preview

Ptsd : The Soldier 's Curse

Better Essays

PTSD: The Soldier’s Curse Since time immemorial, war has been the primitive inception of tragedy. The act of throwing a rifle into the hands of a young man who still maintains his moral constitution and demanding him to commit atrocious acts can scar the consciences of even the most battle hardened of veterans. By the same token, it is said that war has a way of dragging the most civilized of men back into a primal state of mind that compels them to commit morally damaging acts. Even more so, some men carry those moral injuries back home with them in the form of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Nevertheless, if someone is truly eager to comprehend Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, it is absolutely essential that they understand its history, …show more content…

After the American Civil War, a model for physical injury was readily used to help potentially explain the common symptoms of these combat veterans. United States doctor, Jacob Mendez Da Costa, had studied the most common heart problem found among veterans commonly known as Soldier’s Heart (Friedman 5). Dr. Mendez described the troubled breathing, anxiety and rapid heart rate as an overstimulation of the heart’s nervous system (Friedman 5). This diagnosis was later dubbed Da Costa’s Syndrome. Later on during World War I, soldiers around exploding artillery shells often experienced cases of anxiety and sleeplessness. The term Shell Shocked came into fruition to describe these recognizable symptoms (Friedman 7). After studying Vietnam veterans, Holocaust survivors, sexual abuse victims and other cases of troubled souls who have experienced traumatic events, the American Psychiatric Association recognized PTSD as a mental disorder in 1950 (Friedman 11). This inevitably paved the way for even more meticulous research into the disease. Statistically, in regards to the Vietnam War, studies have shown that an estimated 30% of veterans --such as the old man from Facing It-- that have been exposed to the horrors of combat, have been diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (Gradus 5). Furthermore, it is estimated that nearly 11 to 20% of combat veterans of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, which began in the early 2000’s, have been

Get Access