Reading Wally Lamb's The Hour I First Believed gave me a realization to how mental illness can effect someone. PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is very common now a days from the Afghanistan and Iraq Wars. In The Hour I First Believed the characters are effected by PTSD after the Columbine shootings. I have did a lot of research on PTSD, and have a friend who has it after serving in the Iraq war. It deeply effects your mind and changes you as a person. The characters in the book are changed after the tragic event.
