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Post Traumatic Stress In The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien

1185 Words5 Pages

What causes a veteran to feel pain? What causes a veteran to become violent? What causes a veteran to develop a drug addiction to cope with their emotional stress? Veterans experience traumatic events during their service years and the result of their experiences are astonishing. Experiencing these events can be burned into their minds and create various forms of pain for the rest of their lives. In the novel The Things They Carried, author Tim O’Brien dives into the stories that he and his companions experienced in the Vietnam War. These stories show the traumatic events that can damage a person for the rest of their life. These traumatic experiences develop into the disorder known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). PTSD is a known …show more content…

Violent and sexual tendencies develop in those veterans who go untreated with PTSD. Violent offenders are more likely to have PTSD than those who are sexual offenders, but PTSD still remains relevant in both forms. Offenders with PTSD are also more likely to feel remorse for their violent or sexual offenses. This shows that the mental issue associated with untreated PTSD victims is more connected to actual PTSD consequences than the offender willingly choosing to offend out of pure need and want. One third to two thirds of veterans who need to receive mental health support do not seek the treatment necessary. Among those who do receive treatment, half drop out. This decreases the success rate of PTSD suffering individuals who commit to treatment from eighty percent to a significantly lower forty percent. The mental issues with PTSD are drastically impactful on an untreated PTSD victim. With one fifth of sexual offense towards women are experienced in a military environment, many are linked to being caused by PTSD mental outbreak. Sexual offense and violence towards others is not the only mental risk caused by untreated PTSD. Harm towards oneself is also a risk. During the Iraq and Afghanistan war, suicide attempt rates increased by more than six times the amount before the war. This astonishing number displays the mental anguish that is involved with war and untreated PTSD victims. The self destructive path that PTSD leads to is a terrible consequence of those who go untreated with PTSD as written by Tim O’Brien in The Things They

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