Post Traumatic Stress Disorder ( Ptsd )

Post-Traumatic stress disorder, commonly known as PTSD, is on a rise in our country and expected to rise more in the coming years (Iribarren, Prolo, Neagos, & Chiappelli, 2005). PTSD is a psychiatric disorder than can result from the experience or witnessing of traumatic or life-threatening events (Iribarren, Prolo, Neagos, & Chiappelli, 2005). According to the Evidence based article examples of PTSD are terrorist attack, violent crime and abuse, military combat, natural disasters, serious accidents or violent personal assaults (Iribarren, Prolo, Neagos, & Chiappelli, 2005). PTSD has also been liked to possible exposure to environmental toxins such as Agent Orange or electromagnetic radiation (Iribarren, Prolo, Neagos, & Chiappelli, 2005).

Today, 44.7 million veterans are struggling with Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD Stats). Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is a mental disorder common found in veterans who came back from war. We can express our appreciation to our veterans by creating more support programs, help them go back to what they enjoy the most, and let them know we view them as a human not a disgrace.

“ It terrorises me at night. If you have a nightmare where your friends are being blown up, you relive these things over and over and over again.” These are the words from Pte Leroy Risi who was stationed in Afghanistan and is now struggling post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD is an anxiety disorder characterized by haunting memories, nightmares, social withdrawal, jump anxiety, or insomnia that lingers for four weeks or more after a traumatic experience. Another war vet Vaughan Cook who also has PTSD states, “ I had very high levels of aggression, anxiety, paranoia. Then I got heavy on the drinking, two liters of whisky a day. I’ve done some bad things. I’ve self-harmed.” PTSD is a serious anxiety disorder that needs to be acknowledged, and PTSD does not only affect war vets, but millions of Americans across the country. PTSD appears to victims of accidents, disasters, and violent and sexual assaults. The biological process behind PTSD is that the limbic system increases susceptibility, by immersing the body with stress hormones repeatedly and repeatedly as images of the traumatic experience emerge into consciousness ( David G. Myers 639). PTSD patients often feel alone and vulnerable, and that no one can help them. Withdrawing from society and suicide are sadly the common outcomes if PTSD are not helped and treated.

For many war veterans Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or what is better known as PTSD is common. Finding a treatment that is right for someone with this condition can be challenging but not impossible. Despite the circumstances, people who suffer from PTSD should be able to receive the care that is most effective for them to overcome their condition.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) within the veteran community is an issue that is becoming more and more prevalent to the American public. Although there has been an increase interest on military PTSD the issue still suffers a great number of barriers and stigma. The stigma and barriers related to military PTSD have made it difficult for individuals to seek help. Not looking for PTSD treatment can cause long-term effects such as, substance abuse, anger management issues, loneliness, severe depression. Today we will be focusing on homelessness in the veteran community and how the long-term effects of not getting treated affects an individual.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a condition that causes anxiety and distress due to an extremely terrifying event. PTSD occurs in people who have experienced an event that is life-threatening, terrifying to include seeing someone they personally know or don’t know endure death (Kalat, 2013, p. 383). Recently the Veterans Affairs Administration (VA) has seen significant rises in diagnosing and treating PTSD sufferers in returning combat soldier from Iraq and Afghanistan. According to the National Center for PTSD out of 100 veterans 20 are likely to return with PTSD symptoms (Veterans Affairs Administration, 2010). This is out of the roughly two million soldiers that have fought in the Iraq and Afghanistan war. It is noteworthy that

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD has been one of the most critical issues for military veterans for decades. Most veterans who deployed have seen or experienced traumatic stressful events which can eventually develop to PTSD. They might not recognize the symptoms of the PTSD. They might not know how to react to the situation and how it can affect them in the long run. Since some of them may not know the symptoms of PTSD; therefore, they might not even know that they have PTSD. On the other hand, those who do know, might keep it to himself or herself secretly and never let anyone know about it. Later on, these symptoms start to get worse and worse and it, finally, is too late to treat these veterans. There are several treatments out there for PTSD. Therapists can use the cognitive psychology to help veterans with PTSD by using cognitive therapy. Cognitive Processing Therapy is one of many therapies that can be used to help veterans to overcome PTSD. Cognitive psychology is a new version of functionalism which was influenced by Gestalt psychology and structuralism and he main perspectives of cognitive psychology focus on the importance of cognitive process or intellectual process, for example, opinion, memory, thinking, and language (Lahey, 2012). Cognitive Therapy can treat PTSD by helping veterans to understand its symptoms, change the way of thinking, and better cope with PTSD.

