Alexander C. McFarlane’s ‘The Impact of War on Mental Health: Lest We Forget’ is an article that uses the statistics and examples driven language to describe a sense of psychological trauma of people after the war. This article mainly describes the impact of war on mental health. In war, there are countless soldiers sacrificed, countless victims die of diseases and infections, the state is not functioning properly, and residents cannot live normally. The most terrible thing is that veterans and residents of the country after the war may be psychologically irreparable. Most of the mental illnesses related to war are chronic diseases. I strongly believe that wars have had an important part in psychiatric history in a number of ways and these invisible wounds of war have been afflicting veterans and their families (McFarlane, 2015) and I couldn’t agree more.
A point I strongly agree with comes from this article is: “The violence associated with PTSD impacts on veterans’ families, as well as on the broader society”. Healthy psychology is an important condition for a person to develop in an all-round way, and is also the basis for harmonious family and social stability. About one-third of the 100,000 veterans in the United State are diagnosed with mental illness or psychosocial disorders - such as homelessness and marital problems, including domestic violence. More than 56% suffer from multiple diseases (Claudia, 2007). Post-war trauma has an enormous impact on individuals and society. For instance, posttraumatic stress disorder is a mental health problem that some people develop after experiencing or witnessing a life-threatening event, like combat, a natural disaster, a car accident, or sexual assault (National Center for PTSD). It is a very common post-war mental illness. Trauma survivors with PTSD may have trouble with their close family relationships or friendships. In turn, these reactions affect the people around the victim, and the people around them continue to influence the people around them (Rebecca, 2016) just like an infinite loop of butterfly effects. Meanwhile, according to another research that there point to a dysregulation of aggressive and violent behavior that may be a consequence of trauma and PTSD. These data indicate that more effective PTSD screening and treatment may help to reduce urban violence (Gillikin, Habib, Evces, Bradley, Ressler, & Sanders, 2016). Those statistics presented that the impact of war is not only personal, but also psychological and social.
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Another point I strongly agree with in this easy is: “Many warriors have difficulty obtaining claims for mental illness, and the chances of death from mental illness and the chance of acquiring a chronic disease are very high after the war”. According to a study, the cost of major depressive disorder (MDD) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment for each military service member every two years is about $33,792-$52,939 (Callahan, 2010). This is a high cost for both normal families and veterans. At the same time, not only the cost of treating PTSD or MDD, but also other extra costs. For instance, a veteran is in poor health, and the family may need to spend money to hire a caregiver. The situation faced by this veteran family is particularly difficult. In addition to preventing veterans from being stimulated and helping them cope with their own mental stress, they also have to cope with all the expenses of daily life, especially young veterans. Other statistics show that there are 15% of patients will relapse after one to two years or even longer after the cure (Lambkin, 2016). There is a study that suggest Vietnam veterans with PTSD may be at increased risk of death from multiple causes (Boscarino, 2006). Soldiers involved in the war are younger, and young people are at a developmental stage both physically and psychologically. War is a traumatic pressure and a major environmental challenge. The individual's physical and mental health of the soldiers after the war is also at risk. Seriously, it may occur for a long time after the war, and the incubation period of symptoms may last for years or even decades (Auxéméry, 2012). Those statistics presented that the impact of war is not only a problem for the family's economic finances, but the development of family life in the later period has also caused great pressure.
In summary, post-war psychological trauma is very important and has a lot of impact. We must not only establish some psychologically repaired hospitals, but also improve the quality of post-war psychological construction. We need to do our best to solve these problems, and suggest more capable people and organizations to pay attention to these victims. The world will avoid war and let more people suffering from mental illness recover.
For the psychological impact of war, the society should make some decisions and implement them in society. The government should focus on improving service needs, such as improving the treatment of veterans and their families. On the one hand, we should give the victim more understanding and acceptance. Although some care and treatment have progressed, the recurrence rate of the victims is still high. On the other hand, the ultimate method of prevention is to stop war. The impact of war on human psychology is long-term and indelible. This is a tragic desire to be inconsistent with human nature. Those aspects to solve the psychological damage to the mental health, and reduce these painful and uncontrollable risks.
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