 Many soldiers come back from the war with posttraumatic stress disorder but what is posttraumatic stress disorder? Posttraumatic stress disorder is a mental health issue which causes individuals to experience the symptoms of the disorder after a life-threatening event. There is not a certain treatment for the disorder but there are ways to cope in order to help the individuals, mainly veterans, to live their life like they have before the war.  In terms of Vietnam war in “The Things They Carried, the readers can see that posttraumatic stress disorder has become an issue that affects the veterans’ life. The issue is important because the veterans lose their family or life in general since they have horrible memories of the war that caused them to act out violently or shut people out when they need help. 

PTSD in veterans can cause them to lose their family. In a study performed by Forman Stuart and Stephen Havas, most to the Vietnam War veterans got divorce or separated after a few months. During the experiment, the researchers found that many veterans may have gotten a divorce because the veterans experience seizures, horrible nightmares which causes them to to stay up late at night, and the veterans are unemployed. Veterans may be unemployed because they are disabled from combat or they do not have the skills to perform certain jobs (3-13). Since the veterans are unemployed, they have trouble supporting their family so they rely on their spouse which may cause stress on their spouse and lead to arguments and divorce. There are programs provided for the veterans which can help them relieve the pain from experiencing the symptoms of the disorder. The programs are counseling, job training, and other resources.  Towards the end of the article, the authors stated that posttraumatic stress disorder needed more attention because more veterans are coming back from the war with the disorder which can cause them to lose everything in their life. 

Posttraumatic stress disorder is diagnosis in four ways. According to Lynn R. August and Barbara A. Gianole, the first way is to see if there is a severe stressor that may be caused by rape, torture, or wartime experiences. The second way is the patients experiencing the events of trauma through dreams or nightmares as well as memories that are triggered by a stimulus. The last two ways are experiencing symptoms such as irritability, memory impairment, survival guilt, startle response, and sleep disturbance, and a loss of interest in activities that an individual normally does or loves to do (822). According to August and Gianole, veterans who fought in Vietnam War had greater intensity of posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms than individuals who did not fight in the war (823). Many veterans experience the symptom of survival guilt. According to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, there are some ways to cope with the disorder. A few ways to cope for a veteran is to distract themselves with positive activities, keep items that distract them, and to talk to other veterans that have experienced the same situation.

Tim O’Brien wanted to write what he experienced during the Vietnam War to show readers what happens during wars and how veterans act during the war, certain situations, and after the war. He wanted to bring attention to the disorder in one his stories. In the story, “The Things They Carried,” Lieutenant Cross carried a picture of his sweetheart named Martha who wrote letters to each other (329). As Lieutenant Cross read the letters, he found that Martha is not interested him but he continued to think about her. Every now and then, he would look at her photo. During a battle, he looked at the photos and thought about her which caused one of his men to die. Lieutenant Cross thought the death of his man was his fault because he thought of Martha which caused him to burn the photos and the letters he had from her (340). Lieutenant Cross burned the photos because the photos would remind him of the horrible situation which was the death of one his men. If Lieutenant Cross looked at the photos he would get nightmares about the death of his friend and how he could have saved him which may cause him to stay up at night. The photos and letters could also make him abuse alcohol or drugs. Tim O’Brien may have written the scene to show how the veterans could have gotten posttraumatic stress disorder. He decided to write Lieutenant Cross burning the photos and letters to show how some veterans can relieve the symptoms of the disorder by getting rid of items that would could cause the veterans to remember the war or a certain situation during the war. The symptom O’Brien expressed during the scene was survival guilt because Lieutenant Cross thought he could have saved his friend if he was not thinking about Martha which lead Lieutenant Cross to have signs of depression. 

A way to cope with posttraumatic stress disorder is to do positive activities which can allow the veterans to hang on to certain items in order to make them feel comfortable and relax instead of thinking about the events the veterans experienced. Certain items that could make the veterans feel relax are pictures of family, friends, and pets, flags, rings, or any special item that would bring back positive memories. The veterans should not have items that could remind them of the horrible events that happened during the war. For example, in “The Things They Carried,” Norman Bowker carried a diary to write what he experiences and how he feels about those experience since he may not have a friend to talk about it to relieve some of the stress or pain so he does not have the memory stuck in his head (329). Another veteran named Rat Kiley carried comic books (329). Comic books could make the veteran happy or laugh to ease the tension of the war and to enjoy something happy since the war can cause them to become depressed. Many of the veterans in the story carried something that brought them luck which allowed them to think that everything was going to be alright and nothing bad was going to happened to them. The veterans don’t have to physically carry items. They can carry something that may represent their personality. For example, many veterans in the story carried dignity (337). Dignity would remind the veterans why they decided to fight in the war. The items the veterans brought allowed them to think about something else besides the war which can cause them either forget the memory or push the memory in the back of their head which allows them to feel relax instead of stress about the winning the war or the war in general.  

Posttraumatic stress disorder does not get enough attention since more veterans are coming back from the war with the disorder. Posttraumatic stress disorder needs to get recognized because people see our veterans on the streets and do not help them out whether they could give them money or to find them a support group that will allow the veterans to get the support they need in order to fix the way they live. Friends and family members of veterans should get them to realize that there are programs out there which allow them to get help and cope with the disorder instead of experiencing the event and losing everything they earned. 
