The purpose for this research proposal is to find out if spouses are under more stress than the returning soldier. PTSD is a growing problem in returning veterans. The importance of this topic is to contribute to the exiting research on PTSD and the effects on children, especially the spouses of the returning soldiers. The impact of the returning soldiers on the spouse and families does not appear to be getting the attention it deserves, since the main focus appears to be on the retuning soldier. The method used in this proposal is quasi-experimental, because the population contains an equal amount of men and women. The questions one needs to ask is how prevalent is PTSD for the returning soldier, how it expressed, and how does it impact the family, especially the spouses? The methods that will be used is qualitative research and questionnaire to conduct this research study The participants will sign permission slips stating that give there permission to release the information for other studies on this subject. There will also be dianositic forms for PTSD for all returning members from all combat zones.…
War is a terrible thing. It has confounding effects on everyone involved. Some people take it well, while others have such horrible experiences that it scares them for life and affects them even after the war when they return home. Ernest Hemingway's Soldier's Home and Tim O'Brien's How to Tell a True War Story are two great examples of literature that express' what any particular soldier can go through upon returning home. Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome is a very common sickness that soldiers come down with after returning from war. There are a few differences and similarities between the two stories; the way each soldier handles himself after the war and the way people look at each of the soldiers when they return home.…
The Vietnam War was considered one of the bloodiest battles ever in the history of the United States. Not only were soldiers harmed physically during the war, but they were also wounded mentally. There are endless accounts of soldiers leaving the war and coming home not just with bullet wounds, but the memories that followed with it. These memories caused soldiers to not sleep at night and in some cases ruining their lives and forcing them to suicide. After the war, specialists came up with a name for this “disease” that was destroying the lives of many Vietnam veterans. They classified it as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. (National) The psychological burdens of war, such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, have substantial effects on soldiers in the armed forces making reentry into civilian life challenging.…
The Civil war was an awful war, it was very devastating. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers lost their lives on both sides.The survivors who live through the horrific war were left with post traumatic stress or PTSD. The amount of mental damage done to the soldiers was unmanageable. It drove soldiers crazy! Being in a battle was bad enough, but re-living it everyday would just be too much for most people to handle. In this novel, Charley lied about his age. Many people did this back then. Charley was only the age of fifteen. Can you imagine fighting in a war at fifteen years old and having to remember all the blood, violence, and death for the rest of your life? That is of course, if you lived through the battle to even live the rest of your life.…
Many more service members are injured in war rather than killed. Some common injuries that occur in combat are second and third degree burns, broken bones, shrapnel wounds, brain injuries, spinal cord injuries, nerve damage, paralysis, loss of sight and hearing, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and limb loss. Almost a million United States and allied service members have sustained wounds in combat or have died later as a result of injuries sustained in Iraq and Afghanistan (“Costs”). Service members in Iraq and Afghanistan are at constant risk of injuries or death. They may see friends become injured or die. These factors can constantly stress them out, which sharply increases chances of PTSD or other mental health issues. It is likely that 10-18% of service members who have served in Iraq or Afghanistan are going to be diagnosed with PTSD. Anywhere from 3-25% of returning troops are diagnosed with depression…
Every day, hundreds of airmen, soldiers, and sailors are exposed to hazardous areas in combat zones. Throughout decades, thousands of service members have served their time in the military. Currently, there is an estimate of 1.3 million men and women serving active duty in the United States military (Gould, 2017). And of those millions, approximately 11,000+ service members within the American military are deployed in combat zones (Sisk, 2017). After a long and rigorous deployment, many troops return, only to begin another unsettled fight in their own home.…
It is estimated that 806,964 U.S. Army soldiers have served in Iraq, including 146,655 Army National Guard and 74,461 Army Reserve. Military doctors estimate that 20 percent of soldiers and 42 percent of reservists have returned from Iraq with some kind of psychological problem. According to the National Public Radio, “A study in The Journal of the American Medical Association says the invisible injuries plaguing soldiers returning from war in Iraq such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression or just a sense of ‘not feeling normal’- are common mental health problems, and are most likely to show up several months after a soldier gets home.”…
