Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Iraq Veterans Essay Example for Free

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Iraq Veterans Essay Post-traumatic Stress Disorder is a condition characterized by excessive fear, helplessness, or horror resulting from an experience of excessive trauma. Its symptoms include persistent relapse of the traumatic experience, avoidance of stimuli related to the trauma, lack of general responsiveness, and lingering symptoms of heightened autonomic arousal (Long, 1995). The State of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder  All these symptoms must manifest themselves for over a month, and the condition must bring about a clinically significant pain or impairment in social, occupational, or other important aspects of functioning (Long, 1995). According to a study conducted by the Pentagon, almost one out of ten American soldiers who went on a tour of duty in Iraq suffered post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) after seeing a dead comrade or taking part in combat. The findings of the study could trigger a budget battle in Congress over the health care of veterans (Strong, 2006). The survey, which involved 222,620 Army and Marine soldiers coming home from Iraq, 16,318 from Afghanistan, and 64,967 from other places, revealed that over 1/3 of American soldiers received psychological counseling immediately after coming home from Iraq (Strong, 2006). Published in the Journal of the American Medical Association, the report revealed that nineteen percent of the returnees satisfied the â€Å"risk criteria for a mental health concern† of the military which is higher than the 11. 3% and 8. 5% of those who returned from Afghanistan and other deployments, respectively (Strong, 2006). According to Dr. Charles Hoge, who co-authored the study and serving as a colonel at the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research, said that the findings of the research did not come as a surprise to them since the military is implementing a new mental health evaluation program for returning soldiers which encourages them to seek medical help early to avoid any serious complications in the future (Strong, 2006). Post-traumatic stress disorder was likewise experienced by soldiers who were deployed to Vietnam. Administered in 1990, the National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study conducted by The Research Triangle Institute contracted by the Veterans Affairs Administration, the research revealed that 31 percent of the soldiers deployed to Vietnam which translates to 1 million troops experienced PTSD after their return (Satel, 2004). Psychiatric reports attached to the study showed that 12 to 15 out of every 1000 soldiers succumbed to psychiatric disorder. If the 1990 research is accurate, the number of Vietnam War veterans who suffered from PTSD increased vastly in post-war era (Satel, 2004). In the Pentagon study, 80 percent of those who was diagnosed with PTSD said that they saw their comrades getting killed or wounded or took part in combat and shot their weapon. Among those who did not experience PTSD, half participated in combat and experienced violence (Strong, 2006). The Effects of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder According to Judith Broder (2008), psychiatrist and founder of the Soldiers Project, a volunteer organization geared towards treating war veterans for free, the excessive trauma as well as the fear of getting almost killed are common signs of post-traumatic stress disorder. It is quite understandable as soldiers are sent to unfamiliar territory and will always find themselves in a dangerous situation and tends to be cautious all the time. For most soldiers who are deployed in Iraq making the transition to a peaceful life after months or years of being in action can be challenging (Terzyan, 2008). The reason for the growth in post-traumatic stress disorder is not only because troops have now become more aware of the condition but also due to the extended separation from their families and secured conditions. Likewise, troops are prone to PTSD because the nature of their job demands their being exposed to life-threatening and stressful conditions (Terzyan, 2008). Treating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Contrary to what many people think, treating post-traumatic stress disorder in war veterans can be quite complicated. There is evidence that proves that taking any kind of medication is not as effective in war veterans as it is in ordinary citizens, and there is minimal research on antidepressants for combat troops (Spollen Labbate, 2008). A small study used fluoxetine in treating post-traumatic stress disorder in war veterans. The findings showed minimal improvements in veterans than civilians. A similar study this time using sertraline yielded the same result (Spollen Labbate, 2008). Psychological and social intervention may be the first choice when it comes to veterans with PTSD. In some instances, they are more valuable interventions than medication. Building trust between patient and provider is the initial step in the conduction of treatment. However, establishing such connection can be difficult with patients who has suffered traumatic stress (Reeves, 2007). Treating Iraq veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder poses a real challenge to primary care providers. For many patients, an early alternative would be to visit a Veterans Affair (VA) medical facility. The United States Department of Veteran Affairs has trained physicians in the field of PTSD and Iraqi veterans coming home are qualified for treatment (Reeves, 2007). Conclusion Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a condition characterized by excessive fear, helplessness, or horror resulting from an experience of excessive trauma. Its symptoms include persistent relapse of the traumatic experience, avoidance of stimuli related to the trauma, lack of general responsiveness, and lingering symptoms of heightened autonomic arousal. According to a study conducted by the Pentagon, almost one out of ten American soldiers who went on a tour of duty in Iraq suffered post-traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) after seeing a dead comrade or taking part in combat. The findings of the study could trigger a budget battle in Congress over the health care of veterans. The reason for the growth in post-traumatic stress disorder is not only because troops have now become more aware of the condition but also due to the extended separation from their families and secured conditions. Likewise, troops are prone to PTSD because the nature of their job demands their being exposed to life-threatening and stressful conditions. Contrary to what many people think, treating post-traumatic stress disorder in war veterans can be quite complicated. There is evidence that proves that taking any kind of medication is not as effective in war veterans as it is in ordinary citizens, and there is minimal research on antidepressants for combat troops. Psychological and social intervention may be the first choice when it comes to veterans with PTSD. In some instances, they are more valuable interventions than medication. Building trust between patient and provider is the initial step in the conduction of treatment. However, establishing such connection can be difficult with patients who has suffered traumatic stress.

