In Tim O’Brien’s short story The Things They Carried O’Brien describes the stories of soldiers who took part in the Vietnam war. The author, whom also plays the part of narrartor, discusses the objects carried by these soldiers during the Vietnam war and tragic events that occurred which still haunt the men. By writing the short story in the manner in which it was written O’Brien was able to unconsciously shows the growing number of cases of Post- traumatic stress disorder during the Vietnam War, more commonly known as PTSD, and how deadly of a disorder it can be. 

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder is described in Paolo Prolo’s article, “Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: Evidence-Based Research for the Third Millennium”, as a fairly common disorder in people who are trying to seek a return to a normal life following an event or events in which an immense amount of stress or trauma was is seen (Prolo). In many cases PTSD can result from one specific event which will as a result will effect one for the rest of their lives. This can be seen in The Things The Carried in the case of Lieutenant Cross and his love from college Martha. In this situation Cross blames the death of his fellow soldier, Lavender, on himself due to the fact that he was thinking of Martha during the time of Lavenders death. In this scenario the stressful stimulus is the death of Lavender and the connecting thought that bridges the pain together is Martha. “PTSD is commonly seen when an event a patient once perceives as happy is turned around due to one event” (Prolo). With Lieutenant Cross the happy event that was turned around was the thought of Martha. As described in the short story Martha was the love of Cross’s life. They knew each other back in college however, afterwards Martha moved on but Cross never quiet did. The happy event of the thought of Martha had gone sour following the death of Lavender. In a military setting there are often more cases of PTSD for those who are directly in the war zone as opposed to not being there. This stress disorder was first diagnosed during the Civil War and was previously known as the Da Costa Syndrome. Da Costa Syndrome was originally described as an extreme fatigue. Due to this outbreak of this stress disorder it was put under extensive watch by doctors during both World War I and World War II (Prolo). This directly plays a role in The Things They Carried for various differing reasons. Following World War II the next major war to take place in the United States was the Vietnam War. After the extensive war research done on PTSD patients during the previous wars doctors were more prepared to treat soldiers who developed the disorder. Lieutenant Cross was directly on the war front hence why he would be more likely statistically to develop PTSD. This stress disorder that haunts millions of veterans each year however, much like most psychological disorders it is treatable but there is no cure.

Richard Bryant is a psychologist who specializes in PTSD treatment for war veterans. In his article “Psychological Interventions for Trauma Exposure and PTSD” Bryant discusses some possible treatments for the disorder and how to handle patients based on their situations from back at the war. PTSD is not something that can be cured within in a matter of days or even weeks. The treatment process for PTSD takes a long time and even then it may not be 100% cured. Bryant finds that the best way to treat this is to help the patient forget about the trigger that causes them to feel the symptoms of PTSD. In order to help the patient, forget about these triggers the psychologist must help the patient find healthy objects to fill the place of these triggers (Bryant). In most cases in which the patient seeks help from a psychologist it is easier for them to find healthy objects to replace the triggers. However, in other cases where the patient does not seek treatment or is forced into treatment it is often harder to find these healthy replacements before the patient finds an unhealthy replacement, such as drug or alcohol abuse. In the case of Lieutenant Cross a healthy replacement would be for him to find another girl who made him as happy as Martha did. Cross blames the death of Lavender solely on the fact that he was thinking of Martha. Now in the mind of Cross the thought of Martha is directly associated with the death of his friend. Finding not even another girl to fill the void of Martha but maybe something that made him just as happy as Martha did would be extremely helpful towards Lieutenant Cross and his situation. “Henceforth, when he thought about Martha, it was only to think that she belonged elsewhere… Boom-down, and you were dead, never partly dead” (The Things They Carried, Carolina Reader Page 340). This in an essence shows how Cross is beginning to deal with his trigger. In his mind he knows that by thinking about her he is placed in a vulnerable situation, a place no soldier ever wants to be. As much as he did not want to forget about her he knows that it is something he must do in order to place not only himself but his soldiers in a better situation to survive the war “He understood. It was very sad, he thought. The things men did or felt they had to do.” (The Things They Carried, Carolina Reader Page 340). In another study that was done on PTSD patients it was shown that a successful therapeutic technique would be to group therapy sessions rather than one on one sessions (Hyer). These sessions were conduct on Vietnam War veterans and it was seen that once they were placed in groups of people who suffered from similar situations they were more likely to open up. It was also seen that if therapy was started immediately after the stress stimuli was introduced it would take about 3 months of group therapy to significantly reduce the chances of a patient developing severe PTSD symptoms (Hyer). Although this experiment was conducted shortly after the Vietnam War it would have been extremely beneficial for Lieutenant Cross to take place in. Cross would have been a perfect candidate for this experiment due to the fact that he was already aware of the trigger that was causing him stress. Allowing Cross to sit down with a group of other soldiers would also help him understand that death is a common occurrence in war and the death of Lavender was not his fault nor was it the fault of him thinking about Martha. 

PTSD has been known as a disorder officially from the Civil War when it was previously known as the Da Costa syndrome. However, much like most psychological disorders we never 100% know how they fully work. During the time of the Vietnam War, we did not know as much about the disorder as we do now. Historically it is very similar how PTSD is contracted especially, for those in the war front. O’Brien does a very good job of shaping the setting and showing not only how different warfare was back during the Vietnam War but also how different it was technologically. In the modern day there are much more treatments for PTSD that were not available during the Vietnam War. These would be things such as electro shock therapy. In the past the best way to help out with PTSD was to talk and find ways to convert stress stimuli into positive stimuli. PTSD has been around for a long time and as time goes on we will learn more and more about this stress disorder. Lieutenant Cross along with many other Vietnam War veterans would benefit from PTSD treatment because statistically the characters from the story are fairly likely to develop and show PTSD symptoms.
