Rebekah

Naler

Professor Bill Greenwell

ENG 101

April 6, 2016

The After Effects

Today in the world, soldiers are returning home trying to lead normal lives,

physically and mentally, thinking that the war didn’t effect them but they are

struggling with the after effects of the trauma. PTSD or Posttraumatic stress

disorder is a mental disorder that consists of 4 factors: avoidance, re-experiencing,

dysphonia, and hyper arousal, which occur commonly between Iraq and Afghanistan

veterans (Blais). PTSD isn’t gender or military branch specific or just found within

the service members, it is common in people around the world that have had

experienced something that impacts their daily lives. From mothers after birth to

policemen, PTSD runs deep in our society.

PTSD is a disorder that develops after someone has experienced something

shocking or scary or has lived through a dangerous event according to the National

Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). PTSD is a form of mental protection from

something harmful, psychologist use the term “fly-or-flight” as our brain responding

to protect or defend from something that was harmful in the past. The NIMH also

says that PTSD is caused by re-experiencing symptoms like flashback, bad dreams,

and frightening thoughts. These symptoms can take a toll on someone daily life and
the re-experiencing symptoms can be from simply someone’s thoughts and feelings

such as words, object, or situations.

Everyone has a different trigger to something traumatic that happened in

their lives and deal with it in their own way. Some victims of PTSD choose

medications and other use psychotherapy or “talk” therapy but sometimes both.

Medications used for PTSD help control some symptoms of the disorder itself like

sadness, worry, anger, and feeling numb inside. The medications to help with these

symptoms are antidepressants but some doctors will prescribe it with

psychotherapy. Psychotherapy or “talk therapy” can be one-on-one or in a group

and the psychotherapies focus on two key components, exposure therapy and

cognitive restructuring. Exposure therapy helps people face and control the trauma

in a “safe way” by using “imagining, writing, or visiting the place the event

happened” according to NIMH and cognitive restructuring helps make sense of the

bad memories because victims remember the event differently in the present time

than when the trauma actually happened that “could lead to guilt or shame when it

wasn’t their faults” so cognitive restructuring helps look at the trauma in a “realistic

way” says NIMH.

Most people think PTSD only happens with veterans but it can happen to

anyone especially new mothers during or after childbirth. Veterans that go to

Afghanistan and Iraqi tend to have more vivid flashback and anxiety when it comes

to traumatic experiences during their daily lives. Veterans experience flashbacks

from something as simple as a sound from a T.V. to someone bumping into

something walking around then house. From a personal experience, my uncle who
was a senior chief in the Navy, came back from a tour and continued to live a normal

life until 4th of July when the fireworks started. We were at a cookout and we as kids

never shot off fireworks around him since our parents knew what was going on but

one 4th of July they left just a little later than expected and didn’t get back to their

house until fireworks were going on. His flashback became so vivid in his mind that

he low crawled from the car to his room to get under his bed because in his mind he

was seeking protection like he would have if he were still on his tour. You never

think that someone this close to you could experience something like this but not

being able to help him or her is the worse part. Over the years, understanding that

military members are struggling with the effects of war months to years after

returning home, those that have never been in their shoes. People that take freedom

for granted don’t understand that these men and women are being taken away from

loved ones and fighting for our nation and there will come a time when they have to

point the gun and decide if they can pull the trigger and ends someone’s life in the

matter of seconds.

Mothers during and after a pregnancy can experience PTSD. During a

pregnancy a mother can feel anxiety, which causes stress on her and the baby.

