Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - Essay Example

POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER of Post Traumatic Disorder (PTSD) is an anxiety disorder that is known toaffect many combatants in war. The high rates of PTSD among war veterans has pushed research and intervention aimed at addressing the serious mental and behavioral health problems usually associated with war time trauma. However, these efforts have largely centered on biomedical and psychological aspects of trauma without recognizing the impact of institutional and social contexts of trauma, its adaptation and recovery. In addition, biomedical and psychological approaches have major shortcomings as they do not recognize how individual environment interactions, meaningful interpretations and sense of identity play an important part in the impact of trauma and development of PTSD. This essay is aimed at discussing the causes, interpretation, identity, impact and prevention of PTSD in war veterans. Introduction Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is a mental disorder which occurs following direct experience or witnessing life threatening events such as military combat, terrorist attacks or accidents. It is characterized by re- experiencing, avoidance, hyper arousal and emotional numbing symptoms in response to a traumatic event. It mostly occurs together with related problems such as depression, substance abuse, memory problems and other physical and mental problems (Collura and Daniel 2012, pp. 132).It is also associated with impairment of the person’s ability to function in social and family life including occupational instability, marital problems and divorce, family conflicts and parenting difficulties. Erin P. Finley, a medical anthropologist describes PTSD as ‘a technical name for complex symptoms that arise after trauma. This experience causes feelings of fear, helplessness and horror. Discussion War veterans are exposed to a range of traumatic events which includes being attacked, seeing others die, lose friends and colleagues, being physically or sexually assaulted, being exposed to mass deaths, suffering and observing frightening events (Brooks 2015, par. 2). PTSD has been observed in all veteran populations including those serving in World War II, Vietnam and the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan, Iraq and in the United Nations peace keeping forces. Soldiers who go to war feel guilty because it involves accidental killings, deaths, tainted situations where every choice is considered as murderously wrong (Brooks, 2015, par. 1). Victims suffering from PTSD are morally tainted by the experiences and they feel trapped in a sort of spiritual solitary confinement where they are not able to recover their confidence. They are mostly not able to communicate their conditions to those who are close thus resenting civilians for their blind innocence. In the modern society, cultural constructions are mostly expressed through the media and forged through engaging the public perception. In this context, a veteran in the military is portrayed as an invisible individual with no flaws. This notion is not only ingrained in the public perception but also into the veteran (Collura and Daniel 2012, pp. 133).This largely shapes how the public perceives an ideal veteran upon return to the society. Military advertisement campaigns usually glorify military service through commercials of citizens from all backgrounds and walks of life, the thrill of combat training working with advanced military technology and the sense of valor embodied by the uniform of the armed forces. These advertisement campaigns are aimed at attracting new military recruits. However, these campaigns have often neglected to cover the traumatically affected veterans after their service. They have failed to look into the efforts on board to aid the psychologically traumatized veterans, those veterans suffering from the effects of extreme mental and physical stress, those who are traumatically affected and struggle to reintegrate back into the community and to those suffering from PTSD (Collura and Daniel 2012, pp. 133). After their service in the military operations such as Operations Enduring Freedom, Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation New Dawn, the distribution of PTSD among the veterans in various branches was 67% Army, 13% Marine, 11% Navy and 9% Air Force. Nearly 2.3 million American Military personnel were deployed to Iraqi in August 2011. About 38 per 100,000 war veterans who had been deployed to Iraqi and Afghanistan committed suicide (Collura and Daniel 2012, pp. 135). It has been noted that after their departure from the battle field, the soldiers status change to veterans and they return back home. In this case, the veterans who are traumatized by their battle experiences are forced to endure and suffer from an internal battle. The veterans coping with PTSD continue to engage in a battle of their reintegration into the society. This battle is composed of paralyzing anxiety, flashbacks of war trauma, violent behaviors, major depression disorder and other psychologically trauma induced illnesses (Brooks 2015, par. 6). PTSD describes an ageless mental illness which actually develops after experiencing a traumatic event. The first official recognition of the symptoms of PTSD in World War 1 described soldiers who were suffering from shell shock. This describes the condition of a soldier suffering from the acute effect of battle. What was earlier known as shell shock is today referred to as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. The combat trauma experienced results from an effect of emotional and psychological shock and not the manifestations of physical shock (Collura and Daniel 2012, pp. 136). However, in earlier years, lack of health research in military psychiatry and military health education led to the cultural misconstructions and misconception that shell shock was a form of cowardice. The mis- constructed perception of the symptoms of PTSD as cowardice marks one of the darkest moments in the history of war related mental illness symptoms. In the years between 1914 and 1918, the British army executed 307 veterans due to cowardice. During World War 1, veterans suffering from shell shock either received