The Oedipus Complex: Combat Anxiety

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Recommended: Sigmund Freuds thesis on psychoanalysis

do Lazaro
Mrs. Estrada
English 101
8 November 2015
Combat Anxiety
What causes people to have anxiety dreams? These awful sleeping disorders can be characterized by the feelings of unease, distress, or apprehension in the dreamer upon wakening. Freud was born in Freiberg, Moravia in the Czech Republic, and eventually moved to Vienna, Austria. Freud pursued a medical career that led him to the field in neurology. In the essay, “The Oedipus Complex” Sigmund Freud describes psychoanalytic effects of the mind. Freud states, “Dreams are mental events, not necessarily connected to physical events. The repression of important emotions, a constant process, often results in dreams that express repressed feelings in a harmless and sometimes symbolic …show more content…

I can still remember my anxiety dreams as if it was yesterday; I was twenty years old when my dreams became a reality. Nothing would ever be the same; I deployed to Afghanistan on January 2010. For some reason I was more excited to go to war than I was scared. I knew what I was about to do was for a good purpose in defending my country. Never in a million years would I have though it would end the way it did. Every time I think about those days, it brings horrible flashbacks. I resided in a Fob what we call a small compound surrounded by nothing but razor wires and sand bags. It was going to be my new home for the next couple of months. We resided in small tent cramped up with smelly marines everywhere. We began conducting operations in a small town in Afghanistan called Sangin, we were a couple months into our deployment when we began taking in casualties. I was scared and devastated by this point. My anxiety dreams began right before the end of our deployment. I would have the same dream repeatedly; I was terrified because in my dreams I saw my marines dead on the ground. It brought tears to my face; I would wake up in fear gasping for air and covered in sweat. My ego took the best of me. I pretended nothing was wrong with me, even though I was hurting from the inside. Those dreams seemed so realistic at times like if I was there in front of my marines looking at them covered in blood and bullet wounds. …show more content…

When I returned from my deployment I was fine my anxiety dreams had vanished, so I though. Weeks and Months passed, I was content with my life. One night I was watching a war movie with a lot of violence and graphic scenes. That same night my anxiety dreams returned, I could see everything again like the first time blood, guts, and my marines on the ground. I was heartbroken inside and out, but I knew I had to be strong and seek professional help. I saw a counselor the following day, which recommended me to a psychiatrist. I followed up with my psychiatrist appointment; she was a very intellectual person with a lot of patience. She helped me overcome my anxiety dreams. She explained I was suffering from Post-traumatic Stress Disorder. According to Post-traumatic Stress Disorder among Navy Health Care Personnel Following Combat Deployment, “Navy health care personnel experience a confluence of multiple stressors that are associated with PTSD, such as repeated deployments, exposure to wounded/dead friendly forces, and participation in combat.” As a result, these were some of the causes of my anxiety dreams. I think what worried me the most was the fact of losing more of my Marines to war. I believe the biggest threat was the fact that I could not control any of my anxiety dreams, it was controlling me and there was no hope. I believe my dreams were trying to warn me of something tragic that was about to

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