Page 60 - Total War on PTSD

Combat Veterans can also be self-judgmental over their reaction to events in the combat zone. It is not uncommon for them to experience morbid humor, dehumanizing, escalating aggression across the course of their deployment, and numbing in the combat zone. They can experience a sense of elation and empowerment during the kill cycle, which they later find shameful and disturbing when they start to process their trauma. These reactions to combat are considered normal and actually can be adaptive in helping the Veteran survive and cope while in a chronically dangerous environment where he/she is targeted and hunted. Again, a combat Veteran’s actions must always be viewed in the context they occurred to come to terms with them.
There is no safe zone in a war. Even on bases, there is constant mortaring, suicide bombers, VBIEDS, and snipers. Also, in order to “win the hearts and minds” of the country, local nationals are often allowed on bases as interpreters, for training purposes, and to assist with maintenance of the bases. Most combat Veterans have a distrust of these individuals, as they can never really know who may be giving intelligence to insurgents and who may be conspiring against them. There are no enemy uniforms overseas and everyone is a potential enemy. It is not hard to fathom why trusting people in the community upon returning home is difficult for Veterans to do, as they continue to distrust everyone and see others as a potential enemy.
Treatment of PTSD:
The following summary is given as an overview of aspects of treatment of PTSD, but is not considered a training in the treatment of PTSD for providers or lay people. Be cautioned that common presenting issues are broadly generalized and Veterans may range from having a few of these issues to most of them, depending on their personal experiences.
Combat Veterans are trained to be Warriors. The battlefield is not considered a place for emotions and most Veterans will convey that they believe emotions in a combat situation will cause them to lose focus and endanger themselves and/or their peers. They often convey feeling “weak” when they are emotional and tend to be highly uncomfortable with their internal experience of their feelings. Because they have consciously and unconsciously suppressed their feelings to function in the combat zone, as the mission must always come first, many of them
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