“Her nose starts running she’s so pissed, and there she is standing in a CVS, snotty and deaf with rage”

Does having a runny nose always signify rage? Her being ill may be causing her rage, as it is common for people to become easily irritated. If this is not the cause of the rage then it may be because of other problems in her life, such as relationships.

“In one study, the incidence of secondary trauma in wives of Croatian war vets with PTSD was 30 percent. In another study there, it was 39 percent.”

This of course depends on the amount of people that were involved in the tests, as well as who conducted these tests. If there such a gap between the two tests the information should not be credible.

“But whatever people have called it, they haven’t been likely to grasp or respect it.”

People do understand and respect the severeness of it though. Just because it is not in the spotlight of societies mind does not mean the world is completely disregarding PTSD. Making the claim that society does not respect this disorder is bombastic.

“But there’s still a lot about brain damage that doctors, much less civilians, don’t understand.”

She calls out the fact that civilians with out a doubt understand less about the subject than doctors. But this basically discredits any other claims she has made about PTSD, because the author is essentially belittling her own social group. And yet again she is making the assumption that people are completely in the dark about brain damage.

We await the results of the 20-year, 10,000-family-strong study of impacts on Iraq and Afghanistan veterans’ kin, the largest of its kind ever conducted, that just got under way.

This sentence claims that such a study is being made despite not citing any source like she does for other claims. There is also an indirect claim that this one large study will somehow be more credible than many smaller studies whose additive value is much higher than this one alone.

Meanwhile, René Robi­chaux, social-work programs manager for US Army Medical Command, concedes that “in a family system, every member of that system is going to be impacted, most often in a negative way, by mental-health issues.”

By mentioning the US Army Medical Command, the author is claiming that the military is fully aware of generational PTSD. There is also a claim that every member of a family with one person with PTSD is going to be impacted. The wording “most often in a negative way” also makes an interesting claim in that some families might be impacted in a neutral or positive way.

That was the impetus for the Marriage and Family Therapy Program, which since 2005 has added 70 therapists to military installations around the country. Mostly what the program provides is couples’ counseling.

Implicitly, it could be argued that her mentioning of adding 70 therapists since 2005 is her way of arguing that we are not doing enough. Taking into account the overwhelming numbers she throws at us earlier in the article, the number 70 seems to be too little for too many. Explicitly, she is claiming that these therapists are a very positive step in the right direction.  She also claims that the biggest issue facing veterans with PTSD is marriage problems: hence the fact most of the program is geared toward that.

Children are “usually not” treated, but when necessary referred to child psychiatrists—of which the Army has 31.

The quotation marks as well as the dishearteningly low number of 31 implicitly claims that barely anything, if anything is being done for children with a parent who has PTSD.

Meanwhile, the Child, Adolescent and Family Behavioral Health Office has trained hundreds of counselors in schools with Army children in and around bases to try to identify and treat coping and behavioral problems early on. “We’re better than we were,” Robi­chaux says. “But we still have a ways to go.”

Immediately after claiming nothing was being done, the author reverses course and claims that there are now hundreds of counselors who may end up treating a large amount of kids, depending on how many Army children go to that particular school. In her last sentence, she pushes forth the claim that there is still a lot to learn, and leaves the reader with the feeling of cautious optimism that she has been throughout the article.

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

• The word “catch” signifies that Brannan was infected by Caleb, but when catch is usually used in this context, the form of infection is usually due to bacteria, viruses, fungi, and/or parasites from the infected.
• The article was published in 2013, so the author is stating that in 7 years “catching” PTSD is definite when 7 years is “way more than enough time for Brannan to catch his symptoms.”

“This PTSD picture is worse than some, but much better, Brannan knows, than those that have devolved into drug addiction and rehab stints and relapses.”

• How does Brannan know how her situation compares to other wives’ and families’ situations? And how many have “devolved into drug addiction and rehab stints and relapses?” The number of veterans who have “devolved” into situations that Brannan claims are worse than her family’s is not mentioned, so we are left wondering if there is a large number of these veterans, or a small number.

