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Combat Ptsd Quotes

Browse 19 quotes about Combat Ptsd.

Combat Ptsd Quotes

“The victims of PTSD often feel morally tainted by their experiences, unable to recover confidence in their own goodness, trapped in a sort of spiritual solitary confinement, looking back at the rest of the world from beyond the barrier of what happened. They find themselves unable to communicate their condition to those who remained at home, resenting civilians for their blind innocence. The Moral Injury, New York Times. Feb 17, 2015”

WarMilitaryMoralityShameGuiltTraumaMoralsPtsdAlienationSoldiersTraumatic ExperiencesTaintedTraumatizedMoral ResponsibilityOutsiderVeteransPost Traumatic Stress DisorderCombat PtsdAlienatedVeterans Survivor Guilt
Author:David Brooks
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“People generally don’t suffer high rates of PTSD after natural disasters. Instead, people suffer from PTSD after moral atrocities. Soldiers who’ve endured the depraved world of combat experience their own symptoms. Trauma is an expulsive cataclysm of the soul. The Moral Injury, New York Times. Feb 17, 2015”

WarSoulMilitaryMoralityShameGuiltTraumaCombatMoralsChild AbuseWarfarePtsdSexual AbuseRapeSoldiersDepravedMoral ResponsibilityVeteransPost Traumatic Stress DisorderCataclysmCombat PtsdNatural DisastersSurvivor GuiltImmoral ActWar TraumaMoral AtrocitiesSexual Assailed
Author:David Brooks
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“I was not descending in a plane, coming Home. I was watching an alien world as it ascended towards me - and one that I could never begin the process of readjusting to, because I knew that I would just as soon be returning to another world, whose normality was as alien to this home as I now was.”

WarComing HomeTroopsAlienTraumatizedDissociativeDissociatedDerealizationNot Fitting InCombat PtsdAlienatedMilitary PtsdDon T Belong
Book:Among You: The Extraordinary True Story of a Soldier Broken By War
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“There is clear evidence from internal investigations in the past that some raters actually see themselves as adversaries to veterans. If a claim can be minimized, then the government has saved money, regardless of the need of the veteran. Just recently, the press exposed an official e-mail from a high-level staff person who stated in essence that PTSD diagnosis was becoming too prevalent and offered ways to delay and deflect ratings in order to save the government money.”

Mental IllnessDenialManipulationPtsdDiagnosisGovernment CorruptionGovernment AbuseMental DisorderVeteransPost Traumatic Stress DisorderPosttraumatic Stress DisorderMisuse Of PowerCombat PtsdVaVeterans AffairsMisuse Of AuthorityCost CuttingMental Disorder Bias
Author:Taylor Armstrong
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“Much, much later. when I am back home and being treated for Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). I will be enabled to see what was going on in my mind immediately after 11 August. I am still capable of operating mechanically as a soldier in these following days. But operating mechanically as a soldier is now all I am capable of. Martin says he is worried about me. He says I have the thousand-yard stare'. Of course, I cannot see this stare. But by now we both have more than an idea what it means. So, among all the soldiers here, this is nothing to be ashamed of. But as it really does just go with the territory we find ourselves in. it is just as equally not a badge of honour. Martin is seasoned enough to never even think this. but I know of young men back home, sitting in front of war films and war games, who idolise this condition as some kind of mark of a true warrior. But from where I sit, if indeed I do have this stare, this pathetically naive thinking is a crock of shit. Because only some pathetically naive soul who had never felt this nothingness would say something so fucking dumb. You are no longer human, with all those depths and highs and nuances of emotion that define you as a person. There is no feeling any more, because to feel any emotion would also be to beckon the overwhelming blackness from you. My mind has now locked all this down. And without any control of this self-defence mechanism my subconscious has operated. I do not feel any more. But when I close my eyes. I see the dead Taliban looking into this blackness. And I see the Afghan soldier's face staring into it, singing gently as he slips into another world. And I see Dave Hicks's face. shaking gently as he tries to stay awake in this one. With this, I lift myself up, sitting foetal and hugging my knees on my sleeping mat.”

