Forever Changed

In this article, Peter Katel interviews veterans returning from Afghanistan. He tells us how one service member, Coleman Bean is diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after his first combat tour in Iraq. However, two years after returning home to South River, N.J., Sgt. Bean returned to duty. After that second deployment, the 25-year-old shot and killed himself. This shows us just how bad this awful disorder is, we need to stop ignoring the situation at hand and help or service men and women returning from war torn countries. Reading this article has given me incite on just how bad the situation is and will go well in my presentation.

For many veterans overcoming the mind scaring scenes, and memories of war when they return home can be more of the battle than actually fighting on the frontline. In this movie the main character suffers from PTSD, and there is one extremely captivating scene where he is sitting on the couch staring at blankTV, hearing gunshot and explosion sounds. Even if the viewer has no experience with war, the vivid sounds used by the producer in this film bring them to understand some of the pain felt by soldiers suffering from

Perhaps attesting to the enhanced understanding of PTSD and alarm at the troubling suicide rates of veterans, the media seems to be raising the public’s attention about the condition, for example, through the use of documentaries. In 2005, during the second push of the Iraqi and Afghanistan war PBS FRONTLINE released a documentary entitled, “The Soldier’s Heart,” This documentary gives an overview of the history of PTSD, but focuses specifically on the psychological toll of the Iraq war. It illuminates the fact that despite advances in our understanding of PTSD, there continues to be a stigma against psychological problems in the

The detrimental effects of war on soldiers coming home has been an issue since the beginning of war itself. It has been known by many names; shell shock during WWI, battle fatigue during WWII, and PTSD in modern times. The effects of war is an age old issue addressed in The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien. O’Brien uses women as a literary element by portraying women as fantasized for their innocence at first, but are really a metaphor to explain the changes that soldiers experience as a result of war, all to explore the damaging effects that war and PTSD have on the men fighting it.

Some effects of PTSD include memory loss and loss of sleep. Steinbeck uses imagery to reveal what the soldier’s experience was like. He quotes, “sleep can come without warning and like a drug… All the main nerve trunks are deadened, and out of the battered cortex curious dreamlike thoughts emerge.” (19) This is important as it explains the soldiers fight till they are physically shut down. Sleep is unpredictable for them as they are always up looking for danger. Also he states, “The anesthesia your body has given you to protect you is beginning to wear off,and, as with most anesthesia, it is a little painful”. (19) The "anesthesia" symbolizes sleep that overcomes the soldier. Steinbeck relates this as almost like a body breaking down. The narrator describes “the outlines in your memory are vague. The next day the memory slips farther, until very little is left at all.”(19) It explains that soldiers have the inability to recount certain experiences and events.The issue of PTSD still occurs to contemporary event and it affects many people. A way PTSD is relevant today is shown in Sebastian Junger’s HOW PTSD BECAME A PROBLEM FAR BEYOND THE BATTLEFIELD. Their whole body is battered by emotions, physical trauma, and confusion. Junger address from the “Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology”, which found “lack of support” is great factor why they experience it. Thus, vets are alienated from

    War manipulates people in war is a major message portrayed in the short story Ambush by Tim O’Brien. The protagonist in the story is at war and almost automatically throws out a grenade while out on watch at a man, a twenty year-old, and kills him. He is scarred by his actions and cannot live the rest of his days as he usually would. As the protagonist explains in the story, “In the ordinary hours of life I try not to dwell on it, but now and then, when I’m reading a newspaper, or sitting alone in a room, I’ll look up and see the young man coming out of the morning fog”(813). The war has manipulated his brain into seeing the young man whom he killed, not being able to live down this situation. Along with this, it is ironic in a way that the story begins with his young daughter, and ends with a young man. Anyway, it is demonstrated that war manipulates people, because just as the protagonist, many suffer from PTSD.

Many of the men who returned from the war were suffering from serious injuries and the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and shell-shock. They were too tormented to communicate their experiences and involvements, and took them a long time to recover from the distress. Letters were received from soldiers back home, with families left wondering if this will be the last; ‘Dear Mrs Mack, I am writing to tell you of the death of your son Cpl F J Mack. He was brought in here quite early on Monday morning, wounded in the abdomen. Everything possible was done for him and during the day he seemed to maintain his strength, but towards evening he grew weaker/ died about 8.30pm.