The Hike Essay -- Observation Essays, Descriptive Essays

It is cold, foggy, and dark. Everything looks dead around me - brown grass, bare and skinny trees, my tired classmates. I look at the wildlife and think about greener, more beautiful places. I imagine that I am hiking in North Carolina or Austria, where nature needs no sprinklers to remain green. Why am I awake now? How can I find beauty on this hike? How can I possibly write an essay about this? Despite my negative thoughts, I force myself to focus on the hike. Birds soar through the crisp air, singing their morning melodies and landing on trees and telephone wires. I hear cows in the pasture and feel nice, cool breezes. The road curves, and the hilly scenery suddenly appears more beautiful as we walk through the quarry. The fresh scent of a group of eucalyptus trees overwhelms me and brings back memories of the several times I have enjoyed Catalina Island. As I exhale, fond childhood memories make me increasingly excited about my journey, and I envision climbing a large live oak tree nearby. A small white butterfly flutters by me and a group of well-camouflaged deer... The Hike Essay -- Observation Essays, Descriptive Essays It is cold, foggy, and dark. Everything looks dead around me - brown grass, bare and skinny trees, my tired classmates. I look at the wildlife and think about greener, more beautiful places. I imagine that I am hiking in North Carolina or Austria, where nature needs no sprinklers to remain green. Why am I awake now? How can I find beauty on this hike? How can I possibly write an essay about this? Despite my negative thoughts, I force myself to focus on the hike. Birds soar through the crisp air, singing their morning melodies and landing on trees and telephone wires. I hear cows in the pasture and feel nice, cool breezes. The road curves, and the hilly scenery suddenly appears more beautiful as we walk through the quarry. The fresh scent of a group of eucalyptus trees overwhelms me and brings back memories of the several times I have enjoyed Catalina Island. As I exhale, fond childhood memories make me increasingly excited about my journey, and I envision climbing a large live oak tree nearby. A small white butterfly flutters by me and a group of well-camouflaged deer...

