PTSD and Its Effect on Military Families Essay

The Spaniards called it estar roto which means “to be broken” (Tick 99). These soldiers weren’t experiencing nostalgia which means the same as homesickness, but they were fighting battles within their subconscious that made them feel like they weren’t themselves anymore. Maybe the Spaniards got it right because they were broken, not emotionally or physically, but mentally. In 1952, the first edition of DSM-I (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) was written. The first attempt to define PTSD was: gross stress reaction. The name and definition was reinvented multiple times, but it disappeared from the second edition of the manual. Thirty-seven years later, Congress mandated the Department of Veterans Affairs to establish the National Center for PTSD. During the same year, Congress demolished the notion held for decades that the symptoms of PTSD were caused by character flaws (Thomas 15). PTSD affects both men and women. Women are more than twice as likely to develop PTSD than men (“Women on the Frontlines”). During World War II (WWII), twenty WWII veterans may have suffered symptoms of PTSD (Thomas 20). It was estimated that as many as thirty percent of United States soldiers that fought in Korea may have symptoms of PTSD (Thomas 20). Twice as many veterans in Iraq have been diagnosed than veterans in Afghanistan. Before deployment the rate was five percent which is the same as the general United States population. 16 to 17 percent of those

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a relatively new diagnosis that was associated with survivors of war when it was first introduced. Its diagnosis was met largely with skepticism and dismissal by the public of the validity of the illness. PTSD was only widely accepted when it was included as a diagnosis in 1980 in the third edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) of the American Psychiatric Association. PTSD is a complex mental disorder that develops in response to exposure to a severe traumatic event that stems a cluster of symptoms. Being afflicted with the disorder is debilitating, disrupting an individual’s ability to function and perform the most basic tasks.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder also known as PTSD is an emotional condition that can develop following a terrifying or traumatic event.

About 30% of the men and women who have spent time in war zones experience PTSD. (Military.) The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimates that PTSD afflicts almost 31% of Vietnam veterans, as any as 10% of Gulf War veterans, 11% of veterans of the war in Afghanistan, and 20% of Iraqi war veterans. An additional 20 to 25 percent of all military men and women have had partial PTSD at some point in their lives (Military.)

Among those who served in the Vietnam War, 84.8% of those diagnosed Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder still show moderate impairment of symptoms, even 30 plus years after the war (Glover 2014). As of today, the Unites States has 2.8 million veterans who served in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, of those it is estimated that 11 to 20% currently suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. As of 2013, a total of 12,632 veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars are currently diagnosed with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (Glover 2014). Of course it is to be taken into account that these numbers are based on those who admit to experiencing symptoms and seek treatment.

There have been many diagnoses of PTSD in American soldiers. As Mark Thomas said in a magazine article, “The National Academy of Sciences have report estimated that up to 20% of 2.6 million US men and women who have served in Afghanistan and Iraq may have it (PTSD)”(Thomas). This quote expresses that nearly 520,000 US families have been affected by this disorder. It also shows that PTSD has become a large enough issue that more and more people and

Since the Vietnam War, methods of treating PTSD have developed and lowered the number of cases, but simply lowering the number of cases is not good enough. Unless service members can be prevented from experiencing these negative emotions, every one of them is engaged in a possible suicide mission. With the proper procedures introduced and carried out as proposed, not only the service members can be helped, but their families as well.

The freedoms Americans enjoy come at a price; brave military men and women often foot the bill. Many men and women pay with their lives; others relive the sights, sounds, and terror of combat in the form of PTSD. Several causes and risk factors contribute to the development of PTSD. Combat-related PTSD appears slightly different than traditional PTSD. History tells of times when soldiers diagnosed with PTSD were viewed as “weak.” Resources have not always been available to struggling soldiers. The adverse symptoms of PTSD on soldiers and their families can be crippling.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (commonly known as PTSD) is an important issue associated with military soldiers. The primary focus of this paper will be on the causes of PTSD and the effects it has on returning soldiers from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. I will attempt to elaborate on the soldiers' experiences through my own experiences in combat both in Iraq and Afghanistan. I will explain what PTSD is, look at the history of PTSD, how people get it, and differences of PTSD between men and women, and treatment options.

Many veterans are unable to leave behind the trauma of Vietnam and psychologically return home. They struggle with a variety of extremely severe problems that neither they nor their families, friends, or communities knew how to understand

According to Bender, about 470,000 of the approximately three million men who served in Vietnam are current cases of PTSD. Women who served as nurses, about 7,000 of them have also been found to suffer from this disorder (Bender 147). It is beyond imaginable the magnitude of how many men, women, children, and Vietnamese that have been affected by this one war. In recent research findings conducted by the National Center of PTSD, four out of five veterans struggle with PTSD twenty to twenty-five years later (Price).

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) develops after a terrifying ordeal that involved physical harm or the threat of physical harm. The person who develops PTSD may have been the one who was harmed or the person may have witnessed a harmful event that happened to loved ones or strangers.

Military Pathway (2013) concluded “Military life, especially the stress of deployments or mobilizations, can present challenges to service members and their families that are both unique and difficult”. Hence, it is not surprising that soldiers returning from a stressful war environment often suffer from a psychological condition called Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. This paper provides a historical perspective of PTSD affecting soldiers, and how this illness has often been ignored. In addition, the this paper examines the cause and diagnosis of the illness, the changes of functional strengths and limitations, the overall effects this disease may have on soldiers and their families, with a conclusion of

PTSD is an incapacitating emotional roller coaster that affects the lives of many who have experienced a traumatic event. Not only does the concern of PTSD impact survivor’s lives, but it can have an impact on the entire family or those who are close to the individual with the disorder. “PTSD can take a heavy toll on the family if you let it. It can be hard to understand why your loved one won’t open up to you” (Segal, Smith, 2014). The traumatic stress can trigger episodes where the survivor re-experiences the emotional event, causing intimacy issues, trust and social issues with their relationships. How both cultures and communities impacted me that may be perceived as normal vs. abnormal? How has stigma played a role in my mental illness?

“When I was in serious danger I was almost completely paralysed by fear, I remember sitting with a coffin (a fellow soldier) on the fire-step of a trench during an intense bombardment, when it seemed certain that we must be killed”(The Psychological Effects Of The Vietnam War). Our soldiers that we send to war to protect us against the countries trying to harm us are put into dangerous situations that affect them physically and mentally and leave them with permanent damage to their minds and bodies. The server damage that our military soldiers faced when returning from war is PTSD which stands for post traumatic stress disorder and is the most common disorder that returning soldiers are diagnosed with , but a more tragic diagnosis from war