Psychological Complications In Phil Klay's Redeployment

When veterans get deployed, several things can occur to them while fighting for our country. Being stationed in various locations around the world can create a severe mental strain for any individual. In Phil Klay’s Redeployment, the characters face tremendous amount of inhumanity, despair, and guilt during their deployment. These soldiers tend to have conflicting behaviors that often leads to particular unauthorized medications and the decision of suicide while in combat or at home. Klay demonstrates the concept of psychological complications in war as a means to create the image of the mental disconnect displayed throughout his novel. Mark Russell has created a case study, “War-Related Medically Unexplained Symptoms, Prevalence, and Treatment:

When veterans are home from war, these individuals begin to lose their sense of reality. These survivors also start developing a neurological dilemma known as PTSD resulting in depression, severe anxiety, and helplessness. In Russell’s article he analyzes this notion by stating, “This precedented modern-day neuroimaging studies, revealing significant associations between psychopathological states (i.e., PTSD) and functional brain changes including memory structures (Lanius et al., 2004) before and after psychotherapy” (213) . In other words, Russell is explaining how post war victims are involved in a mental therapy that is significantly improving one’s mindset for future behavior. Klay provides an example of how veterans are continuously struggling with psychological conflicts when home from deployment. Klay explains “You startle ten times checking for it and it’s not there. You’re safe, so your alertness should be at white, but it’s not” (12). The author of Redeployment, also provides the example “You close the door, and you do not want to open it again” (12). Klay is describing a situation the main character arrives at when out running errands with his wife. This character not only shows mental symptoms of PTSD, but also physical signs involving shortness of breath and an increased heart

In the research conducted by the DoD, the statistics showed an increase in drug and alcohol abuse by the military population. In Bray’s article, he claims “ Illicit drugs included marijuana or hashish, cocaine, LSD, PCP, MDMA, other hallucinogens, methamphetamine, heroin, GHB/GBL, and inhalants” (391). This comment made by Bray is listing the illicit drugs military citizens use to self medicate. In addition, Bray also provides a list of the authorized medications that soldiers consume in order to improve their health legally. In Klay’s book he asserts, “ It occurred to me that he might be on drugs. Alcohol, marijuana, heroin- these were available if you knew the right Iraqi” (137). Klay is arguing that these men and women in the military service frequently take a variety of medications in order to produce adrenalin, reduce anxiety, reduce insomnia, and adjust their mental state such as preventing depression or suicidal