PTSD and Military Service

[Tactman]

Anthony and others. Do you feel there is a point where a human can become more animalistic that human? You mention beheaded bodies, they don't bother me anymore. My thought is if I just put it out of my mind, It'll just blend in with everything else and it won't stick out as spectacular or impressionable.

Overall Im proud of what I have done for my country. I worry quite a bit about what is going to happen to me when I am unable to do op's, when I come back stateside. I have said it before and I'll say it again, I feel safer in Iraq than I do the states. I feel that the majority of soldiers deployed to active combat areas will be scarred for life no matter what kind of physical trauma's they receive.

 

[anthony]

Tactman, it becomes what is familiar to you. It is not animalistic vs. human IMO, but more your surroundings become familiar in war torn areas. I agree with you, in that once you have lived in such an environment it has a damaging effect upon your psyche for the rest of your life. Linda, a member here is an example of such things, where she grew up in a place that was constantly at way, she lived in a place that was no longer war torn, though she was on edge constantly because of what is familiar to her, not what is around her. The brain interprets far differently in such aspects.

I also agree with you about trauma just blending into itself... though that only lasts whilst within such an area and even then it still comes out and must be dealt with. You only delay the inevitable, not remove it. Trauma blends often in soldiers because there is so much of it... this is also why many soldiers makeup trauma that never even occurred to them, it is fact in soldiers because there is so much trauma going in, to their mind "what's another trauma" so to speak. It is a hard thing by itself to come to reality with, but factual.

It is very common for a soldier to become more familiar, to feel safe within combat zones because their brain has been traumatised by the chaos, the brain has become familiar with the living method, and this is why many feel safer in such a place with a weapon in hand. Just the surrounding make a person feel better... you would be surprised how a person can become familiar to sleeping well with rifle fire around them in the cities. Take it away, like when a soldier returns home, suddenly they cannot sleep because they no longer have the sounds that are familiar to them around them... no sleep snowballs into heightened anxiety and the cycle becomes perpetual.