War. War never changes. Since the dawn of time humanity has been at war whether it be with other humans, nature, or themselves. War is never moral, and it takes a toll on the people fighting it. “The things they carried were largely determined by necessity” (O’Brien, 2). What was never intended was for the brave men and women fighting our wars to carry problems back home. Sadly, they do. Post traumatic stress disorder or PTSD is very common problem in America currently, largely due to our lack of understanding for diagnosis and treatment. Let me tell you about the history of PTSD, how it relates to a book by Tim O’Brien called The Things They Carried, and my personal connection to PTSD. Firstly, the history of PTSD. For the very same reason the hair stands up on our arms and we get goosebumps people who experienced something tragic like war or in ancient time being attacked by a tiger you develop a fear of the things that have happened. Since 1980 the United States has been devoted to diagnosing and treating PTSD for veterans. This can’t possibly cover the veterans who went years with being undiagnosed or …show more content…
PTSD is an underlying topic in the book. There are many people in the novel who have problems dealing with the things they have done or seen during their time in the war. One man shot himself in the toe to get sent home, another killed himself after the war was over. Tim O’Brien himself said “I’ll never die. I’m skimming across the surface of my own history, moving fast, riding the melt beneath the blades, doing loops and spins, and when I take a high leap into the dar and come down thirty years later, I realize it as Tim trying to save Timmy’s life with a story.” (O’Brien 246) That shows even the author has problems with PTSD and probably the only reason he does not have the usual night terrors is the fact that he writes, just writes out everything that happened to escape the problems the author