WE often hear of the psychological trauma of soldiers returning from war. At the top of this list is Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Soldiers who experience this suffer a host of problems, often reliving or remembering vividly, scenes of combat.

Many veterans never adapt to civilian life and in extreme cases still feel that they are in a war zone, when triggered by loud sounds reminiscent of gunfire or bombs exploding on the battlefield.
Others miss the camaraderie of military life and the purpose they feel when on a mission and never get over the loss of a friend, particularly if they witnessed that person’s death.

The spectre of lives lost in battle and the violence of war remain with them all, making them feel separate and apart as civilians and emotionally detached from their families.

The stories veterans tell can be gruesome, sometimes heart-breaking and always revealing of the fact that no one who has not had this kind of experience can really understand how devastating it can be.

In an interview, one soldier who had been deployed to Afghanistan, talked about his depression over friends who “didn’t make it,” his guilt over things he had done, and his constant anger at everyone.

He resorted to drinking, “picking fights for no reason” and even self-harm before finally confiding in a friend who let him know that he was not alone and persuaded him to get professional help.

However, though PTSD is normally associated with the military and members of the police force, it is by no means confined to these groups. It can happen to anyone who has been exposed to a traumatic event.

The family of victims and witnesses to the recent school and other mass shootings are likely to suffer from PTSD, as are victims of sexual assault. And recently, commenting on the war in Ukraine, a spokesman for the World Health Organisation (WHO) drew attention to the fact that civilians, especially children, caught in a war zone often suffer from severe mental health issues, including PTSD.

In a United Nations report two children shared how the war affected them. The boy, Illia, recounted  the story of how his vision blurred and later became worse when a shell hit his home and the girl, Afina, remembered running away when a tank drove along their street. She has since been diagnosed with diabetes resulting from “conflict-related stress.”

According to Dr Amir Khan, writing for Aljazeera, “Nearly a quarter of the world’s children are estimated to live in countries affected by armed conflict or disaster.” He also stated that PTSD and depression were “the most common mental health disorders in the aftermath of war for both adults and children.”

Serhii Lukashow, the director of SOS Children’s Villages in Ukraine wrote that, “The legacy of this war will be a traumatised generation.” But this comment does not apply only to the Ukraine, but also to countries such as Afghanistan and Yemen, where there is a huge humanitarian crisis, and where children live with the constant threat of shelling, bombing, losing loved ones or their own lives and have little or no access to food, potable water and health care.

Dr Paul Wise, a professor of paediatrics at Stanford University told ABC News, “Children are extremely vulnerable to insecurty, not only physical trauma, but the psychological trauma and it can reverberate and have repercussions for a long time.”

While symptoms of PTSD vary, sufferers may exhibit feelings of helplessness, anger, intense fear, sadness, horror or even denial and can develop physical symptoms such as stomach aches and headaches.

Others have difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep and develop ‘a kind of emotional numbing’ called dissociation.

Whatever the symptoms and whether in the Ukraine, Syria, Yemen or Aghanistan, Dr Amir Khan tells us: “Children have been the innocent victims in so many conflicts. What they see, hear and feel will have long-term consequences for them as they develop into adults.”