Preview

Ptsd In The Hunger Games Essay

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1720 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Ptsd In The Hunger Games Essay
Imagine being a teenager that has been forced to have the responsibility of protecting their whole family, but one day, their entire life gets altered into having to murder other children for survival; this is the fate of tributes of the Hunger Games. In The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins illustrates a desolate world where survivors of the post-apocalyptic continent of Panem segregate into twelve separate districts and tasked with specific responsibilities of harvesting the Earth’s remaining natural resources. These unfortunate districts are now subjecte to the cruel oppression and exploitation by Panem’s governing body, the Capitol, which exerts its sphere of influence over them through the employment of a tyrannical dictatorial regime, the …show more content…
Additionally, several other symptoms of PTSD can impact the minds of those overcome by this disorder. While addressing the misconceptions of modern literature, Paul Chappell emphasizes, “…Children reading [The Hunger Games] are given the unrealistic impression that our minds are virtually immune to trauma during combat. …The most common features of serious war trauma are a chronic sense of meaningless, losing the will to live, mental breakdowns, an inability to trust the leads to self-destructive behavior, and going berserk.”(113). As if the financial and physical burdens that come along with war aren’t enough, those who participate in violence normally end up suffering from emotional alterations as well. Other symptoms of PTSD include “Sleep disturbances, depression, feeling jittery or on guard, irritability, more aggressive than before, or even violent, avoiding certain places or situations that bring back memories, flashbacks or intrusive images, losing touch with reality; difficulty concentrating, and other physical symptoms” (Roux). These are all psychological results of violence in both children and adults. Most people experience some symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder during and after witnessing war and violence because the human brain can only handle so much disaster and trauma at

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Ishmeal's Case Study

    • 518 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The traumatic experiences children face when endured as casualties of warfare is devastating this is exasperated by those children who are forced to actively participant as soldiers increasing their risks of physical and psychological repercussions. In addition, children from lower socio-economic environments have higher risk factors for development of post-stress symptoms such as depression, anxiety and behavioral concerns (Vindevogel, 2011).…

    • 518 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Horace Whaley Causes

    • 562 Words
    • 3 Pages

    According to statistics it is estimated that one in twenty of the surviving World War II veterans suffer from some level of post-traumatic stress disorder. Also known as PTSD, it occurs when one experiences a tragic, petrifying moment. War veterans suffer from this condition all the time. There are many ways to treat post-traumatic stress disorder, but not to completely get rid of it. Some treatments consist of medication, stress management classes, as well as different therapies. In war, you see and live through traumatic events. You foresee individuals that get there arm or legs blown off, on top of ones that lose their lives. Gunshots and explosions are implanted in your brain; there is no way to forget.…

    • 562 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Imagine facing the horrors of a war at the young age of 19. In the real world as well as fictional novels, the Vietnam War was considered to be a war unlike any other. Many soldiers faced untold brutal challenges, and often wondered who the enemy really was. In many depicted pieces of literature such as Fallen Angels the fictional stories cannot begin to compare to the real traumatic ones. Research has shown that the traumatic circumstances have caused soldiers mental stress. Research shows the brutality that the soldiers of the Vietnam War went through, the novel Fallen Angels and the video series “Dear America: Letters Home” are very similar in this depiction, but also have slight differences.…

    • 954 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    PTSD, or commonly known as Post-traumatic stress disorder, is the development of characteristic symptoms after a psychologically traumatic event, typically outside the range of usual human experience. It is important to remember that the reaction to stress is highly individualized, which means that the stress that would cause this syndrome in one person could possibly have little, if any, effect on another person. (TCMD). Vietnam veterans are particularly vulnerable to post-traumatic stress disorder. Thousands of the 600,000 Americans who served in that war still suffer feelings of alienation, sleeping problems, relieving of painful experiences, and difficulty concentrating. Most veterans do not suffer from the disorder; of those who do, many did not experience symptoms until months or even years after their return home. Those who suffer from the disorder seem more likely to have other stressful events in their lives, which in turn make the disorder seem worse—a vicious cycle. (Lefton)…

    • 698 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Ptsd in the Vietnam War

    • 1386 Words
    • 6 Pages

    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.…

    • 1386 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) causes a painful recollection of a past harrowing event that haunts victims for the rest of their lives and often causes extreme anxiety, depression, and in some cases, drug abuse and suicide. The suicide rates have increased effectually among soldiers, with about twenty-eight veterans killing themselves each day (Rosenshield). Many veterans are diagnosed with PTSD, and are forced to live with it for the rest of their lives. It is hard to understand the shift in a person before and after serving in war because the change is not physical, but mental. Though a person may seem perfectly normal, their mental make-up is morphed in a way that changes them forever. As time progresses, medical advances increase. Less and less soldiers are being injured and killed on the battlefield, however the damage being done to soldiers is not controlled due to PTSD. Until the 1980’s, medical professionals did not recognize PTSD as an illness. This being said, many veterans traumatized in the Vietnam war did not get the recognition they needed from psychiatric doctors and suffered alone. This rings true for both World Wars as well,…

