Post Traumatic Stress Disorder In Vietnam

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a mental illness that develops after a person experiences or witnesses a terrifying event he/she perceives as life-threatening (Post-traumatic Stress Disorder). This can be something like a serious car accident, sudden loss of someone close, or sexual assault. For some people, the symptoms will go away over time. For others they will strengthen and progress until the person cannot live a normal life (Posttraumatic Stress Disorder). For many in the 1960s and 1970s, the Vietnam War was this terrifying event. During and after the Vietnam War between America and Vietnam, countless soldiers developed Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which negatively affected their lives, health, families, and communities.

The United States entered to prevent the spread of Communism, but ultimately lost, withdrawing its troops in 1973. The lives of more than 3 million people, including 58,000 Americans, were lost in the Vietnam War (Vietnam War). North and South Vietnam were united under Communism two years later ending the war (Vietnam War). The war is one many Americans say should never have happened. But it did. And Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) was one unfortunate outcome of it. According to estimates by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, “PTSD afflicts almost 31 percent of Vietnam veterans (PTSD: A Growing Epidemic). The good news is that Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) can be diagnosed and