POST WAR PYSCHOLOGICAL EFFECTS
Eventhough the war had ended , people , both the military personnel and civilians still continued to suffer from psychological effects of the war . The impact of war was felt by everyone , from the elderly to the young children. There were moments of grieves that was unavoidable among the people at that time. The well known Holocaust has left a great impact on the survivors. After the war , they tried to lead a normal life without much expectations but it was indeed a horror to them because the so called ‘after-shock’ left a footprint which was not able to be erased in their life. One of the ways to forget the shock was having the hope of reuniting with their family and loved ones . But that was not able to be accomplished as most of their loved ones have had their lives taken during the holocaust period. The worse thing a person can go through is when you actually hear HOW your family members and loved ones die. That was exactly what the civilians went through. The pain and scar that they had was indeed uncurable. Yet , some of them tried to forget the past and lead a new life in the hope that the future would be bright .Those who managed to have a family after that named their newborns after those whom had passed away due to the war. Not only that , the babies that were born were said to be a symbol of victory over the Nazis. They were seen as a hope of the future and of course , like all parents , the survivors only hopes that their children will never go through the moments of disaster that they went through before . Nevertheless , many women , during World War II, entered the labor force. They were encouraged to work in industrial factories to help the war effort. The United States government even created a propaganda campaign that women are capable of doing what were considered "men's jobs," and this allowed them to work in many industrial sector and factories. After working for a long period , these women who have realised their capabilities did not want to give these jobs up after war but instead continue with their jobs to sustain their living expenses. Many American men were not satisfied with the this change of roles and this lead them to persuade and convince them into getting back into their normal daily activities before the start of War. In the 1960s many married women were not satisfied with the burdens and the contradictions they had to face. They were being bombarded that good mothers and wives did not work and dedicated their lives to supporting their husbands and children, but at the same time they were increasingly forced to work to make ends meet.This dilemma went on for the women during that period of after war. There were also women who were not able to forget the pass especially those whom had their husbands and families killed during the war. This all lead to women being psychologically affected.
Nonetheless , the condition after war was deplorable due to the fact that jobs were difficult to find , living conditions were not as good as it was supposed to be , and there was difficulty in getting proper food and sanitations. As days pass , the life expectancy increased and standards of living improved. The children who were affected during the war were mostly diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) . Eventhough the adults were also affected , children suffered more as they were young and unable to analyse what was going on. According to a study that was done during that time , significantly higher incidence of PTSD in the Direct War exposure group in comparison to the No Direct War exposure group. This actually supports the basis that exposure to highly stressful war events can produce distressful psychological symptoms in children. Symptoms of PTSD which can occur in both adults and children is when the circumstances experienced is outside the range of usual human experience and that would be extremely stressful to almost anyone. The memory will keep haunting the person involved in the form of by dreams and hallucinations. One of the most common factor which would contribute to the a person having PTSD is when there is a death or injury of a family member , loved one or friends. This would lead to the increased levels of fear and behavioural problems. Military personnel on the other hand had a totally different form of dilemma. They were the ones who survived the war and also went through the situations of being in the battlefield and looking at all the people dying .The feeling of guilt of not being able to help people to survive the war always rested in their hearts. Not only that , they were also being constantly afraid of death as they have seen many including their loved ones dying right in front of their eyes. The trauma that the military people had was indeed a disastrous one. From then onwards , having to hear sounds of gunfire and bomb blast surrounding them always left them in state of fear.
Many things that have happened in the war left the life of many survivors in the state of trauma and most of them were psychologically affected. The thought of the war itself brings them shivers and hoping that the destructive event would never occur in their lives anymore. The cries and tears were not able to replace the people who have been killed during the war but they have definitely lead the survivors to become stronger and give them courage to continue their lives in a better way without the shadows of the past.
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