Health Network News

One of the unfortunate side effects of the Iraq war will be the post traumatic stress disorders (PTSD) many of the returning men and women will experience. In earlier wars, this condition was referred to as shell shock or combat fatigue or battle fatigue. For Vietnam vets, it was referred to as post-Vietnam syndrome.

The US National Institutes of Mental Health alert us to the characteristics of PTSD. These include a sustained and disruptive set of feelings that occur after a particularly traumatic event. These unpleasant episodes recur at frequent intervals.

These emotionally charged flashbacks create ongoing distress and even physical ailments. The consequences of these flashbacks include inability to be able asleep and difficulty being able to focus attention. Unfortunately, many people have terrible nightmares that debilitate and depress them and when they wake in the morning they feel tired and irritable.

The constant worries mean that relationships suffer as the person experiencing PTSD pulls away from loved ones. Some suffer guilt that they returned from the war - and that their comrades did not. Emotions are volatile, some people becoming very edgy and short-tempered.

Most of these victims have attentional problems and find it hard to stay on task and be productive at work. There is a constant theme of remembering and agonizing. Even the notion of having these recurrences and being unable to concentrate can cause people to worry even more.

It is true that people are more important than productivity in the workplace but the reality is that something around 8% of people in the US report that they experience PTSD. They also report that the stress disorder interferes significantly with their productivity. And interestingly PTSD applies equally across gender and racial lines.

Despite the high figures of stress and PTSD, many people are able to cope with their daily lives and manage stress effectively. They have learned effective strategies to reduce stress by identifying the stressors and finding ways to understand and alleviate the tension and anxiety. The problem is, of course, if people cannot manage stress effectively it will impact negatively many areas of their life.

Stress is a normal part of every day life. We live in a fast-paced, modern society where the demands and challenges are great. Most of us have complex lives. We have a social, relationship, financial and occupational responsibilities that ensure that we will have a degree of stress.

The issue is not whether we experience stress - the real issue is how we manage stress. Stress management is not a complex science. It is a matter of knowing ourselves (self-awareness), understanding our impact on others (social perspective) and being able to communicate effectively with our colleagues and loved ones so that we reduce the threats, challenges, tension, and stress.

Information is the key to being able to manage stress and reduce tension. Regardless of whether it is just mild stress, severe distress, or even worse, PTSD, the initial way to deal with stress is to understand this disorder as well as you can. Of course, being able to use effective stress management strategies doubles our effectiveness in dealing with tension and anxiety.

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