that resounded with me more deeply than the idea of war itself did. I do not intend to go into war, never did, never (I do not think) will. That war can come to a person rather than a person going to war never occurred to me. Yet, many spouses and children to marines have died or been severely injured because of their family member’s traumatic experiences. They are hurt without ever having come close to war, because violence seen on the front inspires a reflective irrationality and anger in those who have PTSD. From this violence at home, we can see that for some there is no going back to before.
The experiences that these soldiers go through put me in mind of a quote from Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King. Frodo, at one point, reflects upon his place at the end of the journey, so full of terror and breathless flight: “‘But I have been too deeply hurt, Sam…. It must often be so, Sam, when things are in danger: some one has to give them up, lose them, so that others may keep them,’” (Tolkein 338). This is the experience of many soldiers who have PTSD. They left for various reasons (to do a job, to earn money, to get an education, to defend their nation, to save their family), but in doing so, ruined their chance of ever again being able to be happy in what they saved for another. So even if this sacrifice is not without reservations or hurt done to another, it is important to acknowledge the helplessness in the case of those who have PTSD.

Getting Help and Preventing Death

It's impossible for a soldier to come home from a war and be the exact same person he/she was before. The person must have changed mentally (and most likely physically as well.) Although every single soldier does not come home from war with severe Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, he/she could still have some symptoms, just not enough to be diagnosed.

For the soldiers who had symptoms and committed a crime because of them, they should not be sent to jail. It's not their fault. Instead, they should be put through treatment. Today, the soldiers volunteered to help their country. They were not forced to go to war. To have somebody be punished for committing a crime because of a mental problem they received fighting for their country is cruel. If the government really wants more people to join the army, than they should set up a better program to help returning soldiers. It's also because of the lack of helpful programs that many returning soldiers get into drugs and alcohol. In Gast's case, the government found out about his problems with cocaine and alcohol. Instead of helping him, they just dispatched him, basically abandoning him on his own, with no help for his mental issues, and no help for his drug and alcohol problems. He was then depressed and suicidal, and ended up killing an innocent man on his way to work. He was sentenced to 25 years in prison. This whole situation could have been prevented if the army had reached out to Gast, rather than dispatching him. Also, Gast's lawyer did not focus on his PTSD from the war. If she had, the judge might have sent him to get mental help rather than sending him to prison.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Honestly, before this class period, I had no idea what post traumatic stress disorder was, and even if I may have been slightly familiar with the changes in war veterans, I was completely unaware of how the effects of war can so easily eat away at someone's life. I guess what shocked me the most isn't that war can leave a lasting imprint on its participants, but what that imprint causes. Not only does PTSD result in bad memories relating to the war, it prevents those affected from living ordinary lives. As we watched in the documentary during class, PTSD resulted in a need for escape in the form of drugs, alcohol, and an attempted suicide. In addition, PTSD fosters paranoia, and someone insisted on keeping a gun between the bed and the mattress because he became so afraid of the idea that there were always strangers trying to kill him. Someone suffering from PTSD found himself in relationships with older women with a dependence on drugs or alcohol who already had children. PTSD literally destabilizes patients' lives, and the worst part is that the damage is purely psychological. In all of the cases I've seen, the problem arises from the individual himself. They barely have control over it. How do you treat something that exists within someone else's mind? Not to mention, the "craziness" or "depression" that comes with PTSD looks like a permanent blemish on one's army record, and the current social order of the army looks on it as a bad thing. It's terrible that the environment is such that those suffering from PTSD can't address their concern with a friend or doctor without bearing the shame that they believe will come with it. The only way, it appears, to clear one's mind from a severe case of PTSD is to discuss it and confront the issue, but when they are discouraged to publicly acknowledge the problem, they begin a descent into substance abuse so that they can numb the pain.

On anther side of PTSD, one particular treatment really interested me in which soldiers suffering from war-related PTSD underwent a war simulation customized as therapy to their own personal experiences that triggered PTSD. Because PTSD is connected to memory of an incident long after it has finished, and it is this memory that leaves them constantly on edge, doctors believe disconnecting the memory from its negative connotations will lessen the impact or do away with PTSD altogether. This fascinated me because of the insight it provides into the human mind. It's the scarring memory that causes PTSD, so why not neutralize it and pacify its reaction? The memory of the incident and its reappearance in everyday life are really the root causes, and the paranoia, depression, and substance abuse are the methods of coping. By being exposed to the same experiences that started PTSD, its victims face the problem head on (with no real danger), and in this way, they can overcome it.

PTSD Reflection

WRITE a blog post in which you reflect on what you've read, both in class on on your own. This reflection is open and prompt-less; it should be about 400 words.

When the soldiers return from the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, their families and friends are all escatic of their returning. People think that the families who are missing a son, husband, or father begin to have issues from the lack of a family member for so many years. Actually, the ones who have the issues after the war are the returning soldiers. After so many years of constantly watching their backs, soldiers begin to be paranoid of constant enemies trying to kill them. The soldiers who have been traumatized from witnessing a devastating incident, such as military warfare, suffer from PTSD, or Post traumatic stress disorder.
For me, it is very sad that the soldiers who volunteer to serve for their country suffer from more than physical pain and trauma, they also have to endure through mental distress. Some people with PTSD refuse to get help from physcologists and their families and they want to deal with all of their issues by themselves. But instead of turning to people who are willing to help them, they turn to drugs and alcohol to temporarily sedate their mental problems and issues. Besides the obvious of them hurting their own bodies, they hurt and sometimes kill other innocent people. I never knew that people who have PTSD become violent and may hurt others without thinking. In many cases, actually, veterans who have PTSD have killed other innocent human beings because they were either intoxicated or high on different types of drugs. They also hurt their own family who loves them because when they see that someone they love is turning into a terrible person and they refuse to take their help, it could inflict depression and sadness within the family.
From the soldier's point of view, they are just innocent people who have been traumatized from witnessing their friends die by gruesome and devastating ways. To "get away" from their problems of losses and injuries, they may take drugs to escape their problems. There is no other way to escape the problems because they cannot literally run away from the war. Once they make a dedication to the army or other armed forces, they have to fulfill their duty to the end. They all have different reasons for enlisting themselves into the army, but they also ruin their own lives and their future. If they are lucky to survive the actual battle and they don't have any physical injuries, then a majority of them may have been mentally scarred. Soldiers who go to the war are of risk of mental and physical damage from the battle and witnessing the horrors of war. It is important to give the veterans credit for enduring through the dangers of the war and to help them as much as possible for the safety of themselves and other innocent people.