Throughout the course of history, soldiers exposed to the horrors of war have been emotionally traumatized by what they saw or did. The emotional damage could be extensive and often life altering to these warriors who saw first-hand what mankind was capable of during an armed conflict. It is only in the past few decades that healthcare professionals began to assist these men and women and focused on the issues surrounding what is now referred to as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).…
PTSD is classified as a severe anxiety disorder which is likely to develop when a person is exposed to one or more traumatic events. This study consists of surveys which measure the levels of posttraumatic stress and depressive symptoms in soldiers returning from active duty in both Iraq and Afghanistan. The research will attempt to show soldiers returning from an extended tour of duty are at high risk for developing these mental issues. As discussed in class, stress is any challenge to the system and has an effect on one's emotions as well as their physical well being. Measuring the effects of war on a soldier is sure to expose signs of stress. If a soldier should show signs of posttraumatic…
Two quantitative surveys are given to military personnel before, after, and following the treatment process, which are the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale (CAPS) and the PTSD Checklist (PCL). The CAPS is given to guide researchers in making a current diagnosis of PTSD, examine a lifetime diagnosis for PTSD, and assessing PTSD symptoms over the past week (Weathers, 2013). The PCL is given to monitor military personnel symptom change before and after treatment and an overall screening for PTSD (Weathers, 2013). The Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV (SCID) is given through a set of semi-structured questions designed to confirm the PTSD diagnosis and assess mental health (First, Spitzer, Gibbon, & Williams, 1996). A focus group is conducted, where military personnel become educated on PTSD, create goals for treatment, acquire breathing and relaxation techniques, and manage future planning (Astramovich,…
During my time in the Marine Corps I have seen the problems and troubles first-hand that Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD) has on all branches of service. In this paper I will argue that there is still a lot of testing that can be done to better diagnose weather a service member has PTSD or not. I will give first-hand accounts on people that I have known that have fought this and survived and I will also give an account of someone I know who fought and lost because no one knew he had PTSD. I will show the struggle that service members face day in and day out suffering from PTSD. I believe that our government should be doing more to help fight PTSD and also to help heal the service men and women who are suffering from PTSD.…
This is because too often this population is forgotten or ignored; mainly because public attention is not placed on military families and the civilians who work within this community. Like any other community, the military community is also affected by abuses, and individuals suffer from the same family issues and problems as other communities. As a result, there is a great need for clinical counselors within this community. As a service member for over eighteen years, I understand the many social issues Soldiers struggle with and how these issues can affect their lives, family members, or the people who work with…
The trauma that they have endured is not handled appropriately and the facilities which they need are often not mentioned to them, this leads to problems developing such as; committing suicide and violent crimes, and suffering homelessness, addiction, and mental illness in record numbers. On January 13, the New York Times published the first part in a series of examinations into killings committed in the United States by returned veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Under the title “War Torn,” the series examines 121 cases in which Iraq and Afghanistan veterans had committed or were charged with killings, most of them murder, and many linked to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and consequent substance abuse and domestic distress. Families or single veterans are left to contend with the mental damage themselves. Overwhelmingly from lower-income working class backgrounds, military families bear multiple burdens in caring for wounded loved ones: psychological difficulties, alienation and lack of social infrastructure, enormous, medical costs, and lost economic livelihoods. With our general economic situation in poor standing – job prospects being impossible to attain, and the cost of living rising – all the difficulties manifest and compound into huge burdens for these veterans. Consequently, domestic disturbances, self-medication and drug dependency, homelessness, and incarceration are becoming more and more…
Romanoff, M. R. (2006). Assessing military veterans for posttraumatic stress disorder: A guide for primary care clinicians. Journal Of The American Academy Of Nurse Practitioners, 18(9), 409-413. doi:10.1111/j.1745-7599.2006.00147.x…
In my own definition a trauma can be described as an event that upsets the individual’s normal causing psychological, physical, and emotional harm. A trauma has different meanings to each individual however, anyone can experience a trauma. Bessel A. van der Kolk an expert in the field of traumatic stress states that, “experiencing trauma is an essential part of being human; history is written in blood” (Van der Kolk, McFlarlane, &Weisaeth, 2007). Some examples of a trauma include rape, physical abuse, violence, war, and injury. A trauma does not always require the victim to be to be the one experiencing the initial threat in fact; the victim may simply be a witness or a person offering help during the traumatic event. A DSM-IV criterion…