The historical context of a situation greatly influences how people react and what is seen as the norm. The Vietnam war greatly influences the course of people’s lives and then alter their social structures in the future. With the regard to disability and unemployment, the effects of combat exposure in war are most consistent with the direct cumulative disadvantage account (MacLean). The Vietnam War has such a great impact that it continues to be felt daily in the lives of its aging veterans, homeless veterans, and their families. “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien was a story written during the Vietnam War about the soldiers and how their lives were impacted due to the war. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a disorder brought upon by traumatic events or experiences and is still very relevant to today because of the current research. The undiagnosed PTSD was prevalent during the time after the Vietnam War, based on the symptoms displaced. By looking at “The Things They Carried”, understanding what the soldiers during the Vietnam War experienced and how the war has impacted them mentally, physically, and emotionally is important. We can see how the culture’s history has only recently understood PTSD, which most readers don’t see; this is such a huge impact on the soldiers returning from war. 

Recent research regarding Post Traumatic Stress Disorder has begun to spark an interest within our society. To best understand PTSD one must look at the historical context that dates back to 1980. Society today is recently understanding what the disorder is and how it impacts the victims lives as well as their families. It has been hard to track the historical advancements because many people that have been affected by PTSD do not want to give self- reports or be seen as crazy for having a disorder. Since society hasn’t really understood PSTD there has been a lot of stereotypes surrounding the disorder. For example, in the past they were likely to be sent to insane asylums for their reactions post war this was because of societies misconceptions of the mental state of the disorder.

 The misinterpretation of PTSD is something that is so significant for diagnoses, it cannot be diagnosed if it is not understood. The way PTSD is misinterpreted is the way that people classify as a traumatic situation, because of this, there are more opinions than there is research. Researchers have noticed this trend, thus more research is being conducted with victims of PTSD, but as mentioned above this has been difficult because of how emotionally distraught the victims are due to their experiences. Some researchers have defined this disorder as an explanation of “the level of psychophysiological arousal the individual endures during the event or through more complicated relationships involving the effects of the individuals’ temperament, prior exercise, prior psychological functioning, and other genetic or environmental factors that affect his or her capacity to regulate the emotional response” (Ozer & Weiss). This is one researches findings on this disorder and how the factors impact their lives. There is currently more research being done to have a stronger definition and better understanding of the impacts of PTSD on the victims. 

The accounts of history have shown PTSD, is historically, politically, and culturally situated (Howell). The invention of PTSD which was notified as a disorder in history was not politically considered until the aftermath of the Vietnam War (Howell). “The Things They Carried” took place during the Vietnam War, the soldiers were undiagnosed because this disorder was not discovered until after they did research on the soldiers after the war. Since they didn’t have awareness of this disorder prewar, they didn’t know the impacts the soldiers would be facing. So once the soldiers returned from war they were traumatized which enabled them from their daily functions and nobody understood why. After the Vietnam War, more research has been done which has shown that there are four categories of predictors that someone is suffering from PTSD and can be diagnosed. The predictors are historical or static characteristics, trauma severity, psychological processes during and immediately after the trauma; and social support and life stress after the traumatic event (Ozer & Weiss). Now knowing these predictors, it allows clinicians to treat the victims of the disorder. The research is expanding so it is not definite, thus there must be more research and trials on the victims. New research will benefit the victims, their families, and the society to better understand PTSD as well as the treatment that is needed. 

The current research that has been done has classified treatment as being a type of medicine and counseling. PTSD is a disorder that can be treated by medicine, but because of the time periods ignorance of the disorder, they weren’t able to find the medicine that was necessary to help the victims that were dealing with PTSD during the Vietnam War. If they would have had this research prior to the Vietnam War, it might have helped to prepare the soldiers for war and after war. The research on what causes fear leading to PTSD has been found that “examination of parts of the brain involved in the fear response has been extensive because traumatic events usually generate fear, and because fear initiates the “flight or fight” psychological arousal associated with the hyperarousal symptoms of PTSD (Ozer & Weiss). After a soldier has come home from war, and they have PTSD they flight or fight is enhanced, which is why you see soldiers with night terrors or being triggered by loud noises bringing back traumatic experiences from the war. Many victims have also experienced being easily startled, feeling tense or “on edge”, having difficulty sleeping, having angry outbursts (The National Institute of Mental Health). Some victims are increasing their disorder without knowing it because they haven’t been helped or treated with ways to overcome and prevent this disorder. Some factors that increase risk for PTSD include living through dangerous events and traumas, getting hurt or seeing someone else hurt such as a dead body which can result in another symptom of feeling horror, helplessness, or extreme fear (The National Institute of Mental Health). Victims facing PTSD need lots of support from their peers, family, and friends, lack of support from others will increase the risk for PTSD.