“She has not, unlike military wives she advises, ever been beat up.Nor jumped out of her own bed when she got touched in the middle of the night for fear of being raped, again. Still.”

• Brannan claims that all the military wives she has advised have been beat up and raped by their husbands who suffer from PTSD.

“Trauma is a contagious disease; it affects everyone that has close contact with a traumatized person” in some form or another, to varying degrees and for different lengths of time.

• Definition claim: “Trauma is a contagious disease.”

“She sleeps a maximum of five hours a night, keeps herself going with fast food and energy drinks, gets Katie to and from school and to tap dance and art, where Katie produces some startlingly impressive canvases, bright swirling shapes bisected by and intersected with other swaths of color, bold, intricate. That’s typical parent stuff, but Brannan also keeps Caleb on his regimen of 12 pills—antidepressants, anti-anxiety, sleep aids, pain meds, nerve meds, stomach meds—plus weekly therapy, and sometimes weekly physical therapy for a cartilage-lacking knee and the several disintegrating disks in his spine, products of the degenerative joint disease lots of guys are coming back with maybe from enduring all the bomb blasts, and speech therapy for the TBI, and continuing tests for a cyst in his chest and his 48-percent-functional lungs.”

• Brannan has only slept for at most 5 hours for reasons unexplained. Nightmares? Screams from her husband? Screams from her daughter, Katie? We are not informed.
• Her daughter is surprisingly a very good 6 year old artist who paints with many colors and creates detailed and complicated designs. As 6 years old.
• Sleeping a maximum of 5 hours per night, eating fast food, drinking energy drinks, and driving her child to her activities is what the “typical” parent does.
• Caleb has 12 pills he must take regularly for depression, anxiety, insomnia, and pain.
• He attends therapy and sometimes physical therapy once a week due to his time serving in the infantry.
• Who and how many are the “lots of guys” coming back with the degenerative joint disease that Caleb has? Are they infantry like Caleb? Navy or Airforce? Are the “lots of guys” only the ones who have been in the front lines fighting or including the other veterans who have been stationed to aid rather than fight?
• Caleb’s lungs are only about half functioning which makes doing many activities very difficult, especially yelling (which he does frequently, as mentioned in the article numerous times) and physical activities very demanding on his body.

She also works for the VA now, essentially, having been—after a good deal more complicated paperwork, visits, and assessments—enrolled in its new caregiver program, which can pay spouses or other family members of disabled vets who have to take care of them full time, in Brannan’s case $400 a week.

• “Which can” makes me think that the caregiver program “can” also not pay the spouses. The author should just write “which pays” and remove the “can” because it is almost as if it can aid family members in other ways and not pay them.
• “In Brannan’s case $400 a week” – Brannan is paid $400 a week because that is the how much she needs to care for her veteran husband who is a recluse at home and in need of medication and medical care. Another worker for the VA could be paid a different amount a week depending on their situation.

“It may take years for the verdict to come in on whether secondary trauma will be officially acknowledged as its own unique form of hell. Meanwhile, Hofstra professor Motta says, while “a simple Google search [of the research] would tell you that the children of traumatized people have problems, the VA doesn’t wanna spend the money. Even with veterans, they try to say, ‘Well, you really had a preexisting condition.’ It would cost millions upon millions to treat the people affected. They just don’t want to foot the bill.”

• The VA doesn’t want to spend money to help in the aid of veterans or their families, and specifically for the veterans they say the veteran had a problem before serving so their trauma was not due to their time serving.

“Lost wages. Nonprofit assistance, outreach, social services. There are an estimated 100,000 homeless vets on the street on any given night.”

• There are around 100,000 homeless veterans due to not getting aid (financial or otherwise).

“When Caleb checked into his VA inpatient therapy in 2010, more than two-thirds of his fellow patients were veterans of Vietnam.”

• The number of “fellow patients” is not mentioned. More than 2/3 is easily achieved with 3 out 4 patients being veterans of Vietnam. There may also be 21 out of 30 patients being veterans of Vietnam since 21/30 is more than 2/3.

