Ptsd In Catcher In The Rye

Holden exhibits his recurring habits of smoking and drinking which is an effect of PTSD. Holden smokes and drinks constantly throughout this book. At school, outside, inside, and even with his sister; Phoebe. A cause of his constant habits is from his PTSD. Drinking and smoking makes the stress a little bit less for him to deal with. For example, “I was smoking… hardly any wind.” (Salinger 176). In this part he shows that he is out of breath from dancing with Phoebe. He tells that he had been smoking so much he barely had any time to get breath. His constant smoking is from his failure to adopt a good habit instead of the bad habit he came to have after the traumatic event. He enjoys smoking and drinking because it relaxes him and distracts

him from his PTSD and it makes him feel good, if he were to stop, he would think of his traumatic events more frequently and then he might actually spiral into another symptom of PTSD; depression “At least half of PTSD sufferers smoke, and others wind up dependent on alcohol, anti-anxiety pills, sometimes even illegal drugs.” (CBC News para 2). This statistic from CBC News verifies that Holden is in the half of PTSD sufferers that drink and smoke to relieve the flashbacks from their minds. As Holden smokes and drinks more that complicates his PTSD further which could make his flashbacks more severe and his trauma indefinite.