The severity of injuries varied during the Vietnam War and soldiers are more likely to survive from serious injuries that would have ended up killing them in past wars, but both physical and mental injuries that occurred were not properly treated. In “The Things They Carried”, it is undetermined if they took medicine, but they did take drugs because they believed it made things simpler because they were more calm since they had drugs in their systems. In order to block out the daily horrors of the war, some of the women took to drink, drugs, and partying when they were not on duty. I did a lot of drinking over there. I started to drink to cover feelings. I was one of those people who dealt with it by not dealing with it, and so a lot of my spare time was spent hitting the booze bottle. (Walker, 1985, p. 21) The silence was the worst for some of the women. Friends and relatives did not ask about the war, and the women felt that they could not talk about their experiences. They were isolated (Van Devanter & Furey, 1991, p. 123). 

During this time, medicine was less about the treatment of the actual injury, but to ignore the traumatic experience that they were going through during the war. There should be further research done to try and understand how the psychological relationship with symptoms of PTSD are encountered. This type of research can be beneficial to understand how medicine needs to benefit the individual in a healthy way unlike the characters in the story who would take random drugs to make it seem like they weren’t at war. This is still a typical practice of those coming back from war, which is why you find a lot of soldiers with drug and alcohol abuse because to them they intake of medicine during the war provides the same outcome as alcohol abuse at home. Further evaluation will provide “data with which to evaluate current theory…ethical prohibitions regarding experimental research in this field” (Ozer & Weiss). Understanding these indicators can help with better coping methods with the disorder after the incident. Rather than trying to cope with alcohol and drugs, they should be given treatment options if assumed that they have PTSD. 

Many questions surface what influences PTSD and how it is developed, “it is likely that some predictors influence each other in more complex ways; a given predictor may strengthen the effects of another predictor on developments of PTSD or may serve as a mechanism through which another predictor increases the likelihood of developing PTSD” (Ozer & Weiss). Those trying to understand the severity of the disorder has been a troubling development because they’re concerned about the “politics of the diagnosis” (Howell 216). These victims do not want to be labeled as being a victim because of the way they would be treated in society today. Society doesn’t treat people that are seen as sick the same way that they treat those without the label and diagnosis. The way that the diagnosis was intended for as an “anti- war tool”, that is not how it actually is intended, “it came to work in ways that often stripped the experience of trauma from its political context” (Howell 216). The questions on the trauma of the situation and whether it is treatable or not also dates back to the time period because it wasn’t a disorder in the 1980s, so they didn’t know that they were suffering from trauma. The way to treat trauma can vary in discussion “treating trauma as a medical problem has meant that it is approached as something to be cured” (Howell 216), this brings up the question if trauma can really be cured or not. 

The soldiers in the war turned their pain resulting from their traumatic experiences and the death that was constantly around them into anger and hatred.  Those who experienced and fought in the war, the men and women, didn’t like to talk about their experiences throughout the war, it’s a time that they don’t really want to revisit, a time that will be with them for the rest of their lives. People with PTSD, have a harder time acclimating after the war because they were not treated for this disorder since it wasn’t noticed as a disorder during the war. The people diagnosed for PTSD have a higher chance of developing other disorders such as anxiety, eating, depression, and other mental disorders (The National Institute of Mental Health). Many different people experienced different forms of PTSD, effecting some people more than others. In “The Things They Carried”, the character Norman becomes suicidal, no one knowing why he’s suicidal because PTSD was not something that was diagnosed at the time. The unawareness of this disorder could result in physical or mental harm to the solider and others because they were not treated or diagnosed. The characters talked about the things they kept with them throughout their journey during war, the little things to us can be seen as the big things to them. The characters create memories based on their experiences, even though they’re traumatic. Norman was not able to pull himself back together after experiencing the traumatizing death of Kiowa. The men “carry all the emotional baggage of men who might die” (O’Brien, 338). 

O’Brien is the narrator of the story, as well as the author, he is telling his experiences of how he was a soldier in the war. He is expressing the reasons why he has traumatizing nightmares from the PTSD. His storytelling helps him cope with his memory of death and violence from the war. Throughout the story O’Brien was shot and experienced shock from being shot, while going to get treated he had separation anxiety which was another type of PTSD from the separation from his team. 