PTSD Everyone is Getting It!

• Brannan Vines has never been to war. But she’s got a warrior’s skills: hyperawareness, hypervigilance, adrenaline-sharp quick-scanning for danger, for triggers.

The first part, “Brannan Vines has never been to war.” seems to be an undeniable claim, not much opinion just fact. However, “But she’s got a warrior’s skills: hyper awareness, hypervigilance, adrenaline-sharp quick-scanning for danger, for triggers.” seems to be filled with opinion. What the author refers to as “a warrior’s skills” can easily be the symptoms of a person with anxiety, not just a victim of PTSD. Even if they are a result of PTSD it doesn’t necessarily have to be a warrior’s skill. Victims of sexual assault often experience PTSD with never having served in the armed forces. The author is gearing us up to agree with her opinion that is, PTSD is contagious; not that it potentially affects friends and family members via other emotional and psychological conditions.

• Super stimuli-sensitive.

I don’t quite get the purpose of this phrase,  perhaps it’s for emphasis on the examples of being “Super stimuli-sensitive.” provided in the previous sentence.

• Skills on the battlefield, crazy-person behavior in a drug store, where she was recently standing behind a sweet old lady counting out change when she suddenly became so furious her ears literally started ringing.

The author is saying that becuase Vines exhibits so-called “hyper awareness, hypervigilance, adrenaline-sharp quick-scanning” (Which by the way, who described her symptoms as these? A doctor? Or is the author using them to her benefit to make a dramatic and enticing article?) she would be able to use them as skills on a battlefield. The author also calls them, “crazy-person behavior” it’s a bold move referring to the person you are writing your article on as crazy, but to each his own I suppose. “where she was recently standing behind a sweet old lady counting out change” This seems like perfectly good story-telling here, setting up the plot for a related story. “when she suddenly became so furious her ears literally started ringing.” Alright! Still, not quite sure why the author thinks this is PTSD specifically, sure random fits of rage can be a symptom of it, but it can also be a symptom of  ACTUALLY ALMOST EVERY MENTAL (and even physical) HEALTH PROBLEM OUT THERE (this in itself is a dramatic claim, but you get the point.)

• Being too cognizant of every sound—every coin dropping an echo—she explodes inwardly, fury flash-incinerating any normal tolerance for a fellow patron with a couple of dollars in quarters and dimes.

“Being too cognizant of every sound” this implies that Brannan is being a little more than nosey, she’s being ULTRA-aware of her surroundings. “-every coin dropping an echo- she explodes inwardly” The author is making a claim that the noises of the coins are causing a psychological reaction in Brannan, one that can only be explained by PTSD, as the article is setting out to prove. The anger could only be coming from PTSD, not potentially misophonia; a disorder in which certain trigger noises can cause anger, disgust, and rage in persons diagnosed. The author is building her claim to make the reader believe the only cause of the symptoms Brannan is showing is PTSD; and to someone unfamiliar with mental health diseases, she sure is doing a good job. “fury flash-incinerating any normal tolerance for a fellow patron with a couple of dollars in quarters and dimes.” I do not quite understand what is meant by “fury flash-incinerating” but I guess it is meant to be dramatic. However the end of that sentence may clarify, it is insinuating that Brannan has lost all tolerance for the elderly woman and her menagerie of change.

• Her nose starts running she’s so pissed, and there she is standing in a CVS, snotty and deaf with rage, like some kind of maniac, because a tiny elderly woman needs an extra minute to pay for her dish soap or whatever.

The author is really trying to convey how mad Brannan is, keeping up with the stereotype that victims of PTSD lash out in fits of rage. Again, calling Brannan a mental health slur, maniac, before finishing the sentence with a “whatever”. This off the cuff remark creates a relaxed feel about the whole ordeal; which is the complete opposite of all the previous efforts.

• Brannan Vines has never been to war, but her husband, Caleb, was sent to Iraq twice, where he served in the infantry as a designated marksman.

Starting the next paragraph of text with repeating her opening lines is a bold move, it reminds the reader that the wife is not the war veteran, her husband is. It brings attention to him, the real “victim” of PTSD. His name is Caleb, he has served twice, and was in the infantry; all general facts about his service.

• Caleb has been home since 2006, way more than enough time for Brannan to catch his symptoms.

The author says this as if, the capability of  “Catching” PTSD is a scientifically approved fact. As if there is some sort of medical timeline for the volatility of PTSD and its transfer to individuals it has made contact with.

• When a sound erupts—Caleb screaming at Brannan because she’s just woken him up from a nightmare, after making sure she’s at least an arm’s length away in case he wakes up swinging—the ensuing silence seems even denser.

The author here clearly depicts an incident full of trauma and dramatics that could cause Brannan her own PTSD or other form of anxiety disorder. But does not acknowledge it outright, perhaps on purpose, maybe not.

• “Sometimes I can’t do the laundry,” Brannan explains, reclining on her couch. “And it’s not like, ‘Oh, I’m too tired to do the laundry,’ it’s like, ‘Um, I don’t understand how to turn the washing machine on.‘

The incapability to do laundry sounds like a perfectly reasonable claim made by Brannan, and the following one, about it not being because she’s tired, is also valid. Plenty of caretakers get too stressed out and cannot function properly. Why her inability to do laundry and her confusion is chalked up to PTSD and not another more reasonable answer, is beyond me.