In the story The Things They Carried by: Tim O’Brien there is a platoon of men fighting in in the Vietnam jungle experiencing the horrors of war watching the men they’ve grown to know over the previous months slowly die one by one as the war takes its toll on those who survive. The title itself is a cruel irony, during the novel the narrator describes the physical things that they carried with them through the Jungle of Vietnam but as it goes on it becomes apparent that they are also carrying a heavy emotional toll with them, one that may never leave them even after they return home. The cost of the war makes itself more and more apparent as the story goes on hearing the stories of the men that formed the battle-weary group of soldiers. Seeing the true terror of a guerrilla war like these men have will all but guarantee even a little bit of PTSD even in the most hardened and toughest of soldiers would face the effects of such a traumatic and terrifying experience. Many soldiers who came back from Vietnam were met with the endless nightmare of PTSD when they came back some decades after the conflict ended but it never really left them. In The Things They Carried it becomes clear that despite the calm demeanor of the narrator he had seen things that no human should have to see and the war had been taking its toll on him for weeks and he is showing signs of PTSD from hat he had seen happen to him and his fellow men. There is a certain stigma against people like this who suffer from true emotional pain every second of the day. People say they support the troops yet there are thousands in the streets of America homeless and jobless. Veterans have some of the highest suicide rates of any demographic. Most of them just want a chance to make it back home mentally from war but people are too scared they might go on some PTSD driven rampage. When they do go look for help they are met with an indifferent and poorly run VA department that doesn’t care about their well-being. From there veterans don’t know where to go driving a viscous cycle that punishes those who fought for our freedoms and rights as average american citizens. By looking at the problem of veteran PTSD we can see that they are mistreated and only want a chance to make it in this world, so there needs to be a better system to take care of those who deserve it the most.

Lieutenant Jimmy Cross is the leader of the platoon wading through the thick tropical jungle of Vietnam leading his men into a lifetime of memories they wish they could forget. Lieutenant was no different than the men he was leading in that he too would face the long-lasting effects of warfare long after the guns have silenced. Early on the narrator talks about the lieutenant and his obsession of a girl he knew from back home but was caught in limbo wondering if she returned the feelings that he had for her. He did everything he could to feel connected to her despite the incredible distance between them. He went so far as to lick every letter that she sent him and wanted to believe that each one was sent with love, but a love beyond friendship. This obsession that he felt was going to help him get through the war and back home to his alleged sweetheart but it would bring him tremendous guilt when during a routine stop he became distracted with the thought of the sweet girl from back home and before he realized his mistake one of his men was shot in the head by a sniper and killed instantly. Ted Lavender was doing his duty and was following his leader in Lieutenant Jimmy Cross when all of a sudden with a bang he fell with a thud and was carried away in a body-bag carried by a chopper back to base where someone would have to tell his family of their loved ones’ ill-fated journey to the war torn nation of Vietnam. Lieutenant Cross knew this and felt the guilt and pain of having lost one of his own men because of his own careless mistake. He could almost feel the pain of the soon-to-be grieving family of Lavender and that would stay with him through the war. He blamed himself for the death of his comrade, he knew that if he had paid more attention to his surroundings Lavender would probably still be alive helping the rest of the men who now have to pick up the slack left behind. Studies have shown that its experiences like this drive home the pain of war and it stays with them leading to serious mental disorders like PTSD.  According to an article by Wilfred Cassle a common symptom is a phenomenon known as survivor’s guilt which describes the feeling “where someone feels responsible for the death of someone or felt that they should’ve died themselves” (Cassell 3), and the man who didn’t make it could move on with his life and not have to leave the Earth so soon. The people who suffer from this particular symptom of PTSD generally have the toughest time adapting to life back at home. They can’t help but think that they should’ve died but since they’re home they face a guilt worse than it was back in Vietnam. This is something that Lieutenant Cross is experiencing when he thinks about what happened to Lavender and it would only get worse for him when he gets back state-side. According to Cassel what a lot of people with this condition did after getting back from Vietnam was go into isolation out in the wilderness like Alaska (where the research was conducted by cassel) and live out their lives there because human interaction becomes much more difficult for people with this condition. That’s because they are almost constantly reminded of the people they lost and who they believe should still live instead of them. The people who go out into the wilderness are often looked at as the crazy Vietnam vet who lost his mind during the war. People are happy to see them gone because they seemed strange and scary but almost all the time all they wanted was some help to bring them back home not physically but mentally but so many people aren’t interested in trying to help that they don’t know where to go so they leave society and live on their own just to escape it all. 

