The effects of war on the teenaged soldiers

War is the most powerful threat we have on the earth today. War can accomplish a variety of things in a variety of ways and it is entirely up to the government to decide a country's war status. It is up to people that will never have to experience what they create, but what happens to the soldiers they send in to battle for them. For the soldiers they are stuck with an experience unlike any other known to man, stuck with memories and images of what it's like to be hunted by another man. Different people take different things away from war and are affected in different ways, but a change after a war is inevitable. In the stories The Red Convertible and Home Soil, the authors tell what its like for people that come back and what kind of change they experience. These stories tell of the psychological changes that take place in soldiers and how war affects personality and behavior.

For centuries we have seen casualties of war; teenaged soldiers who have had various physical injuries and scars that last a lifetime. Yet until the 20th century little was known about the emotional effects of war on teenaged soldiers and it wasn't until teenaged soldiers were studied psychologically that we began to understand what had happened to them.

You may have heard of psychological disorders associated with war, such as shell shock or 'Combat Stress Reaction' as it is otherwise known. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or PTSD is a diagnosis made by doctors on a regular basis for patients who have suffered major traumas such as rape or a car accident. It was due to teenaged soldiers of the Vietnam war that the disorder was discovered, yet their symptoms had been synonymous with war veterans from hundreds of years before.

The actual emotional effects of war on teenaged soldiers can be distressing and it seems so unfair to the family and friends of veterans that after all they've been through, they continue to suffer. PTSD and shell shock are essentially manifestations of the brain's attempts to cope with trauma and failing to do so adequately. With PTSD in teenaged soldiers, the sufferer will often recall and re-experience the specific trauma of war, perhaps when they dream, or even when they think or close their eyes. Hallucinations are not uncommon either, with teenaged soldiers feeling as if they are back in the traumatic war environment during sleep, when drunk or on drugs and even during normal wakefulness. They will also react strongly to anything that reminds them of the trauma and begin to avoid anything they associate with it. This often means a distinct reluctance to mix socially, due to loud noises that remind them of bombings, or crowds of people reminiscent of trenches.

It's no surprise, once you understand the distress that teenaged soldiers experience during war, that they find it hard to be the same, emotionally, ever again. Some may say that their inability ...