Why is this hot button topic? Why does it matter to you?
This is a hot topic because we are seeing more and more related illnesses of PTSD within
our armed services. Research is showing that combat exposure is a predictor of health and
psychological complications. Some of the issues are due to physical injury psychological
trauma and any stress related to war. Many veterans also have a hard time adapting from
war to civilian life. This can not only take a toll on the veteran but with family and friends.
This matter to me because I just lost a friend a couple of months back from PTSD related
to the armed services. He was injured in Afghanistan and had to leave the military. He
thought he did not serve his country to his fullest and became a person who started to
drink alcohol more and more. It got so bad that he was hiding it from his wife, kids, and
family. One day he got sick and was rushed to the hospital and within a couple of hours
passed away. Today, PTSD is not only within our armed forces but with our first
responders. I am a person, Firefighter/EMT who is dealing with PTSD. It takes a toll on
an individual especially if you don’t work on yourself and have support from the people
that love you.
How does this hot-button topic affect individuals?
PTSD can affect individuals differently, depending on what is causing the individual to
have issues. When we talk about our veterans it can affect not just their mental health but
the individual developing medical problems. The person can start having issues like
diabetes, obesity, heart complications, gastrointestinal issues, sleep disturbances, and even
sexual dysfunction. One of the common effects on an individual is sleep disturbance.
Many individuals will have bad sleep patterns, and start having nightmares or night terrors.
How does this hot-button topic affect society?
PTSD can affect society by causing problems with communication and unreasonable fear
of your surroundings around certain situations or people. PTSD can cause
misunderstandings, anger within groups of people, or causing anxiety with others. This
can lead to financial, emotional, and physical stress for everyone. Our government will be
challenged to care for all these people suffering which can cause financial issues due to
the increase in the services. Sometimes our educational systems will see impacts on the
children of individuals with PTSD. This can affect the child, teacher, and the kids around
the child of a person with PTSD. The economy can be affected because many people with
PTSD can not work and then the economy suffers due to the lack of spending.
How would you use some of the psychological concepts from this course to understand
these issues?
We can use the psychological concepts that we learned in this course to better understand
three main concepts. Those concepts are self-care, emotional intelligence, and empathy.
Without these three concepts, it will be tough to improve ourselves, society, or each other.
How does this hot-button topic apply to any of the following programmatic course
themes?
This hot-button topic applies to self-care the most. We need to always make sure we are
number one. If we don’t take care of ourselves as individuals, we will start losing our
minds and body to many other problems. Those problems can range from so many
different things, for example, mental issues or health problems. If we work on ourselves
as individuals, we can grow and better ourselves and everyone around us.