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.

Brannan Vines has never been to war. But she’s got a warrior’s skills:
– There are many ways that you can aquire warrior skills. Any given civillian in the wrong neighborhood can aquire these kind of symptoms.
– A woman who gets done a late shift of work in the city is going to be on edge and very tempted to act out against a stranger. Hypervigilance sounds innocuous, but it is in fact exhaustingly distressing, a conditioned response to life-threatening situations.

– It is a very common thing to get married young when the male is heading for deployment. They make more money are are allowed to live with their spouse if they are married. A lot of times the wife is young and sees an option for a stable relationship so they agree, even with only being with each other for a short period of time. A few years down the line when the husband gets back from his term, is when the problems start popping up. His ptsd kicks in and eventually she starts to get used to him acting out. Every time she hears a loud noise, she gets nervous feeling in her gut because shes expecting her husband to get worked up. So in a way ptsd is contagous because it does affect everyone close to the, so called, “infected” individual.

– By this point, you might be wondering, and possibly feeling guilty about wondering, why Brannan doesn’t just get divorced? The way you feel about and care about someone doesnt change just because they act differently. If you love someone you cant just let them suffer. You do everything you can to make the relation work and fight through anything. The person didnt do anything wrong do deserve a divorce. Going into this relationship they should know the possible outcomes that are associated with it. You signed up for this, you cant just jump ship. Yeah she might be scared but she will always hold on to the thought of one day him getting better and they can live a normal life

Is PTSD Contagious?

P4. Caleb has been home since 2006, way more than enough time for Brannan to catch his symptoms. The house, in a subdivision a little removed from one of many shopping centers in a small town in the southwest corner of Alabama, is often quiet as a morgue. You can hear the cat padding around. The air conditioner whooshes, a clock ticks. 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. Even when everyone’s in the family room watching TV, it’s only connected to Netflix and not to cable, since news is often a trigger. Brannan and Caleb can be tense with their own agitation, and tense about each other’s. Their German shepherd, a service dog trained to help veterans with PTSD, is ready to alert Caleb to triggers by barking, or to calm him by jumping onto his chest. This PTSD picture is worse than some, but much better, Brannan knows, than those that have devolved into drug addiction and rehab stints and relapses. She has not, unlike military wives she advises, ever been beat up. Nor jumped out of her own bed when she got touched in the middle of the night for fear of being raped, again. Still.

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

1. First claim tells readers that Caleb got home in 2006. Second claim is saying Caleb’s time back home is enough time for Brannan to catch catch the symptoms of PTSD.

“The house, in a subdivision a little removed from one of many shopping centers in a small town in the southwest corner of Alabama, is often quiet as a morgue.”

2. First claim tells us they live in a house. The house is in a subdivision neighborhood. The house isn’t near any shopping  centers. The town they live in is in southwest Alabama and its small. The neighborhood is as quiet as a morgue.

“You can hear the cat padding around. The air conditioner whooshes, a clock ticks.”

3. The house is so quiet you can hear things that are relatively quiet around the house like the cat walking around, air conditioner whooshes and clock tick. The silence is for Caleb.

“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.”

4. When there is noise Caleb get’s mad at mad at Brannan because he hates noise. Caleb has nightmares.When she wakes him us she doesn’t want to get hit because he thinks he is in dangour so ge wakes up swinging. The silence feels harder to maintain.

“Even when everyone’s in the family room watching TV, it’s only connected to Netflix and not to cable, since news is often a trigger.”

5. Watching the news triggers Caleb because they often cover stories about tragedies and violence.

“Brannan and Caleb can be tense with their own agitation, and tense about each other’s.”

6. They’re both on edge about each others agitation and their own. Them being around each other makes each of them agitated more than they would be alone.

“Their German shepherd, a service dog trained to help veterans with PTSD, is ready to alert Caleb to triggers by barking, or to calm him by jumping onto his chest.”