a pension if they were wounded by the enemy, commanded to return to battle or executed due to the perception that it was a sign of cowardice. Militants who were perceived as weak were persecuted and this has long led to military and public stigmatization of veterans with the symptoms of PTSD (Collura and Daniel 2012, pp. 136).This strict military culture led to soldierly and public stigmatization of veterans with PTSD and also created an environment where veterans succumb to self- stigmatization after they experience signs of PTSD. Military culture usually has a stoic response to extreme duress and emotional responses such as hyper arousal and night mares which may be considered as weakness among veterans. Fearing that they might be considered as weak, military personnel may ignore the symptoms of PTSD. With the absence of physical injuries such as amputations and burns, veterans suffering from psychological symptoms believe that psychological trauma may not warrant much attention as compared to physical injury and so they may be reluctant to report to their superiors. As a result of stigmatization that comes along with PTSD and other combat stress induced traumas, soldiers and veterans are likely to decline showing symptoms of PTSD, avoid attending hospital appointments or just take lightly their actual levels of distress and psychological trauma (Collura and Daniel 2012, pp. 137). Another analysis of combat induced PTSD lies on understanding PTSD from the veteran’s perspective. This is usually aimed at understanding what happened to the afflicted soldiers and how they have been affected. Veterans are allowed to describe what they know about the illness, their personal views of their suffering and how they have come to understand their experiences with PTSD. This leads to a more comprehensive understanding of the toll the illness has taken on their lives and how their current conditions can be improved. This process of understanding an illness from the afflicted point of view is known as ‘illness narratives’ (Collura and Daniel 2012, pp. 137). These are the tales and accounts through which people make meanings from illnesses and the sufferings that may accompany illnesses. The veterans understanding of PTSD is examined so as to understand how PTSD affects their re integration into the society. Most of the veterans perceived PTSD to be the failure to do what is expected of them, and the failure to let go of the past and change from military to civilian (Brooks 2015, par. 2). This is also identified as the loss of original identity in exchange for the identity of the soldier. Community based approaches are used to assist veterans suffering from PTSD to integrate into the society. Ceremonies can be used to facilitate readjustment and healing of the service members. This approach is based on the premise that validation is imperative to begin the grieving process and accept a profound loss or a profound transformation (Collura and Daniel 2012, pp. 138). These profound losses could either be tangible or intangible which may include the death of a comrade, loss of identity, self purpose and inner peace. Before experiencing the traumatic experiences of war, veterans will first experience personal disorientation while adjusting to the military culture. The socialization culture in the military emphasizes on toughness, stamina and invincibility. These values are asserted through pressures of high stress of combat thus stigmatizing the ideals of PTSD or any trauma induced illness. War veterans lose their identities through their notions of self purpose and are torn by the super human expectations and the impossible needs of military culture, standards which not only determine an individual’s purpose but self value as well. This loss is so profound and it’s more damaging than the loss of a comrade, which reflects the loss of identity and self-purpose. The use of expressive experiential approaches and ceremonies to facilitate re-adjustment and healing are important in healing and adjustment not only to the trauma of war but also to the loss of their self purpose (Collura and Daniel 2012, pp. 138). Treatment interventions vary from medical treatments to therapeutic and alternative interventions. Cognitive restructuring is one of the best methods to PTSD treatment. This intervention is aimed at helping veterans to review and challenge distressing trauma related beliefs by exploring the negative thoughts, identifying personal negative beliefs, developing alternative judgments and thinking (Collura and Daniel 2012, 141). Expressive experiential method of writing can also be used which expels the memories of traumatic events in ways that the veterans can understand. Cognitive behavioral therapies and internet based and self help therapy can be used to counter PTSD. Prevention could be through trauma resiliency which is the ability of some people to recover from traumatic experiences or avoid adverse reactions which are likely to lead to the development of PTSD. Conclusion Societal and family support and the understanding of PTSD are important to the success of the reintegration of veterans in the society. The role of culture is central in influencing PTSD symptoms. In individualistic cultures, they believe in autonomous spirit beings and PTSD symptoms could be interpreted as spirit possession. Cultural symbols are also powerful in interpreting emotions and treating traumatic circumstances (Collura and Daniel 2012, pp. 139). Cultures can also help the afflicted through the performance of rituals which decrease the stress hormones (noradrenalin, adrenaline and cortisol). Many healing rituals are performed by ritual specialists who use healing rituals as social events which acts to unite social members and reaffirm social religious world views. Social rituals are very powerful in manipulating emotions and these acts to heal people with psycho- physical problems. Bibliography Brooks, David. 2015. The Moral Injury. The New York Times. Available at http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/17/opinion/david-brooks-the-moral-injury.html?ref=topics. Collura, Gino, L., and Daniel,Lende, H. 2012. Post- Traumatic Stress Disorder and Neuroanthropology: Stopping PTSD Before it Begins.Open Anthropology. Vol. 36, Issue. 1, pp. 131- 148. Read More