“We were so excited to have him back, just to find out that the war still had a hold of him.” These were words spoken by my great grandmother as she recalled the time she spent with her husband when he returned from the war. She told me about the differences in his behavior and his personality. Even though I had never met him I could not understand why someone would treat their family differently after war. Then again I was very young and did not actually know what war truly entailed. As a kid, I would watch various movies and tv shows portraying heroes who went to war, looked death in the eye every day, kill dozens of people, and in the end they would come back home and live their lives unfazed by what they had just gone through. It was not until I grew up that I began to learn how horrible war and violence really is, and then I finally understood my great grandfather’s change. I was in ninth grade when I first heard the song “Zombie” by the Cranberries. The song spoke of the silence caused by violence and also the pain inflicted on families even though they did not experience the violence directly. I decided I wanted to learn more about how traumatic experiences can affect people and their relationships with others which is what led me to do my research on post-traumatic stress disorder.

The paper reviews the effects that PTSD has on social relationships. When soldiers return from war they are brought into a different world. They must adapt once again to a different environment, to one where they are not constantly in danger. They must also find a way to cope because not only did they most likely lose friends during the war, but they also very likely killed many people. This has been found to make some veterans believe that they are not worthy to live among society and not worthy of the family that they have. This feeling of unworthiness causes a detachment and they begin to avoid interacting with others including their family. Veterans are also found to experience changes in behavior. Many stop doing the activities they enjoyed before the war. This was found to be caused by guilt, either because they took the life of another, or because they believe that it is not fair that they got to come back to their families while others were not so lucky. Many veterans also become much more violent and easily irritated, some even become abusive towards their spouses and children, this anger can also be reflected in the workplace. Once the post-traumatic stress gets severe enough, I found that many veterans become very depressed and suicidal. Many veterans take their own lives in order to relieve themselves of the constant pain they are in, however, instead of getting rid of the pain their suicide simply passes it on to somebody else. In conclusion, it was found that every aspect of PTSD has a very negative effect on the interpersonal life of veterans because of all the pain and trouble it causes.

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1BxVasU2ynl9qKns2e4_sOEE1s4RZU4JM3-RjguRm-A0/edit?usp=sharing