Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - Informative Essay

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Psychology
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Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - Informative Essay

INFORMATIVE ESSAY – POST TRAUMATIC STRESS DISORDER                                

Even in the age of the cruise missile, a soldier’s job is no safer, or lacking involvement. Little can be achieved without military combat personnel on the ground. Whether it’s to hold terrain or re-supply, a soldier’s job is just as involved and dangerous as it was 200 years ago.

Technology has improved our weaponry and destructive capabilities, but it has done little to help the human body absorb the impact of a bullet. Nor has it improved or help deal with the emotional and physical stress of a soldier’s involvement. The pain of killing or being killed is still as real as it ever has been, as is being witness to the loss and tragedy that war entails. This all over draining that a soldier in combat endures can often result in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).

Not even a year after troops began to arrive home from Operation Iraqi Freedom, signs of PTSD started to become increasingly shown. This is becoming a major difficulty for military personnel and leaders alike, and with soldiers preparing to depart for combat. A knowledge of this syndrome is becoming more valuable and necessary. Much like the Armour that protects a soldiers body, the correct understanding of PTSD and how to prevent/treat it will provide a psychological shield for those involved in traumatic events, helping them work towards coping and dealing with such things, and in turn helping to prevent the disorder.

Although a relatively new term, PTSD has been around for many years. During the civil war it was called ‘nostalgia’, and it was believed that symptoms were developed only by a soldiers longing to return home. During WWI it was called ‘shell shock’, and considered an interruption of the central nervous system caused by the continues impact of explosions and excessive noise. In WWII, it was thought that soldiers experienced ‘battle fatigue’, a short term response to the harshness of the...

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