...Bibliography Topic: War Related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Sub Topics: Chronic PTSD in Vietnam Veterans PTSD in Iraq War Veterans SOURCE 1: What is PTSD? Retrieved on 13 Nov. 2011 http://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/pages/what-is-ptsd.asp UNDERSTANDING PTSD Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that can occur after you have been through a traumatic event. A traumatic event is something horrible and scary that you see or that happens to you. During this type of event, you think that your life or others' lives are in danger. You may feel afraid or feel that you have no control over what is happening. Anyone who has gone through a life-threatening event can develop PTSD. These events can include: * Combat or military exposure * Child sexual or physical abuse * Terrorist attacks * Sexual or physical assault * Serious accidents, such as a car wreck. * Natural disasters, such as a fire, tornado, hurricane, flood, or earthquake. After the event, you may feel scared, confused, or angry. If these feelings don't go away or they get worse, you may have PTSD. These symptoms may disrupt your life, making it hard to continue with your daily activities. How does PTSD develop? All people with PTSD have lived through a traumatic event that caused them to fear for their lives, see horrible things, and feel helpless. Strong emotions caused by the event create changes in the brain that may result in PTSD. Most people who...
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...POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER IN WAR VETERANS SC-PNG-0000009299 Alwin Aanand Thomson American Degree Program SEGi College Penang 1.0 INTRODUCTION Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a severe anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to any event that results in psychological trauma. This event may involve the threat of death to oneself or to someone else, or to one's own or someone else's physical, sexual, or psychological integrity, overwhelming the individual's ability to cope. As an effect of psychological trauma, PTSD is less frequent and more enduring than the more commonly seen acute stress response. Diagnostic symptoms for PTSD include re-experiencing the original trauma(s) through flashbacks or nightmares, avoidance of stimuli associated with the trauma, and increased arousal—such as difficulty falling or staying asleep, anger, and hyper vigilance. Formal diagnostic criteria in DSM-IV-TR require that the symptoms last more than one month and cause significant impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning (American Psychological Association). 2.0 DIAGNOSIS Criteria The diagnostic criteria for PTSD, stipulated in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV (Text Revision) (DSM-IV-TR), may be summarized as: A: Exposure to a traumatic event This must have involved both (a)...
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...soldier Abstract This paper will be discussing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in soldiers. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PSTD), classified as an anxiety disorder, has become increasingly important because of wars overseas, natural disasters, and domestic violence. Typically the individual with PTSD persistently avoids all thoughts, emotions and discussion of the stressor event and may experience amnesia for it. However, the event is commonly relived by the individual through intrusive, recurrent recollections, flashbacks and nightmares. The characteristic symptoms are considered acute if lasting less than three months, chronic if persisting three months or more, and with delayed onset if the symptoms first occur after six months or some years later. PTSD is distinct from the briefer acute stress disorder, and can cause clinical impairment in significant areas of functioning. We will be discussing how PTSD affects the soldiers coming from war, their behaviors, and interaction with society and suicide incidence. Keywords: PTSD, anxiety disorder, soldiers. Post Traumatic Stress disorder in soldier As of today a great number of soldiers that have returned from the Iraq war are suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The most current military combats in Iraq, which have involved the ground combats as well as air battle embarked by the United States since the war in Vietnam almost 50 years ago, bring up very essential inquiries about the effect of the experience...
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...Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Vietnam War Veterans COMM/156 4/14/2013 Professor Marsha Parker PTSD is an anxiety disorder classified as a mental illness caused by exposure to terrifying or life threatening events. During the time of war, people get exposed to devastating experiences such as sexual abuse, witnessing murder of family members or familiar people, and other horrors of war. As a result, the victims suffer from mental disorders since the horrible experiences are forever ingrained in their mind. Bearing in mind that bad memories are rarely erased, the experiences can be compared to a horror movie that is often played in the mind and constantly frightens the victim to death. On one hand the victim celebrates survival but on the other hand the experiences haunt one through night mares or flashbacks. The victim remains constantly on edge and is easily startled. Some common feelings include intense guilt and some time numbness- all signs of posttraumatic stress disorder (TMP, 2012). A research finding by Bruce Dohrenwend and colleagues from New York State Psychiatric Institute and Columbia’s Letter Carrier School of Public Health, shows that traumatic experiences during war predicted the onset of PTSD in Vietnam veterans (Mikulak, 2013). We will examine the PTSD in Vietnam War veterans. Human existence has been always exposed to traumatic incidences of various kinds. For instance, attacks by lions or even the twentieth century terrorist attacks to...
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...Cycle in Wars Conflict and innovation, one of the main reasons technology and society have grow into what they are today. Both these ideas go hand in hand because they each rely on the other to function properly. Without a conflict, no innovation will be crated to solve the problem at hand. Sadly, the world is filled with conflicts, whether it be on a global scale or a personally level, conflicts and innovations are everywhere. This is illustrated by the many war fought over the course of modern civilization. World War 1, the Great War, World War 2, the largest war to date, and Vietnam, the unwanted war, all of these wars were terrible, however many innovations were invented to combat the terrible violence. Because...
