Ptsd And Vietnam Traumatic Stress Disorder

It is common knowledge that with every war, there always comes casualties. Soldiers can lose an arm or a leg, or even their life when they go to war. Unfortunately soldiers can even lose their minds because of war. Specifically, this research paper will focus on PTSD, or in other words: post traumatic stress disorder. PTSD has shown up as a factor from many wars, but for some reason, one war in particular stands out from all others regarding the the PTSD numbers. It is called the Vietnam War. The Vietnam War (1956-1975) was part of the cold war. The US wanted to prevent Vietnam from becoming a communist country, so after Vietnam split into a north and south, they began to support South Vietnam. The US thought that if Vietnam were to

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder statistics are exceedingly difficult to gauge among veterans. According to the following source, “it is possible to have undiagnosed PTSD for 30 years and not realize it” (Veterans and PTSD). Symptoms may not be diagnosed anywhere from 1 year after service to a lifetime. Also, it must be taken into account that after retiring many veterans may lose touch and not receive treatment for symptoms or further affiliate with the military. In the 1980s, regarding PTSD in Vietnam veterans, it was found that 15%-30% of veterans reported having PTSD; however, in 2003 a new study found that four out of five reported symptoms.

Introduction: In  order  to  stop  the  spread  of  communism,  America  joined  the  vietnam  war. Many  young  men  were  drafted  into  this  war,  with  no  other  options  but  to  go  or  to  be  arrested.  Many  were  terrified  to  go  into  the  war,  and  tried  to  flee  the  United  States.  The  main  problem  was  not  even  just  during  the  vietnam  war,  it  was  after  the  war  was  over  and  troops  were  sent  home.  This  problem was  known  as  shell  shock,  or  what  we  now  call  Post  Traumatic  Stress  Disorder  (PTSD).  Throughout  the  turmoil  and  pain  of  the  Vietnam  war,  many young  soldiers  were  emotionally  distraught  and  treated  poorly  in  their  return home,  each  with  their  own  load  to  bear.

Memories of war are like poison in the minds of the broken soldiers calling for help, only to find out that their voices have become a distant echo. Their words lost in the society of the land they've slaved to protect, robbed of the aid, and crippled by their illness. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), became a documented mental disorder in 1980, when the American Psychiatric Association (APA) added PTSD to the third edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. For about 30+ years, since the Vietnam war began, veterans have experienced the pain of this ailment. Human beings experience PTSD in varying degree, but often we associate it with war. Since the recognition of PTSD as an illness, the government has failed

In the United States (US) posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) affects 8 out of every 100 persons (United States Department of Veterans Affairs [USDVA], 2015). In which account for about 8 million people that include the military veterans (USDVA, 2015). About 10% of women and 4% of men will develop PTSD during some course of their lives (USDVA, 2015). Veterans are more susceptible to PTSD due to longer exposures to trauma, danger, or witness a violent life threaten incidence during their military service periods (USDVA, 2015). The development of PTSD becomes chronic after no longer seeing or under the “fight-or-flight“ experiences causing a psychological and/ or mental breakdown (National Institutes of Health [NIH], n.d). Such

According to Bender, about 470,000 of the approximately three million men who served in Vietnam are current cases of PTSD. Women who served as nurses, about 7,000 of them have also been found to suffer from this disorder (Bender 147). It is beyond imaginable the magnitude of how many men, women, children, and Vietnamese that have been affected by this one war. In recent research findings conducted by the National Center of PTSD, four out of five veterans struggle with PTSD twenty to twenty-five years later (Price).