Research has shown that approximately 41 percent of veterans in the Vietnam War were diagnosed with PTSD. The term Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder was first coined in the late 1900s right after the Vietnam War. This is no surprise as most veterans fighting in the Vietnam War faced many traumatic events fighting in combat and PTSD came about as a result. After a traumatic experience most soldiers will feel frightened, sad, anxious, disconnected, and even experience sleeping disorders, along with many other mental and emotional problems. If this continues and does not fade, soldiers will continue to feel overwhelmed with the feelings of continuous danger and painful memories. These symptoms all point to Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. These feelings will make people feel as though they are stuck in time in a deep hole, but it can be overcome. By reaching out and seeking therapy, soldiers can move on with their lives. However, it can be hard for the person experiencing PTSD because most people cannot relate to this disorder. Only a select few who experience a traumatic event will be affected by this disorder. A well-known appreciated author who once suffered from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder is Tim O’Brien. He transcribes his experience in the novel, “The Things They Carried.” Tim O’Brien does a phenomenal job of illustrating the disorder through a collection of fictional short stories. In addition, he also speaks about the therapy he went through to suppress the feelings of

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, also called PTSD, is when someone witnesses or had a role in a traumatic event that leads to a mental health condition. PTSD, is very common with veterans. Statistics, effects on the brain, and effects on relationships show how much this issue desperately needs attention so help can be given to the soldiers.

T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land explores modernism, specifically focusing on the troubling of binaries and the breakdown of the traditional. The boundaries between life and death, wet and dry, male and female, and more are called into question in Eliot’s conception of modernity and the waste land. The blurring of gender boundaries—significantly through Tiresias and the hooded figure scene in “What the Thunder Said”— in the poem lends itself to Eliot’s suggestion that traditional masculinity breaks down and decays in the waste land. Traditional masculinity is further challenged through Eliot’s criticism of hyper-masculinity and heterosexual relations in the modern era through allusions to the myth of Philomela and the “young man carbuncular” scene in “The Fire Sermon.” Along with this, Eliot stages scenes charged with homoeroticism to further challenge ideas of traditional masculinity. Homoerotic scenes such as the “hyacinth girl” scene in “The Burial of the Dead” and the Mr. Eugenides scene in “The Fire Sermon” suggest an intensity and enticement towards male-male relations, while also offering a different depiction of masculinity than is laid out in the heterosexual romance scenes. Through scenes depicting queer desire and homosexual behavior, Eliot suggests that masculinity in the modern era does not need to be marked by aggression and

This reinforces Eliot's claim that, 'Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood'. The theme's that run throughout 'The Wasteland', such as sterility, isolation and death, are applicable to both the landscapes and the characters. When drawn together, it is these themes that give the poem structure and strength, and the use of myth mingled with historic, anthropological, religious and metaphysical images reinforce its universal quality.

Eliot also uses figures of speech in this passage to establish the theme of death. Eliot described the afternoon as “spread out against the sky like a patient etherized upon a table.” (Eliot 2) in the beginning of the passage, he is describing the sky as a patient on an operating table under anesthesia. Again, in a later stanza, he says it “sleeps so peacefully! Smoothed by long fingers, asleep … tired … or it malingers, stretched on the floor.” (Eliot 75-78). This metaphor is being echoed through the passage, presenting an eerie and dark setting. This relates directly back to the reoccurring theme of death and isolation with his use of fearsome imagery. He obscures the long description of the sky using fragmentation, breaking up the different images into smaller parts and placing them in different stanzas in the passage. Another figure of speech used is personification. “The yellow fog that rubs its back upon the window-panes.” (Eliot 15) Eliot uses personification to turn the yellow fog into a fearful and timid cat, which represents the fear in Prufrock, and helps indicate the theme of doubt that we see frequently when he tries to make decisions.

It is perhaps part of the unique genius of T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land” that both critics and lay readers have repeatedly felt forced to look outside the published text of the poem for clues as to its meaning. The text’s fragmented, seemingly violated body seems to exhibit wounds through which its significance has slipped, creating a “difficulty caused by the author’s having left out something which the reader is used to finding; so that the reader, bewildered, gropes about for what is absent…a kind of ‘meaning’ which is not there, and is not meant to be there”

All words, phrases and sentences (or just simply images) which make up this poem seem to, in Levi-Strauss’ words, “be a valeur symbolique zero [and the signifier] can take on any value required ”, meaning that the images Eliot uses do not have one fixed signification and consequently conjure up thought-provoking ideas that need to be studied (qtd. in

The first theme shared throughout Eliot’s works is the inability to love and the powerlessness which comes from it. This is depicted in the lines “Trembling with tenderness/Lips that would kiss/Form prayers to broken stone” (Eliot, Hollow Men). These people desire to kiss and be intimate with each other but despite their passion, they are unable to do so, able only to repeat useless prayers. This idea is present in another one of Eliot’s poems: “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.” In this poem, an ageing man named Prufrock wishes to ask a girl an “overwhelming question”, but is incapable of doing so due to his fear and anxiety. Prufrock eventually resigns himself to a lonely existence, viewing himself as repulsive and worthless as a crab “Scuttling across the floors of silent seas” (Eliot, Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock 73-74). Just as the desert people are unable to connect with each other; Prufrock is unable to ask his question. This view is likewise reiterated in “The Wasteland”. During a romantic moment with a girl in a garden, the narrator suddenly has a crisis,