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...Images of war and death can wear on the psyche of anyone and can affect those exposed in vastly different ways. In Yosef Komunyakaa’s poem “Facing It,” the soldier depicted in the poem faces a struggle with images of death and his experiences in combat during the Vietnam War. He grapples with something that we understand today as post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD; “Facing It” describes the mind altering events and the subsequent symptoms through the mind of the soldier in the poem. Moreover, as many veterans must do after they return from hell, the soldier faces coping with the memory of others around him that returned home in a flag draped box. The soldier depicted in the poem takes a journey of self-actualization to understand his PTSD, and as he stares at the Vietnam Veteran’s Memorial, he seeks to understand the reality of his condition by going out on patrol one more time. His final patrol provides a sense of closure and an understanding of his condition over a decade after his experiences in Vietnam. His “black face fades, hiding inside the black granite” (Komunyakaa 1538) as he becomes just one of the many faces of war depicted on the wall. He fights back tears as he is face to face with the wall, and his unresolved memories of pain trigger a flashback of “the boobie trap’s white flash” (Komunyakaa 1539). The resulting white flash kills another soldier named Andrew Johnson in the explosion, and he recounts the day, like it was yesterday as so many with PTSD do, forcing...
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...the less we use our power the greater it will be.” (Jefferson) Power and the thought of defeat is a deterrent of war. War is appalling and uneasy. Kurt Vonnegut, novelist and veteran, was captured at the Battle of the Bulge during World War II and was a Prison of War (POW) during the famous bombing that lead to a firestorm that wiped out the city of Dresden, Germany. That dreadful experience of war would forever intrude on his mind for the rest of his life. In 1955 the Vietnam war began, the United States became involved and the American people were not supportive. This war would lasted until 1975 and it was detrimental in many ways. In 1968, the Viet Cong initiated a massive...
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...Stress Disorder (PTSD) is something that you and your friends may not know much about. The truth is unless you have direct experience with soldiers who have participated in combat, or a situation of great tragedy, you may not have even heard of PTSD. Unfortunately PTSD is something that is overlooked by more than just the general population. The problem lies in the government and those responsible for the care of PTSD victims, specifically soldiers, because the funding and care needed simply isn’t there. PTSD is a fairly recent mental disease. Diagnosed and accepted officially in 1980s, it’s known that PTSD has been around for centuries. PTSD is an emotional illness that develops when a person is exposed to a highly dangerous, very terrifying, possibly life-threatening event. Obviously this disease tends to affect soldiers much more than the general population. Before recognized as a disease PTSD was looked down upon and soldiers were shunned for showing symptoms. This brought about a negative stereotype to PTSD that is still seen today. As Americans, shouldn’t we know better than that? Seriously, are we shunning the defenders of our country that are willing to make the ultimate sacrifice everyday they wake up? The American people can do better than that, and we owe it to our soldiers to eliminate this public negative stereotype. It will not be acceptable to see a similar Post-Vietnam welcoming of our soldiers today. The weight and punishment that Vietnam veterans dealt with...
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...Using Meditation to Treat PTSD Att Yuwana PSY/315 9 July 2015 Vivian Surwill Using Meditation to Treat PTSD It is no secret that our men and women of the military may suffer from a traumatic experience. According to the VA, the numbers are as follows: • Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Enduring Freedom (OEF): About 11-20 out of every 100 Veterans (or between 11-20%) who served in OIF or OEF have PTSD in a given year. Gulf War (Desert Storm): About 12 out of every 100 Gulf War Veterans (or 12%) have PTSD in a given year. • Vietnam War: About 15 out of every 100 Vietnam Veterans (or 15%) were currently diagnosed with PTSD at the time of the most recent study in the late 1980s, the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study (NVVRS). It is estimated that about 30 out of every 100 (or 30%) of Vietnam Veterans have had PTSD in their lifetime. (How Common is PTSD? (n.d.) Many have tried to come up with an effective treatment to help our service members suffering through PTSD. Although there are many types of treatment therapy and medication, this article will focus on using forms of meditation like Transcendental Meditation (TM) or yoga to help veterans suffering through PTSD. Veterans with PTSD There are many forms of treatment, the most common being a combination of therapy and medication. However as in all treatments in psychology, not all people respond well and others don’t find it effective. This causes many veterans to stop seeking treatment...