In The Things They Carried there is a part where the platoon is waiting for a helicopter to lift Ted Lavenders body away from the hell-hole of a tropical and humid jungle when two men go searching through his stuff (since he’ll no longer need it) and they find some marijuana on him. The men decide to smoke it partly to honor Lavender but mostly to alleviate the stress and pressure of warfare in a far-away land. In Vietnam many soldiers used various drugs such as marijuana and heroin to help them get through the days and weeks of marching through dense and humid almost marsh-like conditions. Marijuana was especially popular among soldiers for its wide spread availability and how cheap it was. Some soldiers brought this habit back to the states because many were still dealing with the stress and often PTSD of such a bloody and unpopular conflict. This habit when they came back was obviously frowned upon by society, well except for the hippies, and it only hurt them when they would go and try to get a job and adapt to normal life once again. They would sometimes be drug tested when applying for a job and when they failed because of the methods they used to relax it would become almost impossible for them to find a job in the real world. When they would go to the VA to get help they would have a hard time getting any sort of help because of how many people there were who needed help and the incompetency of the department tasked with helping them. A lot of men, however, didn’t even use illicit drugs like the men in The Things They Carried, most of them resorted to the much more available and legal alcohol. Many used it as a way to help them relax and unfortunately some became dependent on it and became alcoholics. This only hurt them in almost every facet of society. In professional life their abuse of alcohol would leak into the work place and affect their productivity as an employee and would lead to them losing their jobs. In family life they would destroy the relationships with those who cared for them most and it would hurt them emotionally which would lead to more drinking. And it would hurt them financially as they would spend a larger than usual amount of money on alcohol just to help push away the feelings that had haunted them since they got back from the war. Still there was a woefully short list of resources that would help them with their illnesses leading them into the cycle of emotional torture that too many veterans found themselves in. Many men didn’t even have symptoms for years after they got back according to an article by Hermes which would only make the problem worse for the vets.

Rat Kiley was one of the men in the platoon and what he saw to give him PTSD was something that most people think is the typical way to get the disorder. When Ted Lavender was walking back from peeing he was shot in the face leaving the remnants of what looked like a man’s head but with a giant hole in it. Rat Kiley saw the horrific sight which no one should ever have to see and kept repeating one thing, “He’s dead, he’s dead” this is a tell-tale sign of PTSD which is acquired from seeing terrible things happen to people you know. He would go on through the war with the condition but he would never be the same mentally and emotionally. When he got back state-side he probably experienced the brunt of the assault on his mind and might have gone to get help but if he did there’s the chance that it wasn’t available for him or the treatment methods were woefully inadequate to deal with what many of the men were going through when they came back. Again people were either ignorant to what was going on, didn’t know how to help, or just ignored him but either way it wouldn’t get better for him for years after seeing the states again. The country for which he fought and sacrificed so much would brush him aside like he was a crazy old vet who lost his mind during the war.

In the novel the narrator talks about how the men were scared of ghosts at night planting mines and claymores around them and then lie and wait into the night for an attack and for one of the explosives to go off. If they heard it they wouldn’t feel tired, or lethargic they would feel the rush of adrenaline as they fought for their lives in the dark of the night with the only source of light being muzzle flashes from both sides of the battle. They didn’t know when or if that day would come but they lied in waiting for the moment to strike before somehow miraculously falling asleep. The pure stress even from an uneventful night could be enough to cause someone to develop PTSD. This would follow them home if they made it back to them lying in bed with their wives, girlfriends or even alone at night. The pitch black of the night could trigger a reaction in their brains to make them think that they’re in true danger and need to protect themselves. This could intimidate their significant others if they don’t know how to deal with it and could potentially ruin that relationship if proper treatment isn’t looked for and received from medical professionals. One thing that is being implemented nowadays that truly helps the soldiers are dogs that stay with the veterans at home and can even detect when an episode is happening and can go calm down its owner. The problem is that treatment hasn’t been around for long. Generations of veterans have gone without proper treatment or help and if some of them couldn’t find help they would commit suicide which is all too common in veterans after they come back from war. Those who experienced the most consistent combat had it worse according to Koenen because they had to see more and do more with the war.

