Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close - Ptsd in Oscar

PTSD After Traumatic Events

How has your life been affected by 9/11? In the novel Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer, Oskar struggles mentally with his dad's death as he develops PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and appears to be normal on the outside but inside is having a rough time dealing and trying to overcoming it, much as other kids who suffered from the tragedy of 9/11. Agoraphobia and fear of terrorist attacks are two components of PTSD that a high percent of the people diagnosed deal with.

According to MedicineNet.com, "Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is an emotional illness that that is classified as an anxiety disorder." People such as Oskar suffer from this illness because of a traumatic event that occurred in their lifetime that they aren't able to overcome. MedicineNet states in their own definition that:

"...fear, may cause PTSD. Such events often include either experiencing or witnessing a severe accident or physical injury, receiving a life-threatening medical diagnosis, being the victim of kidnapping or torture, exposure to war combat or to a natural disaster, exposure to other disaster (for example, plane crash) or terrorist attack...".

They also talk about some of the effects PTSD has on a person's daily life, "PTSD sufferers re-experience the traumatic event or events in some way, tend to avoid places, people, or other things that remind them of the event (avoidance), and are exquisitely sensitive to normal life experiences (hyper arousal)". With PTSD such simple daily activities we do or places we go, isn't possible for many people and most of them cant overcome their fear whatever it is. Treatment for PTSD varies on the person and how they deal with it. Like many other diseases, some people are able to overcome it easier than others and some it takes years or their not able to cure it:

"Treatments for PTSD usually include psychological and medical interventions. Providing information about the illness, helping the individual manage the trauma by talking about it directly, teaching the person ways to manage symptoms of PTSD, and exploration and modification of inaccurate ways of thinking about the trauma are the usual techniques used in psychotherapy for this illness".

Therapy does help a large majority of the population of people with PTSD, but for some it still isn't enough as no matter how hard they try they can't overcome their fear no matter what it might be. PTSD is a very serious illness that is growing around the world and effects people's abilities to do simple tasks in life that some of us take for granted.

Oskar struggles mentally with his father's death as he develops PTSD in the ongoing months. Oskar suffers mainly from agoraphobia which is an illness involved with PTSD. Agoraphobia is an illness where a person has a strong fear of public places. He encounters his agoraphobia throughout the novel as he looks for what his fathers key might unlock. Once incident comes up when him and Mr. Black are in the Empire State building. When they are going to the top, Oskar starts inventing, "I could not stop inventing, the elevator cables snapping, the elevator falling, us shooting back up..."(244). Oskar's PTSD and agoraphobia kicks in during this situation as he is scared of the elevator snapping or shooting back up. When not around his mom, Oskar always will start inventing in his head about the worst of the worst that could happen. This is a serious complication because even when doing a simple task such as going in an elevator, tons of thoughts start to process in his mind and he gets anxiety which causes daily life for him to be difficult. Oskar's agoraphobia was still bad even after a year passed since 9/11. When he is talking about his feelings he tells the readers that he is still having a rough time:

"Even after a year, I still had an extremely difficult time doing certain things, like taking showers, for some reason, and getting into elevators, obviously. There was a lot of stuff that made me panicky, like suspension bridges, germs, airplanes, fireworks, Arab people on the subway (even though I'm not racist)..."(36).

Not only is Oskar afraid of public places, but he is especially afraid of another terrorist attack happening on the city. Oskar invents a lot even when he is at home in his room. He doesn't have to be out to start doing so and most of his anxiety starts with him inventing in his room at home:

"So what about skyscrapers for dead people that were built down? They could be underneath the skyscrapers for living people that are built up. You could bury people one hundred floors down, and a whole dead world could be underneath the living one. Sometimes I think it would be weird if there were skyscrapers that moved up and down while its elevator stayed in place. So if you wanted to go to the ninety-fifth floor, you'd just press the 95 button and the ninety-fifth floor would come to you. Also, that could be extremely useful, because if you're on the ninety-fifth floor, and a plane hits below you, the building could take you to the ground, and everyone could be safe, even if you left your birdseed shirt at home that day."(3).

Oskar's PTSD isn't all about agoraphobia. He tends to think smarter than the average fourth grader but still has trouble functioning like a normal 10 year old would:

"I invented a lever that could be on the front door, which would trigger a huge spoked wheel in the living room to turn against metal teeth that would hang down from the ceiling, so that it would play beautiful music...and the apartment would be one huge music box" (14).

Even when in his own home Oskar can't function normally and will always start inventing in his mind. With the death of his father Thomas, Oskar struggles mentally with his dads death and PTSD after 9/11 changed the way he lived