Pamphlet analysis Essay

The purpose of this film pamphlet is to influence and persuade as much people as people to watch the film. The pamphlet also briefly describes what the film is going to be about. This pamphlet attempts to do these things by visual, layout and language features to achieve its purpose. A visual feature that helps to achieve its purpose is colour which is all over the film pamphlet. Colours may be used to create a feeling or mood depending on the context. In this particular film pamphlet, the colours have been put together to establish a romantic feel. The two most obvious colours on the cover of the film pamphlet are the orange of the title and the red of the chilli. These two colours are clearly creating a romantic sense. The tone of the title is quite light and that helps emphasise the feel of the advertisement for the title is called A Touch of Spice. Having a light tone makes it seem as though the title was written out with orange spices and supports the word touch in the title which means a small amount in this context. The large chilli on the front of the cover is highly saturated. The red on the chilli is of a high degree of purity and that helps the advertisement gain the attention of consumers and also creates a romantic feel in this context. Red in this ad can be seen as an allusion because red is a very popular colour on Valentines Day [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l43rqt12KcE] which is seen as a very romantic day where many people buy cards and flowers and even plan special occasions for the ones they love. The many colours on this pamphlet achieve their purpose by creating a romantic feeling or mood and that will hopefully lure many people who like romantic films to watch this particular film. Another visual feature that helps to achieve its purpose is the font sizes and writing style of the text on the film pamphlet. Font sizes and styles can be used to help create a sense or mood by doing things such as looking if as though the writing were done in blood, this would create a sense of horror or danger. The title A Touch of Spice on the film pamphlet is the most large and clear because of its background. The title is usually in the largest font and in this case, it is no different. This is used to hopefully gain the attention of the consumer to come and watch the film or pick up the pamphlet. The title is written in a very natural way so it makes it seem as  though someone had put some spices on a table and written the titles out with their finger. It is quite cleat that the font is not times new roman because there are lines that are sticking out of the letters which creates the effect that to make it seem as though as if it were written. By having the title in such a way it creates a mysterious and exotic feel. On the back of the film pamphlet, there is a small section of writing where it is obvious that it is in a foreign language. The small section in a different language almost guarantees that the film will be from another country. Using this technique, it will be able to attract as much viewers as possible who like foreign films and in turn achieve its purpose. A very effective technique on this particular film pamphlet would be the logo. A logo can be used to help the advertisement gain the attention from consumers such as the Sony logo on one of their products. The logo on their product would tell the consumer that the product was at a very high quality because of their reputation. On this particular film pamphlet, a logo or badge has been put in the corner of it saying that is was the no.1 film at the Greek box office for an amazing 7 weeks. This would assure many viewers that the film would be good because of its great performance in Greek. The logo achieves its purpose by hopefully building a good reputation, which the quotes on the back of the pamphlet also do, so it is able to lure as much viewers as possible to watch the film. A language technique that is used on this particular film pamphlet is repetition. Repetition is often used to help send a message across to a viewer and help them to remember the message that was put across. Repetition is ubiquitously found on the cover of the film pamphlet. The theme of spices and food is found all over the cover of the film pamphlet in simple sentences. Cinnamon is bitter and sweet, just like a womanA beautiful, touching romance that will leave you craving for moreSalt is used as needed to spice up ones lifePepper is hot and scorches, just like the sunAll of these sentences, which are all found on the front cover, refer to a theme of spices and food and then link the food to another subject such as a woman or life. The  repetition on this film pamphlet is attempting to reinforce the title A Touch of Spice which emphasises the fact that the film is a romantic film and would leave them craving for more. The repetitive messages of spices and links to romance would have been received by the viewer and so achieves its purpose so enticing them to come and watch the film. Another language technique used on this film pamphlet is adjectives. Products and services are usually described with adjectives to hopefully appeal to consumers to purchase the product. In this particular case, adjectives are not used to describe the film itself but to describe other things which the film is relating to. The film pamphlet compares spices to things such women. Cinnamonis better and sweet just like a womanPepper is hot and scorches, just like the sunBoth of these quotes contain adjectives to describe spices and link them to romantic themes. The second quote links pepper to the sun where they say both are hot. This creates a sense of passion and exoticness to viewers so they understand that this film is a romantic one. Another language feature that is used to help the film pamphlet achieve its purpose is persuasive language. Persuasive language helps to convince consumers by using powerful and effective language to hopefully get people to buy the product. On the back of the film pamphlet, there are four quotes from people who seemed to have watched the movie and enjoyed it. A film of international standards and genuine emotionis undoubtedly one of the best gastronomic movies I have seen.an intensely moving experienceAll these quotes are the reviews or opinions of those who have already watched the film. The people who created this particular chose these reviews because it is their opinion that the film is of a very high quality. By getting the message through to the consumer that the film is actually good, more people would be interested to watch the movie so the film pamphlet has achieved its purpose. A layout technique which has been used on this film pamphlet is text boxes. Text boxes are usually used in ads to help make the ad easier to read and to  help all of the text to stand out. For this film pamphlet, there are many text boxes because there are many sections of text on the back with equal importance. On the back of the film pamphlet, there are many quotes which praise the film and the advertisers would have wanted to make sure that the viewers did not miss that section. The blurb is also in a text box and that is where the creators of the film give their own description of the film and where they give their own praise. Boxes have not been only to help text to be read more easily but also for images to stand out. Since there are many pictures on the back cover of the film pamphlet, they can be made more easily seen and recognised if they are in boxes. Text boxes have been effectively used in this film pamphlet to help important information to be unmissed and easily read and that is how they achieve their purpose. The film pamphlet is created to help attract as much viewers as possible to watch their movie. The film pamphlet attempts to do so by using visual, language and layout techniques to help inform people that the film is of a high quality so they can persuade as many people as possible. bibliography: pamphlet 1994

