Ptsd In The Things They Carried
Tim O’Brien beautifully details the war zone and its aftereffects on specific veterans in The Things They Carried. Some war veterans leave their respective battle with war stories and life lessons to tell, but others leave empty-handed with an empty soul. Despite remedies recently implanted for veterans, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) continues to negatively impact not only certain veterans but also society.
To begin with, veterans who are diagnosed with PTSD have difficulty adjusting to the civilian world and interacting with people who have not experienced stress in a combat zone. For instance, Alfred Korzybski, a WWI combat veteran, suffered insomnia and constantly believed airplanes that were flying above him would bomb him (Levinson). Oftentimes, PTSD victims experience shifts from …show more content…
explicit to implicit memory. Explicit memory refers to past events and implicit memory refers to present events. An example of this is a patient reliving a car crash in its entirety. This sudden recollection could involve re-experiencing a variety of memories regarding human senses: “[a] patient could clearly remember the sound and fury of the original event, but no longer experienced it in [the] ‘here and now’” (Gibson). Moreover, certain traits that are vital in a combat zone are not valued nearly as much in the civilian world (Wright). Traits such as hypervigilance and repressed emotions are seen as mental deficiencies and furthermore, the PTSD label attributed to these traits perpetuates a sense of isolation. Lastly, the term PTSD already has a negative connotation within itself, and the majority of the civilian population associates mental disorders and societal adjustment issues to both combat and non-combat veterans. With this in mind, it is important to take the vastly different cultures of the civilian world and the military world into consideration.
After a little over 50 years, PTSD was finally acknowledged as a legitimate medical disorder after it was listed in the DSM-III in 1980 and with the efforts of many veterans, this medical ailment is now seriously recognized and treated (Levinson). Essentially, PTSD has four base indicators: intrusion symptoms, avoidance, hyperarousal, and negative changes in cognition and mood.
Intrusion symptoms are essentially the inability to keep damaging memories from recurring and virtual reality (VR) is one of many strategies for overcoming this symptom (Rothbaum). Avoidance is the attempt to avoid triggers or stimuli which may incite memories to return. Similarly treated, hyperarousal is comparable to jumpiness and hypersensitivity to external stimuli and is treatable. Certain drugs have proven beneficial to reversing these symptoms such as fluoxetine and particularly prazosin (American Journal of Psychiatry 333-336). Ten Vietnam combat veterans received prazosin and placebo in a 20-week double-blind crossover protocol, and “[p]razosin was superior to placebo for … change in overall PTSD severity and functional status …” (Raskind et al). Negative moods and cognition changes are broad, encompassing symptoms which include emotional numbness, suicidal thoughts, hopelessness, and a general lack of interest for activities previously enjoyed. For example, in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, one veteran named Norman Bowker commits suicide. His note to O’Brien reads “there’s no place to go. … In general. My life, I mean”
(O’Brien 150). Once again, the administration of drugs and hormones for reducing or eliminating these symptoms is reliable but for Bowker, it was too late (Rasmusson). Another method for treating PTSD with war veterans is through general semantics which was founded by Korzybski (Levison). In the medical field, general semantics, by Merriam-Webster’s definition, is an educational discipline “intended to improve [responsive habits] of human beings to their environment … and one another…” by the critical use of words and symbols. Army psychiatrist and student of Korzybski, Douglas Kelley, conducted five group discussions alongside his colleagues with soldiers undergoing treatment. These sessions with the veterans included an explanation of PTSD symptoms, a justification of the treatment being employed, and a discussion on overcoming present symptoms and preventing potential symptoms. The objective was to supply just enough material and discussion to the patients without leading them to feel lectured. Most often than not, veterans who have PTSD exhibit reflexive negative identifications; utilizing the scientific method of observing, hypothesizing, and experimenting by exposing themselves to specific conditions reduces these symptoms. Take this real-life case into consideration: a veteran’s misconception of public service sirens caused a desire within him to drop to the ground, and he consequently broke into a sweat out of fear of his explicit memories. To overcome these symptoms, the veteran visited a fire station and inspected the sirens which allowed him to formulate a “rational assessment of siren sounds and [thus] gain[ed] greater self-control when he heard them” (Levinson). Overall, PTSD treatments are continuously evolving and improving, and pharmaceutical drugs, hormones, the scientific method, and general semantics are just a handful of therapies.
