Do you generalize your personal combat observations and consider them the essence of the combat experience?

I suffer fromPTSD from the Persian Gulf War in 1991. My personal combat experiences were generalized from primarily receiving incoming artillery fire from Iraqi Artillery. The overall combat environment stressed my personality and made me more concientous and considered all otherfacets of my life to this day of a seriuos nature in everything I do. I respond to sounds differently (loud noises, engine backfire, and the like that i do not expect). However, thunderstroms do not affect me because I expect the noise. I have had issues where I became violent with persons that stressed me out with their interaction with me. I call it the incredible hulk syndrome. I struck my exwife and beat her when she had an affair. I work as a jailer (since 1999) and when I have been attacked by inmates I retaliated to the point of wanting to kill them out of nothing more than the animal instinct of survival (kill or be killed). I had a melt down a few years ago when my wife left me (because she was not in love with me anymore and got a boyfriend). I got myself on medicine and now take effexor to control my emotions. The essence of my combat experience was not direct combat with another human being, but the harsh reality of survival in a combat environment and living in a hole in the ground with the meagerest of nothing left me in total survival mode since 1991. It affects me to this day. The essence of combat experiences does not have to be direct between two men to not generalize the personal combat observation. daily life in the combat environment can effect the whole peception of lifes' realities post war!

I was on active duty during both Nam and Desert Storm, it's been my observation that people who have seen combat, being first of all individuals, react in a variety of ways according to their own natures, even after have been in the same encounter. This doesn't only apply to the military, two policemen after the same firefight might react totally differently. I know from experience that my own reactions to stress are often different from other peoples, so the answer to your question would be "no".

I went to a stress management class, and learned a lot of techniques. Here are a few: 1. Deeply breath (breath in deeply, and slowly breath out) 2. Lay down and think about someplace where you would like to be. Imagine being there, and imagine what is happening. This takes your mind off stress. Other ways of doing it that I didn't learn in a class: 1. Combat your stress. Figure out what is going on, and do something about it. 2. Pray to God (if you believe).