A Look Inside The Mind Of A Warrior Essay

Studying the brain has been an affective result in finding out the various neurochemicals that are involved with PTSD. Brain imaging systems nowadays focus on two brain structures, the amygdala and the hippocampus. The amygdala is involved with how we learn about our fear and hippocampus plays a role with our memory formation. Some research focuses on a hormonal system known as hypothalamic-pituitary

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder can do a range of things to the brain. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder makes the victim continuously remember the event. It was originally known as “shell shock” where vets were struggling going through daily life. Finally after the Vietnam War Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder was “identified and given its name.” When these discoveries were made, proper treatment was then given to the victims. Research shows that

Research has indicated that people who have experienced and extreme amount of stress or traumatic event sometimes have a smaller hippocampus region of the brain in adults with chronic PTSD and early childhood trauma. This is the part of the brain that is responsible for memory. The reduction in size may be caused by a combination of the environment and genetics (NARSAD.com). People who are diagnosed with this disorder are more likely to have trouble with relationships, smoke cigarettes, abuse drugs and or alcohol use. If PTSD is left untreated it can have devastating lasting effects.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD is a mental health condition that is generally classified as an anxiety disorder. It is often caused by a traumatic events or emotional trauma in one’s life that leads to terrifying flashbacks, nightmares and extreme anxiety. The main cause of this disorder is the conscious and subconscious fear-memories that have developed. In essence the ‘fight or flight” response that we all have is severely damaged, even when not in a stressful or dangerous situation those suffering from PTSD may feel stressed and in danger.

PTSD is a vast disorder, meaning that it does not have only one cause or treatment. The brain is a complicated and unique part of the body and it can be affected by many different factors. When evaluating the causes of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, it is easy to see that no two cases are exactly the same, a group of people could go through the same event, hurricane Katrina, in New Orleans, for example. Countless people were affected by Katrina, many of them in a similar and yet, every person was emotional and mentally affected differently. Some of them now have PTSD and some do not, this is because every person is different. Factors such as, gender, race, background, affect how a person will react to a traumatic event, which makes PTSD a

Those diagnosed with PTSD have shown a reduction in the volume of the hippocampus. The hippocampus helps humans remember new memories and then be able to recall them later, and also helps identify between past and present memories. The amygdala is another section of the brain affected by PTSD, and the amygdala is responsible for processing emotions and fear. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex is shown to have a decreased size in cases. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex regulates negative emotions like stress, anxiety, and fear. The strange behaviours of the patients diagnosed with PTSD can be explained by the damage to the brain. “Researchers believe that the brain changes caused by PTSD increase the tendency of a person developing other psychotic and mood disorders” (brainblogger.com). The brain is like a machine made up of small parts, and if one of these parts break, the machine does not function

At least 50% of all adults and children are exposed to a psychologically traumatic event (such as a life-threatening assault or accident, humanmade or natural disaster, or war). As many as 67% of trauma survivors experience lasting psychosocial impairment, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); panic, phobic, or generalized anxiety disorders; depression; or substance abuse.(Van der Kolk, et al, 1994) Symptoms of PTSD include persistent involuntary re-experiencing of traumatic distress, emotional numbing and detachment from other people, and hyperarousal (irritability, insomnia, fearfulness, nervous agitation). PTSD is linked to structural neurochemical changes in the central nervous system which may have a direct

The author, Sam Keen in his essay; The Rite of War and the Warrior Psyche, argues the view of the warrior psyche, which has forged males to “protect, kill, and even die for others.”(335) every time there is a conflict there is a need to have to the warrior psyche, to combat the conflict. The “warrior psyche” (Keen 335) is the deep internal and external resistance being combated by the human body. When the conflict came from activities such as sports or others ways such as academics, the internal warrior was needed. Also the warrior psyche is not biological but a social condition affected by what the current society needed the warriors to be.

