Post Traumatic Stress Disorder - One Man"s Story
Post traumatic stress disorder is one of the most powerful mental problems that our military faces when we go to war.
While the affliction is certainly not only a military problem, the horrors of war cause many cases every year.
Here is the story of one man with post traumatic stress disorder and how it happened to him.
When I first joined the military, it was just after the first Desert war in Iraq.
Many of my fellow soldiers had just gotten back from the war, and the vast majority of them were fairly unaffected.
The unit that I was with was not exactly on the front lines of the war, but we had some guys that had been sent there and back.
One of those soldiers was named James.
James was my age, about 22 years old, and was a medic just like I was.
He had been sent to a very busy aid station while in Iraq and any injured soldiers came through there before being sent home or elsewhere.
James had seen a great deal of bloodshed in his time at the aid station and he seemed a bit off sometimes.
As it turns out, James was my roommate.
He and I shared a room on base, and I was not sure how I felt about it.
While I had no choice about who I bunked with, I still considered asking for a transfer.
The reason was because James would wake every single night screaming at the top of his lungs.
Nightmares haunted him every single night.
Another thing that I noticed was he spent a great deal of time shaking and crying when nobody was looking.
I would come in after work and find him huddled in the corner of his bed.
After a week or two of this, I finally tried to talk to him.
On this particular day, he seemed a bit more lucid.
I sat on the edge of the bed and listened for hours about all the things he had seen over there.
In particular, he was haunted by the death of one of his best friends.
His buddy was shot in the temple by one of our own soldiers while cleaning their weapon and not checking the chamber of their rifle.
It happened right in front of James, and the bullet nearly hit him as well.
He said that he was haunted day and night over it, and he could not get the image out of his head.
James finally got some help from our military and last I heard he was in a mental institution in Kentucky.
It is sad, but that is what happened to him.
It seems that something more could have been done.
Post traumatic stress disorder is a serious problem, and should not be ignored by anyone - especially our military and government.
While the affliction is certainly not only a military problem, the horrors of war cause many cases every year.
Here is the story of one man with post traumatic stress disorder and how it happened to him.
When I first joined the military, it was just after the first Desert war in Iraq.
Many of my fellow soldiers had just gotten back from the war, and the vast majority of them were fairly unaffected.
The unit that I was with was not exactly on the front lines of the war, but we had some guys that had been sent there and back.
One of those soldiers was named James.
James was my age, about 22 years old, and was a medic just like I was.
He had been sent to a very busy aid station while in Iraq and any injured soldiers came through there before being sent home or elsewhere.
James had seen a great deal of bloodshed in his time at the aid station and he seemed a bit off sometimes.
As it turns out, James was my roommate.
He and I shared a room on base, and I was not sure how I felt about it.
While I had no choice about who I bunked with, I still considered asking for a transfer.
The reason was because James would wake every single night screaming at the top of his lungs.
Nightmares haunted him every single night.
Another thing that I noticed was he spent a great deal of time shaking and crying when nobody was looking.
I would come in after work and find him huddled in the corner of his bed.
After a week or two of this, I finally tried to talk to him.
On this particular day, he seemed a bit more lucid.
I sat on the edge of the bed and listened for hours about all the things he had seen over there.
In particular, he was haunted by the death of one of his best friends.
His buddy was shot in the temple by one of our own soldiers while cleaning their weapon and not checking the chamber of their rifle.
It happened right in front of James, and the bullet nearly hit him as well.
He said that he was haunted day and night over it, and he could not get the image out of his head.
James finally got some help from our military and last I heard he was in a mental institution in Kentucky.
It is sad, but that is what happened to him.
It seems that something more could have been done.
Post traumatic stress disorder is a serious problem, and should not be ignored by anyone - especially our military and government.