long way gone finally gone

So lets talk about how crazy fast the Ismaels life changed as soon as her was basically adopted into a rebel.er, the boy soldiers get to behave like children, playing like how kids play. then seconds later they are given guns and taken off to battle. The loss of innocence is fast and disorienting. The description of his first war is a surreal experience: his vision is blurred and he often can't hear anything among the overwhelming noise. he also starts having to us the drugs to remain numb enough to do his job and survive. Ishmael's innocence is completely gone. He writes that the combination of the drugs made him fierce and that killing had become "as easy as drinking water." Brainwashing clearly is effective in the boys confusion of reality and it shows when the boys want to be respected for their soldiering, and they believe that by building fear in their caretakers they might gain their honor, and resort to violence because it is all that they know. The staff repeatedly reminds him that it is not his fault in the way he acts. One of the caretakers Esther gains the trust of Ismael, when he believes him for the first time that perhaps all that has happened to him and all the violence he's committed is not his fault. Esther's patience and kindness seem to be saving Ishmael from himself. Ishmael welcomes the opportunity to become a symbol for boy soldiers in Sierra Leone. This shows that he's not only ready to talk about his past but also perhaps even to move beyond it. Ishmael clearly took the next step in his life by writing this book and what do you think would have happened if he couldn't move on from his past life? Also do you think Ishmael had a PTSD and got over it in rehab?