Traumatic stress: a personal view from combat.

What follows is my personal account of the effects of traumatic stress disorder as it is caused by the effects of combat. I tell it in the first person because it is the most effective way to emphasize the highly personal, traumatic nature of combat stress and because it is my own story. I have endeavored to explain how combat stress occurs, what happens to the individual as a result and how a person can recover from its effects. I offer my story because I think that there are thousands of men who have been in offensive combat, who may have lived my life, but who have not had the opportunity to tell their story about why they hurt.