Introduction Throughout life, an individual may endure emotionally and physically straining moments causing the person to become downhearted, and or irate. These feelings are normal, but may however become a problem when these feelings prohibit someone from living a normal ' life. An estimated 5.2 million American adults ages 18 to 54, or approximately 3.6 percent of people in this age group in a given year, have PTSD (Narrow, Rae, Regier). This purpose of this report is to prove whether or not Holden Caulfield, the main character of J.D. Salingers 's book The Catcher In The Rye, is depressed.
What Is A Depressive Disorder? Depression is a serious medical illness that negatively affects how a person conducts him/herself, and the way he/she think. Depression may include anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorders, manic depressions. People with a depressive illness cannot merely pull themselves together ' and get better. About 5% of the population will have some form of a mental illness at some point in their lives. Half of these people will also have a substance abuse
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problem, according to statistics from the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, or NAMI.
What is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)? Difficult situations are a part of life, and people everywhere must cope with difficult circumstances such as conflict in out lives. See Appendix 1 (Depression). But occasionally, people experience an event, which is so unexpected that it continues to have serious affects, long after it has happened. Like depression in general these events may include a traumatic event involving actual or threatened death to themselves or others. Also learning that a close friend is in danger or has died can cause this type of anxiety disorder (What Is A Depressive Disorder?). This condition is one of several known as an anxiety disorder. One significannot