Certainly everyone has heard of the phrase, “War is Hell”. It is used in describing war and what goes on during armed combat. There are so many different things that go on during war it is nearly impossible to imagine the intensity of that sort of situation without having experienced it firsthand. Just because they leave the battlefield though doesn’t mean they’re problems stop. Often they come home to a public that is unhappy with the war and they don’t get the welcoming that they deserve. Now, similar to Vietnam, soldiers returning from duty get far less than they deserve. Especially considering that they’ve spent so much time training to fight and are now forced to live a civilian life.
Re-acclimating to this new lifestyle is a challenge since soldiers are forced to experience all kinds of extremely violent and stressful situations. Along with physical reactions to these different sights there are also psychological reactions, some that can affect a person months and years after the causal experience occurred. Sometimes these experiences can cause serious psychological damage which can be classified at post-traumatic stress disorder. This is a person suffers long term effects from a stressful situation, such as combat or seeing someone get killed. People who suffer from PTSD end up re-experiencing the traumatic event or events and will try to avoid places, people, or other things that remind them of the event. Soldiers affected by this will show symptoms for a long period of time and considerable damage can be done.
In the current wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, there are a total of 40,000 reported cases of PTSD between January 1, 2003 and December 31, 2007. The number increased following the move to increase soldiers in the area and to increase the lengths of tours. As of May 2008 there had been 4,759 American deaths and over 32,000 wounded (Morgan). All of these soldiers eventually come home back to the states, where they have to deal with the PTSD as well as face a public that is unhappy about the war, with Bush having an approval rating of 31 % (Steinhauser). One of the best methods for helping a person to deal with PTSD is using exposure therapy. This is where the person is exposed to situations that caused the disorder in a controlled way so that they are not overwhelmed, with the exposure eventually reaching a point where the subject is no longer affected by it. This was shown when Dr. Keane conducted clinical trials with Vietnam veterans and concluded that exposure therapy was very successful at limiting things like flashbacks, irritability and nightmares (Keane).
Exposure therapy works though because of it being done in a controlled manner. When veterans are subjected to scenes from the war which they just recently returned from a public source, especially when the coverage has a high chance of being negative, it will affect them negatively. Though not nearly as bad as with the Vietnam war where soldiers were termed “baby-killers” among other things, veterans from the middle east often have less than grateful experiences while trying to adjust to civilian life. All the while dealing with PTSD and mass images they are confronted with on the news and nearly every other media outlet. There are programs currently in place that work through the Veteran’s Affairs, but not very much attention is paid to PTSD as it isn’t the easiest thing to diagnose. A change is needed to help those soldiers returning to be able to live a normal life in the suburbs, so to speak.
Keane, T. M. & Kaloupek, D. G. (1982). “Imaginal flooding in the treatment of a posttraumatic stress disorder”. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.
Morgan, David. “Post-traumatic stress soars in U.S. troops”. 27 May, 2008. Reuters. Dec 2, 2008 www.reuters.com
“National Center for PTSD Fact Sheet”. United States Department of Veterans Affairs. Dec 2, 2008 < http://www.ncptsd.va.gov/ncmain/ncdocs/fact_shts/fs_what_is_ptsd.html>
Steinhauser, Paul. “Poll: Bush’s popularity hits new low”. 19 Mar, 2008. CNN. Dec 2, 2008 <>
Free Speech and Academic Engagement
12 years ago
1 comment:
I think we have all seen at least one movie in which PTSD is shown in a soldier returning home and suffering from this disorder. I knew that therapy was an option for treating it, but I didn’t know it was called exposure therapy. Fortunately none of my friends that have gone to Iraq and have come back have had to suffer from this disorder. Hopefully, as we learn more and more about ourselves through science we will be able to raise awareness for this disorder so nobody has to go home and suffer instead of being happy. People need to understand that the horrors that some of the soldiers face can’t be forgotten in a blink of an eye. War is a traumatic period in a soldier’s life that they have to cope with. For instance, most people can remember exactly where they were when they heard the news of September 11, 2001 and even then there were thousands who suffered PTSD just from seeing the event on the television. It’s hard to imagine what witnessing a war first hand could do to someone psychologically to a person.
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