The Things They Carried By Tim O Brien - 1026 Words

PTSD Synthesis Essay In the novel The Things They Carried by Tim O’Brien, Tim O’Brien explains the different events both he and his fellow comrades soldiers experienced in the Vietnam War. Tim retells the stories of his own traumatic events as well as stories he has heard from his friends. Some stories affect the soldiers greatly while other stories do not affect them as much. The character Norman Bowker from Tim O’Brien’s novel demonstrates the four main symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder. Post traumatic stress disorder, also known as PTSD, â€Å"is a mental health condition that s triggered by a terrifying event — either experiencing it or witnessing it† (â€Å"Post-traumatic stress disorder† Mayo Clinic). The four main symptoms of post†¦show more content†¦The biggest avoidance Norman Bowker faces is by taking his own life. Tim claims â€Å"Eight months later he hanged himself† (O’Brien 154). He took the ‘easy way o ut’ of not dealing with any of his feelings and numbness. He avoided talking about it, explaining himself, and sharing all the traumatic dreadful events that happened to him during the war. The second symptom of four that come up in PTSD is re-experiencing, also known as intrusive memories. Re-experiencing is â€Å"unwanted distressing memories of the traumatic event [or] flashbacks† (â€Å"Post-traumatic stress disorder† Mayo Clinic). Norman Bowker explains to his fellow comrades how Kiowa died in extreme detail. He states, â€Å"As he came up, a pair of red flares puffed open, a soft blurry glow, and in the glow he saw Kiowa’s wide-open eyes settling down into the scum† (O’Brien 142). By just sharing his experience with his comrades, he is re-experiencing the pain of seeing Kiowa slowly getting sunked into the mud as if it was happening in front of him once again. But PTSD symptoms do not only occur from remembering war events, it can als o be traumatic events that happened in a civilian’s life. By driving by the lake, he remembers his friend Max Arnold. He remembers the lake â€Å"had drowned his friend..keeping him out of the war† (O’Brien 132). The lake triggered memories of a traumatic event. Just by driving by, he remembers a