The Great Depression A Worldwide Economic Downfall That...

The Great Depression was a worldwide economic downfall that was preceded by the Stock Market Crash of 1929. The timing of when the event hit countries varied; for some it started in 1929 following the Stock Market Crash and for others didn’t begin until 1930 and lasted until the late 1930’s or early to middle 1940’s. It was the longest and most severe economic depression up to it’s time. The Great Depression affected many businesses, homes, families, people, and investors. During the 1920’s The U.S stock market surged and expanded reaching it’s apex. Soon after, in October of 1929, the U.S Stock Market crashed, which caused the Great Depression. Billions of dollars were lost as prices of almost every stock severely dropped. It wiped out many investors and companies. Some companies took twenty-five to thirty years to just rebuild back up to their point of success they had before the crash. There then began the slow and gradual improvement, be cause there was only was only one direction the stock prices could now go, and that was up. With stock prices quickly descending, the vast majority of investors and families ran to their banks to withdraw what they could out of the banks and their investments to save what money they could salvage before they lost it all. With that happening, the banks and stock markets became financially unstable due to vast amounts of money being taken out. The banks and U.S Stock Market soon after fell and stock prices were at an all time low.Show MoreRelatedThe Great Depression And Economic Depression Essay3400 Words   |  14 PagesSummary The Great Depression was an economic depreciation in Europe, North America and other industrialized areas globally that commenced in 1929 and endured until about 1939. The depression stirred severe effects in the U.S.A that left its economy on the brink of a downfall. The research investigates the causes and reasons that influenced the great recession in the United States of America. The causes comprise of the hazardous decline of the Stock Market in that occurred in 1929 which sent theRead MoreRise and Fall of Lehman Brothers11214 Words   |  45 PagesSemester of MBA- LLM/MBL Degree course, for Financial Market and Regulatory Systems Submitted to: Submitted By: Mr. P.K. Jain Parinita Jhawar (261) Mr. Sharad Kothari Romi Kansara (267) Faculty in-charge Sanjana Khanna (268) M.B.A.-M.B.L. (III Sem) ------------------------------------------------- INTRODUCTION In an increasingly interdependent financial world the recent Global Economic Crisis has had a cascading effect on the economies acrossRead MoreDeveloping Management Skills404131 Words   |  1617 PagesPermissions Department, One Lake Street, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458. Many of the designations by manufacturers and seller to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and the publisher was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in initial caps or all caps. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Whetten, David A. (David Allred) Developing management skills /David A. Whetten, Kim S. Cameron.—8th ed