Combat PTSD

Many soldiers who have developed Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) often wonder why they have such extreme anger, hypervigilance and an increased startle response. A spouse or carer often fear this explosive anger. Well, the answer is due to basic training.

Compared to a civilian who develops PTSD through an abnormally traumatic experience, a soldier experiences a more severe anger, increased hypervigilance and startle response than most. The reason for that is due to a soldiers basic training. Basic training is designed to change a humans typical behaviour pattern within the response called, Fight or Flight. Many have likely heard of this before, even during training itself. A persons response when faced with danger is Flight, that is the basic human response the brain sends to the body... run. The problem with this normal human response, is that it serves absolutely zero purpose upon the battle field, and that is what a soldier is trained for, the battle field.


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