The Immutable Gloom of War

821 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: War and post-traumatic stress disorder medical sciences

Humming to myself, I wait at the bus stop. The day is warm, the sky is a fine blue, and the vibe of the Chandler Down Town area is the same as always. I sit there, waiting for the bus to arrive, when suddenly, from the corner of my eye I notice a man. He is in a dark green trench coat, he has a grey beanie on his head, and some old, baggy jeans. He is walking with a grocery cart, which appears to be filled with his belongings. Among those belongings I manage to see an old military cap with ribbons on it and some sort of uniform on the side. I have seen men like him before, walking around with stubbled beards, matted hair, and a lost look in their eyes. However, this particular man stood out to me. Not because of his appearance and not because he was a veteran, but because of what he was doing. He had passed me and was waiting at the corner of the street to cross, but as he was standing there, he was talking to himself. He was looking directly down into the cart and to his left, and having this whole conversation with no one. The people at the bus stop starred at him with pity, some even with disgust. Others that were also waiting on the street corner to cross, looked away as if he wasn’t even there, and others stepped away from him. I myself didn’t know what to think of it, but all I could do was stare, not with pity, but with curiosity.
To think of how war was able to cause veterans so many mental health issues that made it harder for them to interact normally in society. It is upsetting and intimidating, especially when disorders such as Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, traumatic brain injury (TBI), and substance use disorder (SUB) cause them to lose their mind slightly, if not completely, use drugs, and ...

... middle of paper ...

...terans to come back to a changed society after so much trauma.Those feelings and memories must have been painful to face so, although those horrific recollections of war may be different now then they were in World War II, when it comes to the veterans, the issues they face once they are home is the same, and not even a nice warm day, with a fine blue sky, could change that fact.

Works Cited

SAMHSA. "Behavioral Health Issues Among Afghanistan and Iraq U.S. War Veterans." Http:// store.samhsa.gov. Department of Health and Human Services USA, 2012. Web. 15 Jan. 2014.
"U.S. Soldiers Face Host of Mental Health Issues." US News. U.S.News & World Report, 25 Jan. 2012. Web. 24 Jan. 2014.
Williamson, Vanessa, and Erin Mulhall. Invisible Wounds: Psychological and Neurological Injuries Confront a New Generation of Veterans. Rep. IAVA, Jan. 2009. Web. 18 Jan. 2014.

Show More
Related

  • Midterm Exam: Analysis of “The Wounded Platoon”

    1876 Words  | 4 Pages

    PBS’ Frontline film “The Wounded Platoon” reviews the effects the Iraq war has had on soldiers as they return home and transition back into civilian life, focusing particularly on the rise in post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among American military members from Fort Carson Army base (Edge, 2010). Incidents of PTSD have risen dramatically in the military since the beginning of the Iraq war and military mental health policies and treatment procedures have adapted to manage this increase (Edge, 2010). In “The Wounded Platoon,” many military personnel discuss how PTSD, and other mental health struggles, have been inadequately treated (if at all) by military mental health services. Reasons and Perdue’s definition of a social problem allows us to see inadequate treatment of PTSD among returning United States military members as a social problem because it is a condition affecting a significant number of people in undesirable ways that can be remedied through collective action (Reasons & Perdue, 1981).

    Read More

  • Post Traumatic Stress and the Brothers' Relationship in The Red Convertible by Louise Erdrich

    1241 Words  | 3 Pages

    The reality that shapes individuals as they fight in war can lead to the resentment they have with the world and the tragedies that they had experienced in the past. Veterans are often times overwhelmed with their fears and sensations of their past that commonly disables them to transgress and live beyond the emotions and apprehensions they witness in posttraumatic experiences. This is also seen in everyday lives of people as they too experience traumatic events such as September 11th and the fall of the World Trade Center or simply by regrets of decisions that is made. Ones fears, emotions and disturbances that are embraced through the past are the only result of the unconscious reality of ones future.

