Abstract Virtual Iraq

Sue Halpern's story of Travis Boyd in "Virtual Iraq" provides an insightful look into the problems and recovery of the men and women that fight for our country everyday. Once a solider returns home from their deployment, many suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or P.T.S.D. like Boyd. This disorder "is characterized by nightmares, flashbacks, and intrusive and uncontrollable thoughts, as well as by emotional detachment, numbness, jumpiness, anger, and avoidance." What Virtual Iraq does, is target and try to fix the psychological problems that these soldiers have suffered from. The focus of this experiment isn't necessarily to make these soldiers forget about the memories but to eliminate things in their everyday life that can trigger the fear and panic they felt. This is not the first time this program has been used, and the soldiers from Iraq are not the first to experience this treatment. Doctors have used programs such as Virtual Vietnam for Vietnam veterans and Virtual W.T.C for the people that suffered from P.T.S.D after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centers. Boyd, who was hesitant when first asked to be involved in the Virtual Iraq trial claimed that the first thing he noticed after the Virtual Iraq exposure therapy was that "he was able to sleep without medication. He was more relaxed and he could joke around." Boyd then goes on to express to Halpern about the two people he felt he was and the change back to the one person he was before his P.T.S.D. After reading this article, the logical thing to do would seem to be to expose the hundreds of thousands of soldiers suffering the same P.T.S.D to Virtual Iraq. The least the American people can do is to help the people that are keeping us safe on a daily basis.