MilitaryArmySoldierWarriorDumbNothingnessPtsdNaiveNumbDetachedTraumatizedDissociativePost Traumatic Stress DisorderFlashbackPosttraumatic Stress DisorderMilitary QuoteIdolizedDepersonalizationTraumatic StressFlashbacksUnemotionalStareTrue WarriorCombat PtsdMechanicalEmotionlessNo Longer HumanIdolisationWounded WarriorsWarrior QoutesPosttraumaticDead InsidePosttraumatic StressAutomatonRoboticDissociated StateCasualty Of WarMilitary PsychiatryDepersonalizedThousand Yard StareAcute Stress ReactionArmy In AfghanistanArmy QuoteCrock Of ShitDepersonalisedNaive Soul
Book:Among You: The Extraordinary True Story of a Soldier Broken By War
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“You are no longer human, with all those depths and highs and nuances of emotion that define you as a person. There is no feeling any more, because to feel any emotion would also be to beckon the overwhelming blackness from you. My mind has now locked all this down. And without any control of this self-defence mechanism my subconscious has operated. I do not feel any more.”

Mental HealthDissociationTraumatizedDehumanizationDissociativeDissociatedCombat PtsdNo Longer HumanDehumanizedMilitary PtsdDissociative Ptsd
Book:Among You: The Extraordinary True Story of a Soldier Broken By War
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“At the sound of the first droning of the shells we rush back, in one part of our being, a thousand years. By the animal instinct that is awakened in us we are led and protected. It is not conscious; it is far quicker, much more sure, less fallible, than consciousness. One cannot explain it. A man is walking along without thought or heed; - suddenly he throws himself down on the ground and a storm of fragments fly harmlessly over him; - yet he cannot remember either to have heard the shell coming or to have thought of flinging himself down. But had he not abandoned himself to the impulse he would now be a heap of mangled flesh. It is this other, this second sight in us, that has thrown us to the ground and saved us, without our knowledge how. If it were not so, there would not be one man alive . . .”

WwiCombat PtsdSurvival InstinctsP 56
Book:All quiet on the western front
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“In his recent guest editorial, Richard McNally voices skepticism about the National Vietnam Veteran’s Readjustment Study (NVVRS) data reporting that over one-half of those who served in the Vietnam War have posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or subclinical PTSD. Dr McNally is particularly skeptical because only 15% of soldiers served in combat units (1). He writes, “the mystery behind the discrepancy in numbers of those with the disease and of those in combat remains unsolved today” (4, p 815). He talks about bizarre facts and implies many, if not most, cases of PTSD are malingered or iatrogenic. Dr McNally ignores the obvious reality that when people are deployed to a war zone, exposure to trauma is not limited to members of combat units (2,3). At the Operational Trauma and Stress Support Centre of the Canadian Forces in Ottawa, we have assessed over 100 Canadian soldiers, many of whom have never been in combat units, who have experienced a range of horrific traumas and threats in places like Rwanda, Somalia, Bosnia, and Afghanistan. We must inform Dr McNally that, in real world practice, even cooks and clerks are affected when faced with death, genocide, ethnic cleansing, bombs, landmines, snipers, and suicide bombers ... One theory suggests that there is a conscious decision on the part of some individuals to deny trauma and its impact. Another suggests that some individuals may use dissociation or repression to block from consciousness what is quite obvious to those who listen to real-life patients." Cameron, C., & Heber, A. (2006). Re: Troubles in Traumatology, and Debunking Myths about Trauma and Memory/Reply: Troubles in Traumatology and Debunking Myths about Trauma and Memory. Canadian journal of psychiatry, 51(6), 402.”

