December

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is most commonly associated with soldiers who have witnessed the extremes of human violence in war. PTSD can in fact be the result of 

any traumatic experience.  Defined as an anxiety disorder, symptoms include nightmares, reliving the event, hyperarousal, and lack of sleep.

The psyche of the author of Slaughterhouse Five can be reasoned as anxiety from PTSD. His accounts from the war and more specifically the bombing of Dresden could be an analogy for the psychological state he resorted to. Clearly an anti-war novel, Slaughterhouse Five resonates the horrors of war, and how the basis of humanity can truly be evil. Living through events like war changes people, and coping methods vary from person to person. The masked identity that Billy served throughout the novel is an example of this as if it never happened to the author in the story. Furthering the unstable psychological state would be the references to the aliens and a time travel, giving it futuristic or science fiction elements to the novel, which I don't think was intended to enforce the crazed ideals.

PTSD affects millions, and not just war veterans but anyone who has experienced near death trauma, abuse, combat, terrorist attacks, or natural disasters such as tornados and tsunamis. This reoccurring trauma and restlessness can interrupt lives even when the trauma has ceased. “PTSD creates an acuteness vital to survival. You want to be vigilant, you want to react to strange noises, you want to sleep lightly and wake easily, you want to have flashbacks that remind you of the danger, and you want to be, by turns, anxious and depressed. Anxiety keeps you ready to fight, and depression keeps you from being too active and putting yourself at greater risk.” says a PTSD sufferer Sebastian Jenger. 

I find PTSD to be a very serious condition, from the research I have done it often lasts a lifetime and raises the question if it is worth being placed in that situation. Of course the majority of the time, the trauma cannot be prevented but with research proving American soldiers to have the greatest amount of reported PTSD, the violence of war clearly resonates far from the battlefield.