Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a psychiatric disorder that may occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event, series of events or set of circumstances. Just the lightest of triggers may set an individual off to a breaking point where family, friend, and bystanders may unfortunately be involved. Flashbacks, nightmares, excruciating anxiety, and irrational thoughts about the incident are possible symptoms. PTSD may seriously interfere with day-to-day functioning and frequently need medical attention, including counseling and medication. Though we understand why some may fall under these symptoms, we do not fully know the treatment as every patient may differ, from some excelling in counseling to others receiving positively well to medication we are still learning everyday different ways to ailing those with PTSD. This stress takes ahold of you it changes you and in some cases results in the end, which is why some argue that it is not a disorder, coming from the voices of many service members who don't label it as such. This trauma how I see it is just like a scar that to some may never heal, and to some marks the end of there life, the nightmares of those we lost, the flashbacks of rounds being sent down the line, the smell of ether engulfing your senses. We try to forget but sometimes we want nothing more than to remember, PTSD works a 24hr shift and she doesn't sleep keeping you awake reminding you of loss, after loss.
Dieter Dengler, during the Vietnam War in 1966 had his aircraft shot down and captured by the Viet Cong where he endured torture, ranging from being hung upside down by his ankles with a nest of biting ants over his face until he lost consciousness, to being starved and beaten. He witnessed executions and the death of his fellow captives who mind you he had formed a bond with after spending several months with them struggling together to survive only for him to be the only accounted surviver. Even after all these events He managed to hold a career but struggled with PTSD. Though he survived a part of him must of died as later on in life in 2001 after being diagnosed with ASL he rolled his wheel chair into a fire station and shot himself.