For most of the men after the shooting was finished and all there was only quiet the men would peep up from behind whatever they were using as cover and look at themselves with great relief touching their bodies to make sure it wasn’t an illusion and quickly hiding it from the other men to make it seem like they were tough and unafraid. But in reality they wore masks of calmness and toughness, deep down they were all scared because the fact was they were in a warzone and anyone of them could be taken out at any moment. One wrong move and it would be lights out forever. Most men can’t handle that sort of pressure for weeks on end facing a new possibility of death everyday praying that it wasn’t their time and that they could go home when it was all finished. That kind of pressure will get to anyone no matter how manly and tough they want to seem, they will all look the face of death straight in the eyes and cower in fear. That is what causes PTSD in soldiers. Not just what is happening but the level of emotions running through their heads not only during but after the ordeal is finally over. For some even the slightest reminder of such a traumatizing event causes them to lose what little sanity they have left and begin panicking in the worst of ways. These trained men know how to defend themselves in very violent ways and if they feel that they are in true danger they will do what it takes to make them feel safe again. In the worst of cases they feel that the suffering is eternal and they’ll never be able to escape the grasp of the forever looming thought of impending death and decide to end it all thinking that it will finally make them feel safe again even if they’re not around to feel it anymore. This is what causes the stigma against combat veterans who suffer from PTSD where people think that they’re just a time bomb waiting to go off and go crazy potentially hurting people around them. Attitudes like this drive people away which is exactly opposite of what they need in order to return to normal. People need to be understanding of what they have gone through. The true pain of seeing those who you’ve befriended taken away in an instant right in front of your eyes in a violent fashion. Once people are more understanding and help them seek the help that they need he stigma won’t be nearly as prevalent in society and people who return home from a place of absolute violence.

For some men they couldn’t handle what was going on around them during the war and decided to injure themselves so that they could leave the terror of Vietnam and go to the peaceful recovery station for the wounded in Japan. They would shoot themselves in the hand or foot blowing off fingers and toes so that it wasn’t a lethal wound but would still be able to make it to the safety of a hospital. Many soldiers mocked this saying it was for the weak and the real men would stay and fight, but in reality there was a hint of jealousy among the men who continued to stay and fight in the dense jungle still facing to possibility of death under every pile of leaves and behind every rice paddy. The men who chose to hurt themselves were facing severe PTSD already before they even made it home. They couldn’t face the pressure and the stress, they couldn’t march through another rice paddy or look at another rifle the war had taken its toll. When those men got to the hospital they thought they would feel safe finally lying down in a comfortable bed instead of the cold wet ground of the jungle. In all reality the probably couldn’t feel safe even being surrounded by all of the nice facilities because that’s what kind of toll PTSD takes on someone. It’s not something people can just get over it’s a true disease that takes real medical care that too often goes ignores and un sought.

PTSD is a serious condition that many veterans face as they come back from a war or even during the war. The phrase being triggered has been misused by people who get their feelings hurt and it mocks the real origin of the phrase which is for people who suffer from PTSD again pushing the stigma that people should just get over it and that they’re all ticking time bombs waiting to explode into a violent rampage at a moment’s notice at the slightest thought of the horrors that they faced while in combat. For this reason, it can be hard to find jobs for veterans and sadly many are left homeless and impoverished. The men who fought and nearly sacrificed everything they could have been treated horrifically when they come home and find a country that claims to support its troops but once they come home they don’t care anymore. Veterans are too often pushed aside in today’s society because of the stigmas against mental health and especially PTSD like the veteran’s face. The men in The Things They Carried grew on the reader as they read the book and the reader began to feel the emotions that they might feel and somehow even connected with them. The harsh reality is though that if those men came home they would face a far bigger battle than they ever faced in Vietnam. It’s not an enemy soldier or some dictator it was in their own minds and they probably couldn’t get proper treatment for it. The disease is what they really carried.
