Post.traumatic.stress question...?

Question

exactly what does killing a person do to your head?does it have the same effect on everyone or does it vary from person to person?

please if you have served could you let me know what it does to you or how it makes you feel?

is this war like vietnam where you end up killing allot of people allong with women and children?(i don't mean to offend anyone or bring up bad memories i just need to know...)

(husband will be deployed soon...i just want to know what to expect when he gets home...)

Answer 1

I don't want to appear as if I'm blowing you off with websites but, PTSD is difficult to describe. It's different for each person. Please read the sites I have given you. The third link is a piece that pretty much tells it all.

Answer 2

Your husband may be changed some when he comes home, even if he has not had to kill anyone.  War can do damage to everyones brain.  Post traumatic stress can be developed even here at home.  Abuse, seeing abuse, can cause it.  It can even be "learned".  If you are the child of someone that has post traumatic stress syndrome, you can "learn" it from the parents behavior.  Basically you are developing your own case of it.  When your husband comes home, encourage talking about his experiences, but don't be hurt or alarmed if he does not care to talk about it with you.  But he should talk about it, with someone like his buddies that were there with him.  Post traumatic stress disorder is very real.  Usually veterans that suffer from it are paranoid, like to sit with a wall at their back, don't trust people, have severe startle reactions, like to be alone, just to mention a few of the very numerous things. Be patient, don't press him for information, just let him talk when he wants to.  If he seems to be having an adjustment problem there is plenty of places for him to get help on the base and the VA hospital.

Answer 3

No you don't kill women and children... the enemy sometimes kills them by "hiding behind" them but that's a different issue...frankly while taking a life isn't something to seek out, if you stop and ponder it on the battlefield "Hmm is it really moral for me to spray bullets on that enemy position that's firing on me?.. I might hurt someone.. even a stray kid who wandered into the crossfire"  it'll just get you a bullet in the head.  Anyway I never had battle fatigue so I dunno.    

Answer 4

my husband never killed but...no I take that back, he ran into a group of burned Iraqi soldiers (during Desert Storm) and tore off a mask on one of the chard bodies, he said after that he began to becoem very cold. He saw death, but never caused death, when I met him, he had not done four tours in Operation Iraqi freedom, he had already done a tour in peace keeping missions and he had been in Desert Storm.

So again when I met him he slept quite well, after the tours, he now switches, flinches, rocks, snorts and verious other things and sometimes I have to sleep on the couch to get to sleep myself.

Answer 5

It depends on the situation.  If it's kill or be killed, there isn't much you can do do about that, so it doesn't bother you as much as say watching one of your buddies get killed, or accidentally killing innocent civilians.  The soldiers in this war are much different that those in Vietnam.  In Vietnam, most of the soldiers were drafted into a situation they had no wish to be in.  They were not mentally prepared to handle the horrors of war and as such there were many more casualties of the psychological kind.  Troops today are much better prepared and they are going into war knowing full well what can happen, therefore, they are better prepared and not as prone to having problems with Post Traumatic Stress.  

Answer 6

Contact the Family Support Center, they can help you with these type of questions, and have a lot of reading material that can inform you as well.

Answer 7

My father served in Korea and yes I feel it should be called the Korean War. He rarely speaks of it. He told me one thing about the Korean War years before the USA was attacked. He told me that soldiers could not associate with children, as in giving them candy. He said, "Son, you never knew if a child was going to blow up."

My father holds all of it in, but has been a successful businessman. He is 74 and still works as a matter of fact he has a company in Indonesia.

Know one can tell you what to expect when your husband comes home, It all depends on his strength and family support. Stay strong and PROUD.