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 recent discovery has had such a huge impact on soldiers that are returning from war. Understanding PTSD helps professionals to work with and diagnose PTSD, which could have been helpful during the Vietnam 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. The interest in 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. PTSD is misinterpreted by the way people classify it 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 of the impacts that the soldiers would face. So once the soldiers returned from war they were traumatized which enabled them to complete their daily functions and nobody understood why. Research today started because of the misunderstanding of soldier’s reactions after war. 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 Vietnam War was the biggest war having an impact on American Society being much more drastic than others.  The predictors are historical or static characteristics, trauma severity, psychological processes during and immediately after the trauma; social support and life stressors 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. If only this research had been around during the Vietnam War, more help could have been provided for the soldiers in the war. 

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 the flight or fight response 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 throughout 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 simple. The soldiers were more calm when they had drugs in their systems. 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). An anti- war tool is a way to express an opinion about not wanting to go or be affected by war. 

There have been questions about the treatment of trauma on a situation because until recently, it wasn’t a disorder. In the 1980s, soldiers didn’t know that they were suffering from trauma since professionals weren’t even aware of this diagnosis. 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.  This has been discussed through research in topics such as psychology, neurology, cardiology, and many more. Each profession has established a difference stance about trauma and what it effects, but most can agree that trauma effects a person in more than one area. Throughout “The Things They Carried”, various soldiers had mental affects, causing them to not be able to function on a daily basis. The research would suggest that they were suffering psychologically and biologically since they have night terrors but also most likely have high blood pressure. 

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, and 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 knows why he’s suicidal because PTSD was not something that was diagnosed at the time. No one had suspicions about Norman’s symptoms because so many of the soldiers experienced the same psychological effects. The unawareness of this disorder could result in physical or mental harm to the solider and others because they were not treated or diagnosed. It was evident throughout “The Things They Carried”, that each character had a different experience, but they all had some symptom of PTSD. 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. Some of the characters’ experiences seemed to have more symptoms of PTSD than others. For example, Norman Bowker was not able to pull himself back together after experiencing the traumatizing death of Kiowa. Kiowa’s death during the war was very traumatic for everyone in the story because they were all impacted from the death of a member in their group. Someone you personally knew dying has a huge impact during society, not expecting it to be as huge of a deal in war because so many people die, assuming soldiers would be used to this. The story “The Things They Carried” proved that each person that died was treated the same, as a human dying, not that oh people die every day and get used to it, they never get used to it, the soldiers just suffer more and more after each death. Norman Bowker was most affected by Kiowa’s death. 

O’Brien is the narrator of the story, as well as the author, he is telling his experiences of when he was a soldier in the Vietnam War. O’Brien confronts and then re-confronts his various traumas is his life, without the thought of diagnosis he tried to find resolutions. He tries to cope with his trauma by writing and some can argue that he doesn’t have PTSD because of the way he writes. O’Brien has a mental duel from the young boy that he killed during the Vietnam War, he stills thinks about his killing and reruns the situation over and over again in his head. He has the complex of morality and guilt, images in his head about the young boy he killed, all symptoms of PTSD because he is experiencing different forms of trauma. O’Brien feels guilt and suffers from other people that are killed during the war, even if he didn’t do it because it makes him reminisce on his killing. For example, the killing of Curt Lemon, O’Brien suffers and tries to cope with the seeing of someone getting killed even though he experiences it every day, he makes it seem like it’s a new experience every time it happens. O’Brien’s symptoms identify why now a days he would be diagnosed or recognized having PTSD. The emotional effect of PTSD is one of the first symptoms to be signified. The men “carry all the emotional baggage of men who might die” (O’Brien, 338). This quote signifies the weight that is left on the men’s soldiers from the traumatic experiences of the Vietnam War. 

 O’Brien 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. His experience with those that weren’t in the war impacts his life tremendously because they do not understand what happened and the things the soldiers went through, therefore he feels alone with his family because they can’t relate to his problems. Trying to communicate and help someone with PTSD is very difficult because some don’t want to claim that they have that disorder or are in denial. O’Brien truly believes that certain things are realities that cannot be explained at all, unless they’re there to experience it for themselves. He knows that he can try to communicate his feelings and experiences by telling others what happened to him, but he cannot fully express every feeling. This inability to express feelings are symptoms of PTSD and is something that if recognized, could have been treated and wouldn’t have to still be struggling with for the rest of his life. Norman was questioning his life, war, and its existence, finding no motivation to keep on living because of the loss of his loved ones. Since he has no one left to talk to, he feels alone, he simulates conversations with other people when he is alone, basically going crazy, which is also a symptom of PTSD. 

In conclusion, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder has a huge impact of the story “The Things They Carried”. PTSD is an effect of all the suffering experiences, memories, and situations, that have gone on in the story and during the Vietnam War.  This story helps to understand what the soldiers during the Vietnam War experienced and how the war has impacted them mentally, physically, and emotionally is important. It is clearer to identify how the culture’s history has only recently understood PTSD, which most readers don’t see; this recent discovery has had such a huge impact on soldiers that are returning from war. Understanding PTSD helps professionals to work with and diagnose PTSD, which could have been helpful during the Vietnam War. 