The majority of Vietnam veterans experienced delayed or chronic PTSD which we know now, can remain dormant for years until symptoms are triggered. According to the Vietnam Veterans’ Readjustment Study, approximately 30.9% of men and 26.9% of women soldiers in Vietnam had PTSD at some point in their lives. (P8) Lifting these requirements from the DSM-III allowed many more veterans to step forward; and with this new massive population of test subjects- scientists were able to research the dynamics, variables, and patterns of PTSD, through the advancements of neuroimaging and neuroscience. (P9) “There were many more cases of PTSD among Vietnam veterans than any other war.” (P5) A number estimated to be near 500,000. (P11)

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, or PTSD, affects many of our nation’s veterans. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs estimated that in the Vietnam War, almost thirty-one percent of its veterans, when they came back to the United States, developed PTSD. In recent history, eleven percent of veterans from the Afghanistan War and twenty percent of veterans from the Iraqi War have developed PTSD after arriving back in the states. Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, though brought into the light recently by veterans, is still widely unknown, mainly in what the symptoms are, diagnosis, and treatments.

One the problems facing veterans is the misconception to a large extent of mental health issues. The studies of post-traumatic stress disorder affects over 15 percent of veterans returning from the Middle East and another 16 percent are diagnosed with something called TBI (traumatic brain injury). Traumatic brain injury is usually cause by an IED (improvised explosive devices) during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom against foreign enemies. PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) is normally caused by traumatic events like war in veterans who can’t handle the stress of seeing someone shot, blown to pieces, and friends in their arms dying. Reports of veterans still experiencing some symptoms of PTSD from the Vietnam War and this issues is long term.

The Vietnam war was one of the most alarming and dangerous wars to fight. Every step in the Vietnam jungle was taken cautiously. The guerrilla warfare used by the Vietcong was frightening to anticipate. The majority of the United States army was only that of young men who had been chosen through the draft. Young men going to school and living a life at home in safety all the sudden having to make an overwhelming transition into a deadly, violent and nearly hopeless battlefield. This was only the beginning of problems for the future vietnam survivors. The violence of the Vietnam War brought upon the recognition of Post Traumatic Stress

Approximately 30% of men and 27% of women had PTSD at some point in their life following Vietnam.” In examining the mental health condition of Persian Gulf War veterans have found, “… rates of PTSD stemming from the war range anywhere from almost 9% to approximately 24%. “In Iraq Afghan War “After deployment, approximately 12.5% had PTSD, a rate greater than that found among these soldiers before deployment”.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental health problem that some people develop after experiencing or witnessing a life-threatening event such as war combat, a natural disaster, a car accident, or sexual assault. According to the United States Department of Veterans Affairs, about 20 out of 100 Veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were diagnosed with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and 30 in 100 Veterans of the Vietnam War. PTSD was first named in 1980 a few years after the Vietnam War. It was not a coincidence that the disorder was discovered just after the Vietnam War due to the fact that most soldiers had to face many traumatic events on the battlefield. Moreover, the horrifying memories kept coming back and have intruded the

Post-traumatic stress were documented as early as the Civil War., yet only did it during World War I and II become known, it was known as “shell shock” or “battle fatigue”. Although they didn’t quite understand it yet, it was thought that shrapnel entered the brain during battle explosions and caused small brain hemorrhages. When symptoms occurred in war veterans who had not been exposed to explosions, it was then often viewed as a character flaw. In the 1970s, during and after the Vietnam War, post-traumatic stress received more serious research and documentation. In 1989, the National Center for Post-traumatic Stress Disorder was established in the U.S. About 5 percent of men and 10 percent of women in the United States have PTSD. In women, the

America has participated in many wars since her birth as a nation. She has been known as a war machine, and the country thrives economically during these periods. The aftermath of war has affected each individual differently. Post-traumatic stress disorder is nothing new, yet it is now finally known as a condition that may not be treatable, however some has developed ways of managing it. Veterans from the Vietnam and Iraq/Afghanistan conflicts are in the spotlight now for suffering with this condition. Are the Vietnam Veterans offered the same care as the recent combat Veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, and does the timing of when PTSD interventions take place determine the outcome of the soldier? The conflict in Vietnam was a different war

As the Vietnam War began preventative measures were being taken to decrease the psychological impact of war on soldiers. Unfortunately as the war ended soldiers were often met with hostile demonstrations by anti-war activists and society offered little acceptance of Vietnam veterans even years after the war. This is when early studies on PTSD and the effects on military families began being documented. Early research showed that PTSD can have devastating, far-reaching consequences on the patients functioning, relationships,