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…
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”
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…
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”