    Read More

  • Treatment Of Vietnam Veterans In Tim O Brien's The Things They Carried

    722 Words  | 2 Pages

    Tim O’Brien served in the Vietnam War, and his short story “The Things They Carried” presents the effects of the war on its young soldiers. The treatment of veterans after their return also affects them. The Vietnam War was different from other wars, because too many in the U.S. the soldiers did not return as heroes but as cruel, wicked, and drug addicted men. The public directs its distaste towards the war at the soldiers, as if they are to blame. The also Veterans had little support from the government who pulled them away from their families to fight through the draft. Some men were not able to receive the help they needed because the symptoms of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) did not show until a year

    Read More

  • The Things They Carried: A Soldier's Burden

    760 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...often times tragic and can ruin the lives of those who fight. The effects of war can last for years, possibly even for the rest of the soldiers life and can also have an effect on those in the lives of the soldier as well. Soldiers carry the memories of things they saw and did during war with them as they try and regain their former lives once the war is over, which is often a difficult task. O’Brien gives his readers some insight into what goes on in the mind of a soldier during combat and long after coming home.

    Read More

  • Loss of soldier identity

    2537 Words  | 6 Pages

    ...ust deal with similar pains. Through the authors of these stories, we gain a better sense of what soldiers go through and the connection war has on the psyche of these men. While it is true, and known, that the Vietnam War was bloody and many soldiers died in vain, it is often forgotten what occurred to those who returned home. We overlook what became of those men and of the pain they, and their families, were left coping with. Some were left with physical scars, a constant reminder of a horrible time in their lives, while some were left with emotional, and mental, scarring. The universal fact found in all soldiers is the dramatic transformation they all undergo. No longer do any of these men have a chance to create their own identity, or continue with the aspirations they once held as young men. They become, and will forever be, soldiers of the Vietnam War.

    Read More

  • Why Are Veterans Important To America

    619 Words  | 2 Pages

    While soldiers are away from home, many things might change that they aren’t there for, for example, family problems and disasters. In addition, veterans might come home to a whole different world than when they left, and this already makes their lives more challenging to go with these changes. In addition, soldiers might also come back with physical injuries, like a lost limb, or loss of hearing. As a result, this makes everyday tasks much harder than they actually are. Veterans also might be mentally scarred from war. For example, a mental disorder called post traumatic stress disorder, makes life for the veteran and family much

    Read More

  • The Role of Storytelling in The Things They Carried

    2570 Words  | 6 Pages

    The impact of the Vietnam War upon the soldiers who fought there was huge. The experience forever changed how they would think and act for the rest of their lives. One of the main reasons for this was there was little to no understanding by the soldiers as to why they were fighting this war. They felt they were killing innocent people, farmers, poor hard working people, women, and children were among their victims. Many of the returning soldiers could not fall back in to their old life styles. First they felt guilt for surviving many of their brothers in arms. Second they were haunted by the atrocities of war. Some soldiers could not go back to the mental state of peacetime. Then there were soldiers Tim O’Brien meant while in the war that he wrote the book “The Things They Carried,” that showed how important the role of story telling was to soldiers. The role of stories was important because it gave them an outlet and that outlet was needed both inside and outside the war in order to keep their metal state in check.

    Read More

  • The First World War: A Brief History with Documents

    860 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...though people believe that, those on the home front have it just as a bad as the soldiers, because they have to deal with the responsibilities of their husbands, there is nothing that can compare to what these men have gone through. The war itself consumed them of their ideology of a happy life, and while some might have entered the war with the hope that they would soon return home, most men came to grips with the fact that they might never make it out alive. The biggest tragedy that follows the war is not the number of deaths and the damages done, it is the broken mindset derives from being at war. These men are all prime examples of the hardships of being out at war and the consequences, ideologies, and lifestyles that develop from it.

    Read More

  • The Things They Carried

    1087 Words  | 3 Pages

    Each soldiers experience in the war was devastating in its own way. The men would go home carrying the pictures and memories of their dead companions, as well as the enemy soldiers they killed. “They all carried emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing- these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight.” These were the things that weighed the most, the burdens that the men wanted to put down the most, but were the things that they would forever carry, they would never find relief from the emotional baggage no matter where they went.