Damage done from trauma on the neurological functioning of the brain can be widespread, but can be found to interfere with functioning of the hippocampus and the limbic system to a greater extent. Randall (2011) explained that when a large amount of stress is continually placed on the brain from ongoing trauma, cortisol, a fight or flight response chemical, can fail to stop firing when the stressor that ignited the cortisol is no longer present. This excess of cortisol impairs the brains ability to function properly (Randall, 2011). Andersen, Tomada, Vincow, Valente, Polcari, Teicher (2008) found that women who had experienced sexual abuse during childhood actually had a difference in the volume of their hippocampus (as cited in Pechtel and Pizzagalli, 2011). The region which controls memory and emotional regulation was found to be smaller in the women who had been sexually abused in early childhood in comparison to

It is the goal of this paper to demonstrate that the phenomenon of PTSD, despite the fact that its multiple emotional and psychosocial effects are constantly being debated, is soundly rooted in neurobiology, and that this aspect of PTSD lends support to the notion that brain = behavior.

People who are associated with PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder, suffer from what is known as disrupted context processing. Disrupted context processing is an important part in the brain that tells you how to react to a certain stimulus. If you are in a harmful, scary, exciting, or upsetting setting, this part in the brain tells you how to react differently depending on what kind of situation you are in. Areas in the brain that are disrupted from this disorder are the Hippocampus, Prefrontal Cortex, and the Amygdala. The new theory of PTSD being connected with disrupted context processing are being studied by the University of Michigan Health System. This is all a new study, although they have been looking into this for a long time, this

The book The Warrior Ethos, by Steven Pressfield depicts the warrior’s mentality from ancient times to the present through a variety of different aspects and stories. In The Warrior Ethos, Pressfield states that men are not born with the certain qualities that make a good warrior, but instead are inculcated through years of training and indoctrination, stating at an early age. He goes on to show how different societies have been able to instill the same or very similar ideals throughout history while maintaining their own unique characteristics. Things have changed from ancient Sparta where parents would be enthusiastic about their children going to war, and even more elated

Additionally, PTSD is related to a complex serious of biological factors. According to Halter (2014) the development of PTSD is related to how the intense trauma causes a “dysregulation that disrupts the integration of neural networks” (p.306). What Halter is explaining is

The amygdala is known to learn from exposure to fear and store assessment of threat–related stimuli. The prefrontal cortex is involved in extinction and the retention of fear and is connected to the amygdala. Finally, the hippocampus encodes the context during fear learning process and sends it to the amygdala. People with PTSD have hyper-activity in the amygdala, while having hypo-activity in the prefrontal cortex and there is reduction of the hippocampus volume. This reduction may limit proper evaluation and categorization of the experience. A study on Vietnam soldiers revealed that lesions in the amygdala and prefrontal cortex resulted in the absence of PTSD. To get further into the molecular level studies been done on the hormonal system. “Stress is known to contribute to the pathogenesis of a variety of disorders, including the majority of psychiatric like major depression and posttraumatic stress disorder.” (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3825244/pdf/DM30-02-343616.pdf). Research has revealed evidence that a hormonal system known as the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is the one that gets disrupted in people with PTSD. The hormonal system is involved in normal stress reactions, so the disruption of this system in people with PTSD creates this “false alarm”. It has been suggested by some scientist that the dysfunction of the HPA system results in hippocampal damage in people with PTSD. Damage in the hormones is caused by damage to

This is a different sort of Pressfield book. Unlike the historical fiction genre in which he’s written such best-sellers as “Gates of Fire,” “The Afghan Campaign, and “The Profession,” “The Warrior Ethos” is the culmination of years of discussions Pressfield’s been having with Marines and others who were taken with the blend of courage-under-fire and humanity shown by Leonidas, Dienekes, Matthais, Gent, and the other characters in his books. “I wanted to give something back to our men and women fighting overseas,” Pressfield told Gazette, so I put together the best anecdotes and stories from all my research about the Spartans, Alexander's Macedonians, the Romans, and Rommel.”