Women during pregnancy can experience partial PTSD symptoms, which have more

likely experienced “difficult previous childbirth or required mental health treatment

after previous pregnancy”. A mother during her pregnancy can freak out about a lot

of things like if the baby will be health or like with the evolution of technology, they

are able to detect weather the baby will have a learning disability like autism or

down syndrome which is detected early enough to decide if you want to continue on
with the pregnancy. During delivery, the mothers are more “likely to perceive a

threat to their life and health or the life and health of the baby” and women with

PTSD usually “experience more pain during childbirth, deliver vaginally, and receive

fewer pain killers” according to research. After a pregnancy, once the baby is born,

mom could still have anxiety with regarding health issues that the baby could have

like underdeveloped organs or a heart in the heart. Mothers after childbirth may

also experience “intrusive thoughts and memories that may inspire feelings of fear,

horror, or helplessness” and the may feel “social isolated, lonely, angry, or

depressed” that would cause bonding with the baby difficult (Blasio and Ionio).

From a mother that recently gave birth, PTSD symptoms didn’t show until a

few weeks until delivery. She explained that her PTSD was something that she

would have never thought that she had due to the fact that she was happy about her

pregnancy from the first moment she found out about her child that would be here

in 9 months, something that she could call hers, to hold and love for the rest of her

life. During the beginning stages of labor, she started to notice that something didn’t

feel right but she just thought it was nervousness for her first born child to be in her

a number of hours but in the information from the doctors they told her that these

were common symptoms for PTSD and they would be watching her closely up to the

point of delivery. Well when was far enough along in she was asking for something

to help ease the pregnancy along but was informed that he could not have anything

due to the PTSD symptoms so her anxiety at this time she said, “it was like having

your whole world around you just fall apart and you could do nothing about it.”
Could you imagine having to go threw delivery without any pain reducers and

having to push a human out of your body threw a small hole in your body?

In the past 10 years, PTSD studies have noticed that more and more people

are dealing with PTSD. The more studies done regarding PTSD the more of a trend

seems to occur like “high rates of suicide, unemployment, and homelessness among

veterans” (Xenakis). PTSD study show now that the symptoms don’t only derive

from emotional stressors but cause “significant distress or functional incapacity”

among those who are experiencing symptoms PTSD everyday. With PTSD social and

financial factors matter just as much as all the other factors with this illness, which

is considered “state of being of the whole mind and body” according to Xenakis who

is a brigadier general, retire from the Army and wants to help the veterans get the

help that they need.

PTSD is not something that something that all military or mothers talk about

which is what makes it the most dangerous illness in the world. The inabilities to

talk to someone about you are feeling is something that is traumatic on the victim

when they have to relive that situation over and over in their minds. PTSD is

something that is overlooked offend and when noticed they are pushed off to

someone that they feel would be better than them at helping that person threw a

difficult time from the past whether it be from being deployed and something

blowing up next to you or having your first baby to cause major PTSD symptoms like

depression, anxiety, and the most important is the flashbacks to the events.

 Works Cited

Blais, Rebecca K., et al. "Unique PTSD Clusters Predict Intention To Seek
Mental Health Care And Subsequent Utilization In US Veterans With PTSD
Symptoms." Journal Of Traumatic Stress 27.2 (2014): 168-174. Academic
Search Complete. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.

"Childbirth Experience Can Lead to PTSD in Some Mothers.(research udapte)
(Brief article)." CrossCurrents - The Journal of Addiction and Mental Health.
Web. 30 Mar 2016.

Moser, Dominik A., et al. "The Relation Of General Socio-Emotional Processing
To Parenting Specific Behavior: A Study Of Mothers With And Without
Posttraumatic Stress Disorder." Frontiers In Psychology 6.(2015): 1-10.
Academic Search Complete. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.

"Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder." National Institute for Mental Health. N.p.,
Feb. 2016. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.

Studies by C.M. Chemtob and co-authors describe new findings in
post-traumatic stress disorders.(Report). Mental Health Weekly
Digest (August 16, 2010): p48. Web. 30 Mar 2016.

Xenakis, Stephen N, and Matthew J. Friedman.
"Understanding PTSD (LETTERS)(Letter to the editor)." The Wilson
Quarterly. 36. 1 (Winter 2012): 8(2). Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center.
Web. 29 Mar 2016.