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Would you say PTSD is a result of karma?

hermitwinhermitwin Veteran
edited June 2012 in Buddhism Basics
http://www.stripes.com/news/retirement-may-unleash-ptsd-symptoms-in-vietnam-veterans-1.180888

i know this is highly controversial but do you think that PTSD is the result of karma from committing violent acts?

Comments

  • PrairieGhostPrairieGhost Veteran
    edited June 2012
    I've given up on the word karma. It has too much baggage.

    Victims of violence get PTSD too - is that their karma?

    What I do think is that what they've been through is really bad for people. And a whole lot of our culture, movies, video games, myths etc exists to convince us that it isn't. Because we really want stuff, so we tend to reason from there.

    I'd wait for our karma to visit itself upon us for letting people fight and die and get messed up in the head for the stuff we wanted or didn't want. Usually comes in the form of tables turning, and the far off lands where warriors prove their valour becoming our streets and homes.
  • DavidDavid A human residing in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Ancestral territory of the Erie, Haudenosaunee, Huron-Wendat, Mississauga and Neutral First Nations Veteran
    http://www.stripes.com/news/retirement-may-unleash-ptsd-symptoms-in-vietnam-veterans-1.180888

    i know this is highly controversial but do you think that PTSD is the result of karma from committing violent acts?
    Seeing as how PTSD can be caused by witnessing something horrific I'd have to say yes.

    Do I think it is some kind of punishment? Nope.

    Cause and effect.

    We only get out of this world what we take in.

  • DakiniDakini Veteran
    I don't think it's helpful to think of karma in that way. Just deal with the PTSD, and move on. What I don't understand is why the Vet Admin isn't helping with this. There are very effective and efficient treatments available that don't cost a lot of money. This is a crime, to allow people to continue suffering like this.
  • DaozenDaozen Veteran
    PTSD is caused by trauma; the causes of trauma are varied.

    Doing the maths of karma, especially post-event, is rarely helpful to anyone. I believe Buddha said as much.
  • DaozenDaozen Veteran
    This is a crime, to allow people to continue suffering like this.
    Indeed. It's a shame their mental-health policy doesn't match their war-mongering policy.

  • AMHAMH
    I look at the flip side of karma in many situations. And I cannot totally attribute this to any branch of buddhism. However there is the idea we choose before we are born some of the aspects of our life. I joke with my kids that they cannot complain because they chose their parents. In each case where you could assign karma, and then sometimes have a judgement and self-blame, you could also imagine that you chose a difficult situation in order to learn a specific lesson from it.

    So the action is the same, learn from it. As a country who has been involved in war we have our lesson to learn from the trauma of war and veterans. It happened after WWI with the lost men who were part of creating the beat generation. It happened after the Civil War when some of the veterans unable to return to society effectively became part of the wild west. (these are very general things so I do not have direct references). And as many times as we talk about the survivors of the Halocaust there are people and families who have been damaged for more than one generation by the horror.
  • federicafederica Seeker of the clear blue sky... Its better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak out and remove all doubt Moderator
    PTSD is caused by trauma; the causes of trauma are varied.

    Doing the maths of karma, especially post-event, is rarely helpful to anyone. I believe Buddha said as much.
    *LIKE*
    This is a crime, to allow people to continue suffering like this.
    Indeed. It's a shame their mental-health policy doesn't match their war-mongering policy.

    *LIKE* again.

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