Ptd In The Military

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Post Traumatic Stress Disorder in the Armed Forces Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) according to the American Psychiatric Association is a behavioral disorder that can occur following a psychologically distressing event that is outside the range of usual human experience and is usually experienced with intense fear, terror and helplessness. Cases of PTSD in the past was said to only happen in rape victims, children of abuse, wives who have been beaten , firefighters and police officers who had experienced a traumatic event. PTSD is a real psychological issue that affects the mental, physical and emotional persona of everyone who has experienced a traumatic event. This includes our Military personnel who experience traumatic events daily.…show more content…
Soldiers have to watch their backs day and night; the backs of their fellow soldiers who have become their friends if not brothers. You have to live watching your every move and the moves and sounds around you on a daily basis. Although killing is not human nature in combat its kill or be killed. Some will argue that PTSD is not a real psychological issue among military personnel because this is what the soldiers signed up for, they knew they were going to fight for their country and they would experience killing being possibly being killed and they need to stand up stop complaining and deal with the stresses that come with being at war and in combat because this is what they get paid for. “PTSD follows a traumatic event or series of events in which a person is physically harmed or threatened with violence, such as sexual assault, warfare, and accidents” ("Introduction to Mental Illness). Soldiers are seeing there friends who have become their family dying in front of them. They are physically harmed and threatened with violence; bodies are being blown up in front of them, the daily feeling of helplessness and fearing for their lives. Individuals with PTSD become detached from family and friends; they become easily frightened or provoked, and are often prone to aggression. Soldiers tend to avoid environments that remind them of the event, have nightmares and flashbacks of the experience, which can be triggered by everyday sights and sounds. This is not a normal way of life fearing your surrounding, the sights and sounds you once loved and enjoyed. How is going to war and experiencing all of these traumatic events in front of your eyes on a daily basis not constitute enough evidence for a soldier to have a legitimate case of PTSD. Soldiers did not sign up to come back mentally different to the way they left. They signed up to protect and serve
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