7. They have a German shepherd dog. They have the dog to help Caleb handle stress. The dog barks to let him know a trigger is near. The dog helps him relax when he is triggered.

“This PTSD picture is worse than some, but much better, Brannan knows, than those that have devolved into drug addiction and rehab stints and relapses. She has not, unlike military wives she advises, ever been beat up.”

8. Brannan knows that the PTSD that the situation she is in is bad but it’s not the worst case. She could be addicted to drugs and she could have a hard time breaking the addiction. She could also be victim to physical abuse but she is not.

“Nor jumped out of her own bed when she got touched in the middle of the night for fear of being raped, again. Still.”

9. She is not scared to sleep next to Brannan. Some people in her situation are scared to sleep next to their PTSD husbands because they were sexually assaulted be their husbands.

 

 

“Is PTSD Contagious?”

“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”.

• how its really tell about hyperawareness, hypervigilance, adrenaline-sharp quick-scanning ?
• who is brannan vine and why she that really important that she have been to war ?
• how she able to got warrior’s skills from  ?

 

“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”.

• why make her behavior like crazy person ?
• how that author know that she is acting crazy while standing old lady ?

 

“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.’ I am looking at a washing machine and a pile of laundry and my brain is literally overwhelmed by trying to figure out how to reconcile them.” She sounds like she might start crying, not because she is, but because that’s how she always sounds, like she’s talking from the top of a clenched throat, tonally shaky and thin” .

• she do laundry that its become her daily basic stuff hat she do and she got tired doing that .
• she sound like she about to cry doing that .
• her voice sounds like clenched throat , tonally shaky and thin .

 

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

• Caleb spend some time with brannan more enough . did brannan catch his symptoms while she spending time with him ?
• The author also says that Brannan is “catching his symptoms,” but she could get some flue shots or she could show to doctor for illness .

“Is PTSD Contagious?”

 “Even when everyone’s in the family room watching TV, it’s only connected to Netflix and not to cable, since news is often a trigger”

-The claim the other seems to make in this statement is that the everyday news plays a role into triggering someone with PTSD to react negatively. In the same sentence the author presents a claim on news itself saying that since its a trigger it must hold some factors that cause PTSD; things such as violence, loud noises or sadness overall.

“She has not, unlike military wives she advises, ever been beat up.”

• The author as well as Brannan make a claim in this statement that isn’t backed up by any statistics and is purely a personal claim. They are in a way stating that ALL military wives are victims to personal violence with their husbands. Nothing is here to back up this claim and is purely untrue.

“You can’t see Caleb’s other wound, either. It’s called traumatic brain injury, or TBI, from multiple concussions.”

• The author presents us with information about Caleb’s state of mind but in that action expresses a claim that backfires on her original claim that is presented in the beginning of the article. Her claim is that Caleb has two issues 1. PTSD but not just that, but 2. TBI as well. She further explains that for years he didn’t know he had a brain injury. This is a claim that PTSD isn’t the only reason for his behaviors and that maybe all along TBI is the real cause.

“Holocaust survivors “had more resources and networks, wider family members and community to support them to adapt to their new circumstances after a war.” They were not, in other words, expected to man up and get over it.”

• The claim presented is pretty simple. The author claims Holocaust survivors had an easier time after coping with what they just want through. The authors claims they weren’t expected of anything which in turn claims our soldiers today are expected of something. She categorizes what a support system looks like with things such as community, wider families and resources. This claim can be statistically proven wrong considering many more Jews were MURDERED (didn’t die in battle) and that they had no choice in being there. Their trauma would have been way worse. Also, no one expects our soldiers to just come home and forget about.

“Caleb alone, just in disability checks, not even including any of his treatment or his numerous prescriptions, will cost the VA $1.7 million if he lives until he’s 80.”

• I like this claim because of the word “cost” when something costs a certain amount its usually an item of value just like Calebs life is. However, this claim is saying that Caleb is an inconvenience financially to the VA until he is 80. The word “cost” usually gives off a bad vibe something that makes you say “I don’t want to buy it but its essential so I guess I will.”

end of 1 hour