Soldiers involved in a war are faced with many difficult situations, which they can mostly not avoid. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a common phenomenon among the soldiers since while in the war, they face some life threatening experiences. Many of the American soldiers who return from the war are faced with serious mental disorders that not only affects them, but their family members as well. The individuals suffering from PTSD can experience cases of nightmares and flashbacking on the events that happened in the war.
Frequent flashbacks and nightmares can make it look so realistic that its effect is that the individual may withdraw from the family members and friends. Such an individual may also become less concerned with the daily activities (Moon, n. d).
There are other diseases that are associated with the PTSD that can have severe effect on a soldier. For instance, a veteran may experience such cases as depression, face physical or even mental problems. At some instances, the veterans turn to drug and substance abuse so that they can relieve their problems.
It is usually the joy of every family to have their members back after participating in a war. However, after the celebration, and things turn back to normal, it is when the family members can realize a different in the way the veteran behaves which might be completely different from the behaviors before deployment. These can be directly linked to the trauma the veteran faced during the war. Apart from having nightmares and flashbacks of what happened during the war, the veteran might feel a lot of anxiety and panic.
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The Vietnam was a war like no other and the nature of the fighting in this war had great impacts on the soldiers. At this time, communism was seen as a great threat, especially by Western countries, and so extreme emphasis was placed on the domino theory that when one country falls to communism, others would follow and that forward defence would be the only solution to this issue. Also during this ...
They might as well have some very distressing thoughts and emotional numbing, which might contribute to abusing drugs. In essence, when a family member changes the usual behavior, it will either positively or negatively affect the other family members (Moon, n. d).
With PTSD, when the symptoms are severe, they might cause the family members to be disrupted in the way they carry out their normal activities. This can mostly be experienced when the family members in one way or another react to how the veteran is behaving.
Different family members can react differently on the way their loved one is affected by PTSD. If there is no good measure that is undertaken to deal with the traumatized veteran, then it is possible that the trauma might be spread to other family members. Family members are the first to provide support, love and caring for the veterans experiencing PTSD. This can help to keep in check some reactions such as drug and substance abuse. Furthermore, it is necessary that the family members monitor the behaviors among themselves to ensure that none is affected by the PTSD that is being experienced by the veteran.
However, it might occur that at a time, the symptoms either to the veteran or the other affected family members are apparent, hence calling for treatment (Tull, 2008).
To treat the veteran, the present problems have to be first of all assessed. It is advisable that the family members participate in the treatment exercise, especially if some members have been affected by the symptoms. In creating the treatment, family members, the therapist and the affected veteran should be involved. The aim of the treatment plan is to help the victim and the family members learn to cope with the situation.