Michelle Rosenthal once said, “Trauma creates change you don’t choose. Healing is about creating change you do choose.” Lauren Groff, who has a Masters of Fine Arts in fiction from the University of Wisconsin wrote the short story “Good People” which, shows readers the exact opposite way to recover from trauma. In Groffs short story readers witness a soldier who arrives home after spending three years in war. Although he comes home physically healthy he displays signs of having post traumatic stress disorder or PTSD for short. The soldier and his parents do not say a word to one another during the entire story which rapidly develops tension and makes the readers think that conflict is starting to emerge from this silence. Silence affects numerous issues in society today, but one issue silence affects that tends to be overlooked is PTSD. PTSD not only affects the people who have this illness, but in fact affects everyone around PTSD.

Veterans make up seven percent of the American population, but they account for twenty percent of its suicides. Yes, that is indeed a real statistic, more importantly, what is the government, the people that ordered those men and women deliberately into harm’s way, doing about this tragedy. In light of recent conflicts the United States has been engaging in, such as the conflicts in the Middle East, a new silent killer of returning veterans, has become more visible to the public. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, also known as PTSD, has taken its toll recently on Veterans returning from the harsh

Loud explosions and small pings from distant rifle fire ring throughout the humid air. Short flashbacks are flooding back as sleep slowly seems so far away. Tim O’Brien, who was a Vietnam veteran, wrote several of stories about the war and the terrifying experiences that he was forced to have. One specific story is “The Things They Carried”. In this short story, he remembers what it was like to be a soldier; what his priorities were, the things he saw, and what still haunts him to this day. He also speaks about the items which he kept with him, both personal and regulation equipment, and even what his comrades lugged around. The most important thing that he talks about is how the war has affected his fellow soldiers both mentally and physically. This is known as PTSD or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder which can be caused by more than just war. For instance, Roosevelt Roberts who worked at the Pentagon was one of the first responders of the plane crash during the September eleventh terrorist attack. He describes the events in great detail to interviewer, Jennifer Roberts. He mentions things that he cannot get out of his head, like the smell of burning flesh which is very common with PTSD. What can say with certainty is that these two men have something in common and it is PTSD.

The rambunctious behavior of the soldier’s triumphant victory is a strong message visually for the viewer. These soldiers struggle to find their identity and once the war ends, the identity they’ve build at war vanishes, (McCutcheon, 2007). As a result, they essentially lose a part of them selves, (McCutcheon, 2007). When they return home, many soldiers struggle with psychological issues that prevent them from resuming their once regular lives, (McCutcheon, 2007). The images of soldiers celebrating at the end of war give the viewer a taste of this problem. This also allows the viewer insight to the deeper issues surrounding an American soldier’s mental stability and mentality. Through this image, along with many others throughout the film, the viewer is able to dig deeper and truly analyze what they are seeing.

The author’s use of personal experiences to highlight the misogyny and abuse experienced in and out of the military and the steps she took or didn’t take to mitigate it made her story compelling.. For example, “My father had my sister by the throat a foot off the ground against the wall in the dining room while my mother screamed he was hurting her and to let her go” (16). As a survivor of domestic violence, this was also a painful book to read and not one that brought a lot of memories and emotions to the surface. The aforementioned passage is all too familiar, however in my experience “My father had my brother by the throat”. MJ vows to never be trapped like that again, and recognizes that the feeling she hates most in the world is fear (16).

"You just don 't know," she said. "You hide in this little fortress, behind wire and sandbags, and you don 't know what it 's all about. Sometimes I want to eat this place. Vietnam. I want to swallow the whole country—the dirt, the death—I just want to eat it and have it there inside me. That 's how I feel. It 's like . . . this appetite. I get scared sometimes—lots of times—but it 's not bad. You know? I feel close to myself. When I 'm out there at night, I feel close to my own body, I can feel my blood moving, my skin and my fingernails, everything, it 's like I 'm full of electricity and I 'm glowing in the dark—I 'm on fire almost—I 'm burning away into nothing—but it doesn 't matter because I know exactly who I am. You can 't feel like that anywhere else."” (O’ Brien 80-81). Tim O’ Brien shows how being in contact with the war can change a person so pure and innocent to a person who isn’t in connection with themselves and is forever trapped inside their own mind. Also it shows how the people who can’t handle the rough environment of war can have a terrible reaction and loose themselves. He also shows how the war changes you mentally making it hard for you to tell if the is the real you or just a persona you took when you couldn’t handle it anymore and needed to mask your broken soul.

To sum up, this novel narrates the journey of a soldier throughout the war in Iraq and his mind altering experience. The war represents a major downfall in his life in which he encounters many graphic scenes. Even though John describes his experiences in the war as a

Yes, you read the title correctly. Yoga has ruined my life. It has changed and shifted me from the inside out. The way I think, speak, and even the way I eat and breathe is totally different because of yoga. Yoga has changed just about everything about me, but it has “ruined” me in three big ways: