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Post-Deployment Mental Health
Issues
Military Veterans and
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
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BULLETIN - On January 14, 2013, the
Associated Press reported military suicides for calendar year 2012 set an all time record of 349. During the same period
of time 295 active duty personnel died in combat. In other words, more military men and women are dying by their own
hand than by the hands of our enemies.
For the first time since Vietnam, more than two million Americans have
served in overseas combat zones. Studies reveal that one in three of the men and women who return from Iraq and Afghanistan
will suffer emotional problems. This site is devoted to helping them and their families recognize and adjust to the
lingering trauma of their war experiences.
Many of today's
veterans, especially those engaged in Afghanistan and Iraq, are on an emotional path already walked by those of us who served
in Vietnam. Both generations of veterans share the fact of having served in a controversial war. Both
wars engaged a largely unidentifiable and unseen enemy. Both wars shared the intense violence of close-quarter
combat among small units. And finally, in both wars young volunteer soldiers shouldered the burden of
combat duty disproportionately.
The lessons learned by
my generation of veterans during our difficult years of readjustment can be used to help those of you who have most recently
stood in harm's way. One generation of veterans should never neglect the opportunity to help their fellow veterans
who served before or after them. This site acts on that opportunity.
In addition to providing free basic information to veterans, this site is intended to serve as a clearinghouse
for practical ideas to help them and their families. War forever changes those who survive.
Perhaps Edwin Starr's angry 1969 pop song “War” described it best: “War
[has] shattered many a young man's dreams. Made him disabled, bitter, and mean."
“Why?,” “Why me?,” “Why not me?,” and, “Was
it worth it?” are just some of the questions war survivors ask themselves. In their war experiences, and in these
questions asked by all survivors of trauma, germinate the seeds of PTSD.
"The stuff that haunts a guy is the stuff he wasn't ordered to do." — Clint Eastwood as Walt Kowalski in Gran Torino,
2008 PTSDhelp.net ©
The PTSD Help Network, 2013
Hosted by HelpPRO.com
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