Stressful events and tragic experiences routinely have detrimental effects on the human mind. Exposure to war with its accompanying brutality is arguably the most notable example of such a profound experience, leaving its victims in varying degrees of mental disarray. The film "Brothers" (2009), directed by Jim Sheridan, attempts to illustrate the impact of what war could have on a soldiers mind and how debilitating the affects can be when a solider returns home. Captain Sam Cahil is a United States Marine who struggles with life after being held in captivity for months by Afghani Terrorists. Undergoing relentless brutal torture, Cahil was forced to dismiss the military and deny their mission on camera then forced at gunpoint to kill his comrade with a lead pipe to save his own. This grotesque experience threw Cahil into immediate shock as well as perpetual psychological problems classified as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. .
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is defined as "an extreme response to a severe stressor, including increased anxiety, avoidance of stimuli associated with trauma, and symptoms of increased arousal. Persons must have experienced or witnessed an event that involved actual or threatened death, serious injuries, or sexual violation." (Abnormal Psychology 12th Edition pg. 216) Those who suffer from PTSD regularly relive their experiences through flashbacks and nightmares, feeling detached or estranged, and have difficulty sleeping. The frequency and severity of these symptoms depend on the individual but impairment they have on a person's daily life is universally crippling.
According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual Disorders (5th edition), symptoms for PTSD are assembled into four major groups: Intrusively re-experiencing the traumatic catastrophe, avoiding the stimuli affiliate with the event, mood and cognitive change after the trauma, and symptoms of increased arousal and reactivity.
On Friday, Feb 12, Denise accompanied her brother's girlfriend Nicola to the Bootle Strand Shopping Center and she brought James along. ... He saw Robert Thompson, who was hanging out with his little brother. ... Robert said it was Jon's brother, and they were taking him home. ... Some people passed by and one of the boys said loudly, "I'm fed up having my little brother. ...