    Read More

  • The Hurt Locker

    2637 Words  | 6 Pages

    Seal, Karen H., Daniel Bertenthal, Christian R. Miner, Saunak Sen, and Charles Marmar. "Bringing the War Back Home: Mental Health Disorders Among 103 788 US Veterans Returning From Iraq and Afghanistan Seen at Department of Veterans Affairs Facilities." Archives of Internal Medicine 167.5 (2007): 476-82. Print.

    Read More

  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and Veterans

    2308 Words  | 5 Pages

    Hundreds of thousands of United States veterans are not able to leave the horrors of war on the battlefield (“Forever at War: Veterans Everyday Battles with PTSD” 1). Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is the reason why these courageous military service members cannot live a normal life when they are discharged. One out of every five military service members on combat tours—about 300,000 so far—return home with symptoms of PTSD or major depression. According to the Rand Study, almost half of these cases go untreated because of the disgrace that the military and civil society attach to mental disorders (McGirk 1). The general population of the world has to admit that they have had a nightmare before. Imagine not being able to sleep one wink because every time you close your eyes you are forced to relive memories from the past that you are trying to bury deep. This is what happens to the unfortunate men and women who are struggling with PTSD. Veterans that are struggling with post-traumatic stress disorder deserve the help they need.

    Read More

  • Antiwar

    859 Words  | 2 Pages

    ... problems… perhaps even suicidal feelings (Goodwin 1).” Soldiers were traumatized by the war and the trauma caused many soldiers such as Ehrhart to stress for change.

    Read More

  • The Effects Of PTSD In The Short Story 'Red Convertible'

    2318 Words  | 5 Pages

    Anything can get to them and when they are deployed back they are sometimes only a few days to a week removed from that battle felid and they get no time to let off steam or get some type of metal help. They are just put back in the society, normal life with their family. This messes with there mind a lot. (Dean 7) Many of these veterans had this American hero image in their mind which is understandable, but when they got back they had anything but that. This really messed up their minds because they had a bar set and is was not met by any means. (Dean 8) The negativity surrounding the veterans just shut them down completely from anything, family included because they had put it all out there for the mother land and they got little respect. They saw many friends die and didn’t get to see their family’s for long periods of time. (Dean 22,23) PTSD is known to just eat away at the mind like a parcite, not letting the person do anything at all. They can not have a normal life with a family. (Wilson 9) Just the way the mind thinks when diagnosed with PTSD is backwards and not with much sense sometimes. Compulsive reexposure is something not really talked about because the front is that everything is okay because the attempt to a normal life is shown. The way that works is the mind works in reverse like a veteran coming back feels the need to be in the swat or a woman got abused as

    Read More

  • The Sorrow of War

    1310 Words  | 3 Pages

    It can be hard to fully comprehend the effects the Vietnam War had on not just the veterans, but the nation as a whole. The violent battles and acts of war became all too common during the long years of the conflict. The war warped the soldiers and civilians characters and desensitized their mentalities to the cruelty seen on the battlefield. Bao Ninh and Tim O’Brien, both veterans of the war, narrate their experiences of the war and use the loss of love as a metaphor for the detrimental effects of the years of fighting.

    Read More

  • The Negative Impact Of War In The Wars By Timothy Findley

    1408 Words  | 3 Pages

    War has been a consistent piece of mankind 's history. It has significantly influenced the lives of individuals around the globe. The impacts are amazingly adverse. In the novel, “The Wars,” by Timothy Findley, Soldiers must shoulder compelling weight on the warzone. Such weight is both family and the country weight. Many individuals look at soldiers for hop and therefore, adding load to them. Those that cannot rationally beat these difficulties may create Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Tragically, some resort to suicide to get away from their insecurities. Troops, notwithstanding, are not by any means the only ones influenced by wars; relatives likewise encounter mental hardships when their friends and family are sent to war. Timothy Findley

    Read More

More about The Immutable Gloom of War

Open Document