Ultimately, progress within this field is underway as demonstrated by the billions of dollars spent in 2012 on PTSD treatment for veterans. PTSD is a prevalent condition in today’s society, but ever since its official recognition after the Vietnam War, many solutions have been developed and many veterans are on their way to a healthy recovery.
To begin with, veterans who are diagnosed with PTSD have difficulty adjusting to the civilian world and interacting with people who have not experienced stress in a combat zone. For instance, Alfred Korzybski, a WWI combat veteran, suffered insomnia and constantly believed airplanes that were flying above him would bomb him (Levinson). Oftentimes, PTSD victims experience shifts from …show more content…
explicit to implicit memory. Explicit memory refers to past events and implicit memory refers to present events. An example of this is a patient reliving a car crash in its entirety. This sudden recollection could involve re-experiencing a variety of memories regarding human senses: “[a] patient could clearly remember the sound and fury of the original event, but no longer experienced it in [the] ‘here and now’” (Gibson). Moreover, certain traits that are vital in a combat zone are not valued nearly as much in the civilian world (Wright). Traits such as hypervigilance and repressed emotions are seen as mental deficiencies and furthermore, the PTSD label attributed to these traits perpetuates a sense of isolation. Lastly, the term PTSD already has a negative connotation within itself, and the majority of the civilian population associates mental disorders and societal adjustment issues to both combat and non-combat veterans. With this in mind, it is important to take the vastly different cultures of the civilian world and the military world into consideration.
After a little over 50 years, PTSD was finally acknowledged as a legitimate medical disorder after it was listed in the DSM-III in 1980 and with the efforts of many veterans, this medical ailment is now seriously recognized and treated (Levinson). Essentially, PTSD has four base indicators: intrusion symptoms, avoidance, hyperarousal, and negative changes in cognition and mood.
Intrusion symptoms are essentially the inability to keep damaging memories from recurring and virtual reality (VR) is one of many strategies for overcoming this symptom (Rothbaum). Avoidance is the attempt to avoid triggers or stimuli which may incite memories to return. Similarly treated, hyperarousal is comparable to jumpiness and hypersensitivity to external stimuli and is treatable. Certain drugs have proven beneficial to reversing these symptoms such as fluoxetine and particularly prazosin (American Journal of Psychiatry 333-336). Ten Vietnam combat veterans received prazosin and placebo in a 20-week double-blind crossover protocol, and “[p]razosin was superior to placebo for … change in overall PTSD severity and functional status …” (Raskind et al). Negative moods and cognition changes are broad, encompassing symptoms which include emotional numbness, suicidal thoughts, hopelessness, and a general lack of interest for activities previously enjoyed. For example, in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, one veteran named Norman Bowker commits suicide. His note to O’Brien reads “there’s no place to go. … In general. My life, I mean”
(O’Brien 150). Once again, the administration of drugs and hormones for reducing or eliminating these symptoms is reliable but for Bowker, it was too late (Rasmusson). Another method for treating PTSD with war veterans is through general semantics which was founded by Korzybski (Levison). In the medical field, general semantics, by Merriam-Webster’s definition, is an educational discipline “intended to improve [responsive habits] of human beings to their environment … and one another…” by the critical use of words and symbols. Army psychiatrist and student of Korzybski, Douglas Kelley, conducted five group discussions alongside his colleagues with soldiers undergoing treatment. These sessions with the veterans included an explanation of PTSD symptoms, a justification of the treatment being employed, and a discussion on overcoming present symptoms and preventing potential symptoms. The objective was to supply just enough material and discussion to the patients without leading them to feel lectured. Most often than not, veterans who have PTSD exhibit reflexive negative identifications; utilizing the scientific method of observing, hypothesizing, and experimenting by exposing themselves to specific conditions reduces these symptoms. Take this real-life case into consideration: a veteran’s misconception of public service sirens caused a desire within him to drop to the ground, and he consequently broke into a sweat out of fear of his explicit memories. To overcome these symptoms, the veteran visited a fire station and inspected the sirens which allowed him to formulate a “rational assessment of siren sounds and [thus] gain[ed] greater self-control when he heard them” (Levinson). Overall, PTSD treatments are continuously evolving and improving, and pharmaceutical drugs, hormones, the scientific method, and general semantics are just a handful of therapies.
Ultimately, progress within this field is underway as demonstrated by the billions of dollars spent in 2012 on PTSD treatment for veterans. PTSD is a prevalent condition in today’s society, but ever since its official recognition after the Vietnam War, many solutions have been developed and many veterans are on their way to a healthy recovery.