Coping with War
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- Date Submitted: 11/02/2010 06:41 PM
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Eric Burns
Mrs. Guerrero
English 1320
4-18-10
Coping With War
“On occasion the war was like a ping pong ball. You could put a fancy spin on it, you could make it dance” (O’Brien).
War could sometimes be a game such as ping pong, but ultimately has ever lasting effects. War is not the only thing soldiers have to deal with. Soldiers also have to deal with coping with what they have seen, done, heard, or been through. “In a way, I guess, she is right: I should forget. But the thing about remembering is that you don’t forget” (O’Brien). This quote is an example of the difficulties of coping with war and putting it behind you. There are several different ways soldiers deal with this. They use several different methods, whether it is a temporary fix, or a way for them to put events in the back of their minds to try and never remember these events more than they have to. "It's important to have memories of bad things to protect us from future occurrences but sometimes it almost gets overly active so that you end up with post-traumatic stress disorder or shell shock," Maren says. "If you elaborate these fear memories and it works too well, you can hear a car backfire and have a flashback" (redorbit.com).Most of the time all coping mechanisms are temporary and the horror of the event comes back to the soldier to haunt him once more. They then have to put the memory away once again until the next time it comes back.
According to dictionary.com the definition of coping mechanism is an adaptation to environmental stress that is based on conscious or unconscious choice and that enhances control over behavior or gives psychological comfort (dictionary.com). This means that soldiers do whatever they can to block all unpleasant things about the war that really bother them. This can range from a number of different things. If a soldier cannot cope with the killing, losing friends, and other things, they would go A-wall, or crazy. There are so...
Mrs. Guerrero
English 1320
4-18-10
Coping With War
“On occasion the war was like a ping pong ball. You could put a fancy spin on it, you could make it dance” (O’Brien).
War could sometimes be a game such as ping pong, but ultimately has ever lasting effects. War is not the only thing soldiers have to deal with. Soldiers also have to deal with coping with what they have seen, done, heard, or been through. “In a way, I guess, she is right: I should forget. But the thing about remembering is that you don’t forget” (O’Brien). This quote is an example of the difficulties of coping with war and putting it behind you. There are several different ways soldiers deal with this. They use several different methods, whether it is a temporary fix, or a way for them to put events in the back of their minds to try and never remember these events more than they have to. "It's important to have memories of bad things to protect us from future occurrences but sometimes it almost gets overly active so that you end up with post-traumatic stress disorder or shell shock," Maren says. "If you elaborate these fear memories and it works too well, you can hear a car backfire and have a flashback" (redorbit.com).Most of the time all coping mechanisms are temporary and the horror of the event comes back to the soldier to haunt him once more. They then have to put the memory away once again until the next time it comes back.
According to dictionary.com the definition of coping mechanism is an adaptation to environmental stress that is based on conscious or unconscious choice and that enhances control over behavior or gives psychological comfort (dictionary.com). This means that soldiers do whatever they can to block all unpleasant things about the war that really bother them. This can range from a number of different things. If a soldier cannot cope with the killing, losing friends, and other things, they would go A-wall, or crazy. There are so...