Liberty wrote:

I know, it is confusing, but Mycroft does say that the tremor is due to missing the war.

I would heavily deny that John is missing the war! And I can rememeber that I just wanted to contradict Mycroft immediately when claiming this!
What a poor charakter would anybody be missing death, bombed people and buildings, pain, blood and pure horror!!! I don't want to believe that any healthy mind could miss war and all its dity consequences!
I'm pretty sure that John shows these certain kinds of psychosoamtic symptoms because having left the war behind is still quite "fresh" and he hasn't adjust to normal daily life yet.
Meeting Sherlock and getting involved in his cases is a good way of distracting John from having been at war. 

Vhanja wrote:

kornmuhme wrote:

I would heavily deny that John is missing the war! And I can rememeber that I just wanted to contradict Mycroft immediately when claiming this!
What a poor charakter would anybody be missing death, bombed people and buildings, pain, blood and pure horror!!! I don't want to believe that any healthy mind could miss war and all its dity consequences!
I'm pretty sure that John shows these certain kinds of psychosoamtic symptoms because having left the war behind is still quite "fresh" and he hasn't adjust to normal daily life yet.
Meeting Sherlock and getting involved in his cases is a good way of distracting John from having been at war. 

I kind of agree with you here. It never sat right with me, the thought that John would dream about the horrors of war and then wake up crying because he misses it.

I know that he is "addicted to danger", or however phrase one should use (I don't necessarily agree with that term either), but John is also a decent person. I am absolutely convinced he found war absolutely horrible. 

I am more inclined to believe what other people have mentioned - that he feels he doesn't have a purpose in life anymore. And with Sherlock he finds that purpose again.

Right, Vhanja! He is kind of an adrenaline junkie, but that is completely different from wishing he could be back at war!!! Being a doctor John will have seen a lot of pain, angst, sorrow and that's still in his mind. One can't escape from something so shocking and intense like war!

I don't think Mycroft is necessarily wrong, I think it's more that his wording is a bit off. I believe it's written that way for effect and rhetorics. 

I agree with what you say - John misses his role. He misses the action, the danger, the thrill. But not just any kind of "adrenaline junkie". Not something that can be fixed by bungie jumping. 

Personally, I think he misses his role and purpose in the war. I don't think he misses the war itself. War is horrible. It's not about being the hero saving the good guys - it's about pointless death and suffering all around you. I can't understand that John, who feels sadness and empathy just by seeing a dead body, would miss something is a thousand times worse.

Swanpride wrote:

It is possible to have nightmares, depression and a psychological injury without having full blown PTSD.  PTSD means that someone might have overblown reactions to certain situations, that flashbacks can overwhelm them when they encounter some sort of trigger.  But John has neither.  He has bad memories, he has trouble adjusting and he feels useless in the first episode.  And he certainly needs psychological help.  But he doesn't have PTSD.

I agree that John does have all of those issues that you described.  Not to mention that he has nightmares about the war (and possibly flashbacks as well), a psychosomatic limp, and an intermittent tremor in his left hand.  He most likely has lost his sense of purpose, and that's what he misses the most.  I'm very sure that he does not miss the horror of war itself, but he does miss the sense of purpose that he had there, the sense that he was saving lives whether it was as a doctor or when he was, of necessity, taking one life to save another.
 

Last edited by kgreen20 (October 16, 2015 3:20 am)

Here's a way that John could have been an army doctor and been on the front lines!

http://wellingtongoose.tumblr.com/post/30923990756/semantics3

John could have started out training to be a general practitioner, and then, once he had become a licensed GP, had decided that he'd rather be a surgeon instead.  At that point, he could have joined the army's surgical training program.  John said, in that flashback sequence in "The Sign of Three", that he was in Afghanistan for three years.  That wouldn't have given him time to spend 7 years as an army GP and then to spend some more time as a regular soldier.  He could have spent that 3 years training to become a trauma surgeon, which would explain why he was still a captain when he was shot and invalided out: he was still in training when his army career ended.  It would also explain why John spent time on the front lines and had to become an excellent shot, since trainee surgeons, according to wellingtongoose, are far more apt to go to the front lines to engage in retrieval missions than consultant surgeons are.  Thy army cannot afford to lose its consultants; trainee surgeons are regarded as more expendable.  They have to be able to shoot, since they're in the firing line when they go to combat zones to retrieve wounded soldiers.
 

Last edited by kgreen20 (May 21, 2016 11:03 pm)

Yes, bu John is both a doctor and a soldier. And as I understood it, if you're a doctor in the military, you work as a doctor to tend the wounds of those soldiers who are in the front line, you are not there yourself as a crack shot actling like a soldier. (I picture something like MASH).

So while his dual role is kind of fascinating and awesome (and says quite a bit about John as a person, I think), I am not sure it makes sense in the real world.

LOL.  That's not what John's resume (CV) says.  It says that he attended medical school at King's College (which does exist), and it was there that he earned his MBSS.  While he did not attend medical school or serve as a junior house officer at Barts Hospital, it's not too difficult to guess that he probably did serve his year as senior house officer there, and it's entirely possible that he also took some classes there at one point, during his year as junior house officer.  And according to wellingtongoose, it was easier for a doctor to change specialties when John finished his 2 years as house officer and received his GP license than it would be now, so it would not have been that difficult for him to switch from being a general practitioner to being a surgeon; all he had to do was to apply for acceptance into the army surgical training program.  With all that said, I agree that the Fifth Northumberland Fusiliers does not exist anymore; that was clearly a nod to canon.
 

Last edited by kgreen20 (May 22, 2016 5:48 pm)

Oh yes, it's possible to fit it in (as the post manages to do), and I did go along with the Wellingtongoose version as my personal headcanon for a while.  But I honestly think that the intention is more of a nod to canon, than creating a backstory for John.   It doesn't matter when, how or why John did his GP training - he was in general practice because Watson was. 

And just as well it's only a TV show, hey!