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...Convertible”, mainly relating to the two main characters Shadrack and Henry. Both of the stories focus on the return of the two main characters coming home from war. Shadrack from WWI and Henry from the Vietnam War. Both of these wars were extremely brutal, WWI having over 100,000 US casualties and the Vietnam War having just over 58,000 US casualties. These astonishing amount of casualties allow us to see the reasoning behind the problems that each main character finds themselves with in their respective stories. Both Shadrack and Henry suffer from what would nowadays be diagnosed as post-traumatic stress disorder or PTSD. PTSD is an anxiety disorder which is caused by very stressful, frightening or distressing events and is very commonly diagnosed to war veterans. Shadrack’s PTSD was the result of seeing one of his fellow comrades shot in the face whilst stood next to him and Henry’s PTSD was the result of being captured by Vietnamese soldiers and held captive for 6 months. You can see that both Shadrack and Henry are severely affected by the events that they experienced at war, both of their personalities and behavior are clearly changed. Another similarity between the two stories is that both Shadrack and Henry are ethnic minority soldiers, Shadrack being of black ethnicity and Henry Native American. Although during the time period where both stories are set place there was a bad prejudice towards ethnic minorities in America, neither Shadrack or Henry are treated negatively...
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...When most Americans hear the term PTSD the think of the young soldier who has just come home from the horrors of war. Few think of what happens to these veterans as they age and become elderly men and women. Over the past 30 years treatment options and protocols for posttraumatic stress disorder have become more formalized and reliant on evidence. Many of these established PTSD protocol driven interventions were originally developed to help Vietnam veterans while they were younger men and women. The problem is that these Vietnam veterans are now in their late sixties and early seventies and there is no current established therapy for treating aging war veterans. The purpose of conducting this study is to focus on the aging war veterans and...
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...the name for the acquired mental condition that follows a psychologically distressing event. The root cause of this disorder is a traumatic event which embeds itself firmly in the mind that the person may be bounded by the pain and agony of the event, experiencing it again and again as the mind stays connected with the past rather than the present, which makes it difficult to think of the future. PTSD has different effects that manifest itself in different ways in individuals such as veterans, post-partum women, and 9/11 victims. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that develops after a traumatic event. PTSD has also been called shell shock or battle fatigue. The exact cause of PTSD is unknown; however, it is triggered by exposure to some sort of traumatic event(s). Situations in which a person feels intense fear, helplessness, or horror are considered traumatic. PTSD has been reported in people who experienced, war, rape, sexual abuse, car accident, pregnancy, and much more. Not everyone who experiences a traumatic event will develop PTSD. People with PTSD experience symptoms of anxiety. Re-experiencing symptoms, avoidance symptoms, and hyper-arousal symptoms are three types of symptoms that are observed. Re-experiencing symptoms may cause problems in a person’s everyday routine. They can start from the person’s own thoughts and feelings. Words, objects, or situations that are reminders of the event can also be a factor. Things that remind a person...
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...Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a type of Operation Stress Injury; it is a mental illness. PTSD involves exposure to trauma involving death or the threat of death, serious injury, or sexual violence. PTSD causes intrusive symptoms such as re-experiencing the traumatic event. Many people have vivid nightmares, flashbacks, or thoughts of the event that seem to come from nowhere (http://www.cmha.ca/mental_health/post-traumatic-stress-disorder/). They often avoid things that remind them of the event—for example, someone who was hurt in a car crash might avoid driving. PTSD can make people feel very nervous or ‘on edge’ all the time. Many feel startled very easily, have a hard time concentrating, feel irritable, or have problems sleeping...
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...While screening measures are invaluable when assessing for trauma, as they investigate symptoms, symptom severity, traumatic experiences, etc., it is also necessary to be aware of common symptoms, especially when working with a specific population (i.e., Vietnam veterans). Although Holloway and Ursano (1984) conducted this study to better understand the role of memory, as well as the importance of metaphors and social contextual factors in memory, the case studies presented were discussed in the current literature review because they described and clarified common symptoms within this population. The first case study featured an individual who served as a sniper during the Vietnam war, and subsequently experienced disability, secondary to dissociation, which presented itself in the form of dreams and intrusive thoughts (Holloway & Ursano, 1984). Specifically, individual dissociated and found himself playing the role of this sniper, similarly to his role in Vietnam (Holloway & Ursano, 1984). He expressed feeling an enormous amount of guilt as the result of these experiences....
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...foreign chemicals and one’s own self. (PTSD) or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder can only be developed if one has been exposed to a very traumatic event evolving an actual threat or serious injury, or a threat to a physical integrity of oneself or others. Most importantly a clinical experience with PTSD diagnosis has shown that most people who have been exposed to a horrific event do not necessarily acquire PTSD although that is the main cause of it; there was a vast amount of individual differences regarding the capacity or threshold to take a traumatic event. Very many illnesses have an effect on American literature, and this is because of how Agent Orange, Gulf War Syndrome, and PTSD came about. They affect literature by the way the media novels and authors portray them. Different people react to events differently; no one person is the same as one another. Like pain the traumatic experience is filtered through a cognitive and emotional process called appraisal. PTSD can take a very psychological and emotional toll on ones personal life, such as resentment and possibly force one to act out in odd ways. There are three different categories: pre-traumatic, traumatic and post traumatic factors. Pre traumatic could be anything from familiar psychiatric illness, parental poverty, childhood trauma, neuroticism, introversion, divorced parents before age 10, Etc. Post traumatic environment have also been known to relate to later development of PTSD. Because of the post military support...
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