    • 938 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Strategy 1:A main problem that soldiers with PTSD try to cope with is the stigma that surrounds their illness. In the military, many people think that having PTSD is a form of weakness. This ideology is what hurts many soldiers. Their friends,colleagues, and families think that they are some sort of liability and that they are weak and useless. For captain Wayne Johnston(a military captain with ptsd), “the pain of dealing with his diagnosis – and the stigma that comes with it – is worse than any physical pain he’s ever suffered.” To deal with this issue there must be a massive reconstruction of…

    • 922 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Slaughter house 5

    • 1144 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Post-traumatic stress disorder, also known as PTSD, is an affliction from which many war veterans suffer while trying to maintain their normal daily lives. Although anyone can get post-traumatic stress disorder, it is most common among war veterans because of the extremely distressing and gruesome events that they endure while serving active duty in wartime. In the novel Slaughterhouse Five, the author, Kurt Vonnegut, depicts the main character Billy Pilgrim with symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder after fighting in World War II. Although he is never officially diagnosed, it seems impossible to deny that Billy suffers from PTSD. The foremost theme of the novel is the immense impact that war has on its participants and the lingering effects of that experience after they return from combat. A shockingly large number of soldiers suffer from PTSD after serving their country in a war time capacity. The Department of Veterans Affairs' National Center for PTSD estimates that 1 in 20 of the nation's 2.5 million surviving World War II vets suffers from the disorder. Some of the symptoms experienced from post-traumatic stress disorder include troubling thoughts, flashback episodes, dreams, vivid illusions, hallucinations and disturbing recollections.…

    • 1144 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    War affects people in many ways. The war affects people not only physical but also mentally. Stress has a very big effect on people whose in the war. Not just any kind of stress but post traumatic stress disorder is a very common type. PTSD became diagnosis with influence from social movement including veteran, feminist and holocaust survivors .Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition triggered by experiencing a terrifying event. People who has PTSD experienced many life changing things not just because the things that happened to them but the things they watch happen to others. While in the war there are many things that happens that will stick with people forever like deaths and life threatening injuries. People who have PTSD have many symptoms including flashbacks, social isolation,…

    • 749 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Like Water For Chocolate

    • 452 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Eli Fisher accurately portrays the effects of war on human behavior. Soldiers today can be diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD due to the what I mentioned in my last paragraph. As to the National Center the after affects of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, "People often have flashbacks and nightmares of what was taking place in the war, which gives people a hard time sleeping at night and feel detach,…

    • 452 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    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).…

    • 2188 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Archetype Trauma

    • 2117 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Many people experience trauma as they age. Certain individuals will experience a range of physically distressing events, from typical household injuries to brutal domestic violence. For some people, however, the effects are more severe. If the occurring events are particularly distressing, an individual can suffer lifelong symptoms of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder). Some commonly overlooked symptoms of this disorder include extreme guilt, vivid nightmares, and extreme irritability—for example, hundreds of soldiers after World War II experienced nightmares, hallucinations, crying fits, and hypersensitivity. Unfortunately for these combatants, the ruthless effects war had on them lasted for years. However, in spite of the occurring events,…

    • 2117 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    PTSD In The Military Essay

    • 1052 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Posttraumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, is defined as “A prolonged maladaptive reaction to a traumatic event that is characterized by intense fear, avoidance of stimuli associated with the event, and reliving the event.” (Nevid & Rathus, p.261). PTSD is common in soldiers who have fought in wars. However, not just the individual suffering from PTSD is affected. The family members also have to learn to deal with the effects that this disorder has on their loved one. What resources are available to help these family members learn to understand and cope with this disorder?…

    • 1052 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a type of anxiety disorder. PTSD usually occurs after someone has seen or experienced a traumatic event that involved the threat of injury and death. It is commonly associated with the soldiers who have fought in wars or conflicts. All of the symptoms of PTSD are classified and categorized into three distinct groups: “reliving”, avoidance, and arousal. Some of these symptoms include flashbacks, repeated nightmares, detachment, hyper-vigilance, and being easily angered, along with many others. (PubMed Health, PTSD) (*1). “According to a survey conducted by the Veteran’s Administration, some 500,000 of 3 million troops suffered from PTSD after the Vietnam War. The survey also states that rates of divorce, suicide, and alcoholism and drug addiction were higher among Vietnam veterans.” (History, Vietnam War) (*2). We may never fully know how much this disorder has truly affected our troops. Most veterans are not open about their condition, however some have accepted it and open up about it. So, how much does PTSD really affect someone?…

    • 1209 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    War will never be pretty or fun. It will always be gruesome and will cause the loss of many lives. Everyone grieves over those lives that were lost, but what about the people that live? What about the people that are in the military hospitals who are now amputees? How about the ones that have psychological problems? What about those who have physical and mental issues? People are often not informed of this. One type of a mental disease is known as PTSD, there is a cause, effects, and treatment to this often carried war disease.…

    • 653 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays