Stress Disorder In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

War - After the War Post-traumatic Stress Disorder is a severe anxiety disorder developed after exposure to an event that resulted in psychological trauma. Post-traumatic Stress Disorder has been around for thousands of years recognized as battle fatigue, accident neurosis, and shell shock. Although it wasn’t until 1980 that the American Psychiatric Association added Post-traumatic Stress Disorder to the third edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III) classification scheme (Friedman, MD, PhD). Post-traumatic Stress Disorder can expose itself in many different ways, through anger and incidents of rage and violence, as depression, nightmares, feelings of guilt, and often goes along with substance
abuse problems. Post-traumatic Stress Disorder has affected thirty-one percent of the men and twenty-seven percent of the women (Alyah). When veterans returned home there was nothing in place for them to seek help. It was like they were fighting their own war, after the war. There are different sub forms of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, Acute Stress Disorder, Complex Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, and Delayed Onset. In acute stress disorder the symptoms last less than three months. Complex Post-traumatic Stress Disorder describes the symptoms of extended trauma that can linger or repeat for months or years at a time. In Delayed Onset Post-traumatic Stress Disorder symptoms do not occur until at least six months after the traumatic experience, sometimes even longer.
Delayed Onset Post-traumatic Stress Disorder affects many veterans when placed in a combat zone.
In “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’brien he conveys that not only did the soldiers fighting in Vietnam carry the material things they needed to survive, they also carried around the psychological baggage of the war and the things they were faced with daily. O’brien shows readers through his writing that Vietnam had a way of altering you. You were no longer the person you were when you arrived there. In order to survive soldiers had to close themselves off and become numb to what was going on around them. This is destined to cause serious psychological
problems.
Upon arriving home Vietnam veterans were faced with the dissatisfaction of American citizens. Before this time period when veterans would arrive home from war they were viewed as heroes. Vietnam veterans were perceived as slaughterers.
The reaction of American citizens towards Vietnam veterans played a huge part of creating feelings of isolation, and guilt. In the chapters Speaking of Courage, and Notes in “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien you really get to see inside the mind of a Vietnam veteran returning home from war. O’Brien shares a letter of a fellow solider in it he writes, “What you should do, Tim, is write a story about a guy who feels like he got zapped over in that shithole. A guy who can’t get his act together and just drives around town all day and can’t think of any damn place to go and doesn’t know how to get there anyway. This guy wants to talk about it, but he can’t…”(151). You can see the struggles this veteran is faced with, and certainly he is not the only one. Three years after the publication of the story, Norman Bowker hung himself.
Many veterans, like Norman Bowker, don’t seek help soon enough. They have a mentality in their head that they are not allowed to break down emotionally or psychologically. Therefore they try to block out what has happened in their minds, or they decide to self-medicate which in the long run only creates countless problems. When Vietnam veterans returned home from war there was no treatment in place for them. Many families simply acted like nothing ever happened, they didn’t want to talk about Vietnam, leaving veterans no other option but to bottle up their emotions. And due to all the protestors they didn’t feel they were able to talk freely about what happened over there. Some of these men may not have been physically wounded, but the psychological scars they carry around may have been far worse.
Forty years later and Post-traumatic Stress Disorder is still and ongoing problem for Vietnam veterans. “Vietnam veterans have often been portrayed as mentally disturbed, drug-addicted misfits permanently damaged by their experiences in war and further scarred by unhappy homecomings; however, the majority made successful transitions into postwar life. Nevertheless, a large number of veterans suffered from physical as well as psychological wounds” (Alvah). Post-traumatic Stress Disorder among Vietnam veterans has increased in the past five to ten years. Mary Tendall, a psychiatrist specializing in Post-traumatic Stress Disorder states in an article, “Explanations from the veterans who are trying to make sense of this expanded intensity range from, “It’s all due to the war in Iraq…” to “Now that I have retired, I can’t handle the empty time on my hands.”(Tendall)
Since 1980 when the American Psychiatric Association added Post-traumatic Stress Disorder as a clinical diagnosis, many treatment options have been put in effect for veterans suffering from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder.
“Currently, Trauma Management Therapy is proving to be the most effective treatment for chronic combat-related PTSD. This form of therapy is a multicomponent approach, and it recognizes the complex nature of the often chronic nature of combat- related disorders” (Encyclopedia of Trauma…). Every VA medical center has Post-traumatic Stress Disorder specialists who provide treatment options to veterans suffering with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. They offer one-to-one mental health assessments and testing, one-to-one psychotherapy also involving family therapy sessions. They also provide group therapy, and incorporate medicine if needed. Along with all these options they also provide inpatient and outpatient programs geared toward specific needs. The number of Vietnam vets in VA treatment programs for PTSD more than tripled between 1999 and 2011, going from 90,695 to 299,076 (Carson).
The government is still creating more programs to better aid veterans in dealing with Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. Staff writer, Rob Carson for The News Tribune states in his article, “Over the past five years, Congress has added billions of dollars for mental health care to the VA budget and hired 7,000 additional mental health professionals at VA clinics and
hospitals. The VA’s mental health budget jumped by 25 percent in 2011 to $5.7 billion” (Carson).
Post-traumatic Stress Disorder was a serious battle wound in Vietnam and veterans are still suffering to this day. It can present itself in many different forms and shouldn’t be left untreated. Thankfully since the Vietnam War, many treatment options have been put into effect. Making it easier for veterans to get the help they deserve. In earlier years, veterans could be seen as weak for seeking help for their Post-traumatic Stress Disorder, fortunately now we see the importance of treatment for this serious psychological disorder. Vietnam veterans are among the many veterans in the United States today that will suffer for years to come.