DenialPtsdSociety DenialPosttraumatic Stress DisorderMental Illness StigmaCombat PtsdMental Illness DiscriminationIatrogenicMalingering
Author:Colin Cameron
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“According to Hoge and colleagues (2007), the key to reducing stigma is to present mental health care as a routine aspect of health care, similar to getting a check up or an X-ray. Soldiers need to understand that stress reactions-difficulty sleeping, reliving incidents in your mind, and emotional detachment-are common and expected after combat... The soldier should be told that wherever they go, they should remember that what they're feeling is "normal and it's nothing to be ashamed of.”

MilitaryMental HealthMental IllnessPtsdStigmaMental DisorderVeteransCombat PtsdSelf Stigma
Book:Advances in Social Work Practice with the Military
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“Many veterans feel guilty because they lived while others died. Some feel ashamed because they didn’t bring all their men home and wonder what they could have done differently to save them. When they get home they wonder if there’s something wrong with them because they find war repugnant but also thrilling. They hate it and miss it.Many of their self-judgments go to extremes. A comrade died because he stepped on an improvised explosive device and his commander feels unrelenting guilt because he didn’t go down a different street. Insurgents used women and children as shields, and soldiers and Marines feel a totalistic black stain on themselves because of an innocent child’s face, killed in the firefight. The self-condemnation can be crippling. The Moral Injury, New York Times. Feb 17, 2015”

WarHorrorShameGuiltAshamedPtsdSoldiersVeteransPost Traumatic Stress DisorderCombat PtsdSurvivor GuiltWar Trauma
Author:David Brooks
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“HYPERAROUSAL After a traumatic experience, the human system of self-preservation seems to go onto permanent alert, as if the danger might return at any moment. Physiological arousal continues unabated. In this state of hyerarousal, which is the first cardinal symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder, the traumatized person startles easily, reacts irritably to small provocations, and sleeps poorly. Kardiner propsed that "the nucleus of the [traumatic] neurosis is physioneurosis."8 He believed that many of the symptoms observed in combat veterans of the First World War-startle reactions, hyperalertness, vigilance for the return of danger, nightmares, and psychosomatic complaints-could be understood as resulting from chronic arousal of the autonomic nervous system. He also interpreted the irritability and explosively aggressive behavior of traumatized men as disorganized fragments of a shattered "fight or flight" response to overwhelming danger.”

MilitaryTraumaAggressionPtsdNeurosisTraumatizedWorld War 1Post Traumatic Stress DisorderWorld War OnePosttraumatic Stress DisorderFight Or FlightCombat PtsdIrritabilityHypervigilanceAggressive BehaviorFight Or Flight ResponseHyperarousal
Book:Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence - From Domestic Abuse to Political Terror
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“Trauma destroys the fabric of time. In normal time you move from one moment to the next, sunrise to sunset, birth to death. After trauma, you may move in circles, find yourself being sucked backwards into an eddy or bouncing like a rubber ball from now to then to back again. ... In the traumatic universe the basic laws of matter are suspended: ceiling fans can be helicopters, car exhaust can be mustard gas.”

TimeMental IllnessPtsdTraumatic ExperiencesMental DisorderTraumatizedVeteransTrauma SurvivorsPost Traumatic Stress DisorderMilitary QuoteTraumatic StressFlashbacksCombat PtsdMilitary PsychiatryMental Distress
Book:The Evil Hours: A Biography of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
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“And that is why they let us down so badly. For us lads of eighteen they ought to have been mediators and guides to the world of maturity, the world of work, of duty, of culture, of progress - to the future. We often made fun of them and played jokes on them, but in our hearts we trusted them. The idea of authority, which they represented, was associated in our minds with a greater insight and a more humane wisdom. But the first death we saw shattered this belief. We had to recognize that our generation was more to be trusted than theirs. They surpassed us only in phrases and in cleverness. The first bombardment showed us our mistake, and under it the world as they had taught it to us broke in pieces.”

PtsdDisillusionmentLoss Of InnocenceCombat PtsdCognitive DistortionsWw I
Book:All quiet on the western front
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