Veterans Readjust to Civilian Life

Veterans Joe Herbert, Don Watters, and Jeff Barber talk about the hardest part of getting out of the military and becoming a civilian.

Veterans Readjust to Civilian Life

By Kate Shelton

Roger Sanders had a big challenge to face in July of 2012. He had to buy a house and take care of it. Sanders had lived in six different states and always had military housing provided for him.

Sanders is a 20 year veteran of the United States Marines Corps. He was in the infantry and then later administration. While Sanders never deployed, he still had a difficult task to overcome: becoming a civilian.

One of the most difficult parts of leaving active duty is coming home and adjusting back to civilian life.

According to a report done by the Veteran’s Administration, there are over 10 different challenges veterans and returning service members face such as relating to people and re-establishing family roles.

The VA report says veterans and service members are often used to having very little choice in basic necessities such as food, clothing and housing. When they return home, these choices that were made for them can become overwhelming.

Sanders said the biggest challenge of adjusting to civilian life was buying a house and taking care of it.

“It took me over a year plus to get a house and I wasn’t really planning on that,” Sanders said.

Another problem for returning veterans and service members is preparing to enter the work force. They have to learn how to create a résumé and translate their military duties into civilian terms.

Sanders went from September to December with no job. He said he did a little part-time work but it was never enough to support himself and his family. In December, he finally found a job with a security company.

“A job didn’t come real fast either. I had to do a lot of background checks and things like that…so we were struggling with money,” Sanders said. “Then, my retirement took a couple of months to kick in so I got my retirement coming in monthly but I didn’t have a full-time job yet.”

Sanders had more adjusting to do. In the Marine Corps as administration, he was working a Monday through Friday job with day hours. Now in his current job, he works from 5:00 p.m. to 12:00 a.m.

Other challenges that veterans or returning service members have to face are creating a structure, establishing a community, adjusting to a different pace, and a more individualistic society.

For Joe Herbert, the hardest part of getting out of the military was not having a job and the difficulty of finding one. Herbert was a United States Army paratrooper stationed at Fort Bragg for five years.

“…When I got out and there were no jobs and I had no skills that transferred over in the civilian world, especially with the infantry,” Herbert said.  “You just were taught infantry stuff. You were never taught what to do outside in the real world.”

Herbert also said some other difficult parts of getting out of the military were building up credit because he didn’t have established credit and also, finding a place to go because he didn’t have anywhere to go.

An article done by James Munroe of the VA Boston Healthcare System lists eight battlefield skills to help families understand what veterans or returning service members are going through.

One example is on active duty, one must control emotions. A person experiences horrible situations and they are taught to overcome their reactions and emotions quickly. When returning home, those emotions are supposed to be expressed and this causes conflict.

Another common example is talking about their experiences. It’s difficult for a veteran to explain their decisions and what came of those decisions and what happened while they were away. A veteran may often feel that talking about it may cause upset and rejection by their family or peers.

Sanders said that he doesn’t really talk about his military experiences unless he has to. He said he doesn’t have trouble talking to people but he has no reason to talk about the military because he doesn’t have any military friends anymore.

“Not very often I talk about military stuff, I’m pretty much done with that,” Sanders said. “So I don’t really talk about it anymore.”

Veterans’ Struggle with PTSD

Veterans’ struggles with PTSD

By Kate Shelton

In an average week for Chris Shupert, ten hours of sleep is normal. He finds himself tossing and turning and thinking until almost 6 a.m. He also becomes anxious in large crowds and doesn’t speak to a lot of people he doesn’t know.

Shupert is a former United States Army Staff Sergeant and Iraq War and War in Afghanistan veteran. By the time Shupert left the Army at age 26, he had been deployed three times to Iraq and once to Afghanistan in his eight years of service. During that time, Shupert was a paratrooper with the 82^nd and 173^rd Airborne divisions.

Shupert doesn’t sleep and gets anxious in large crowds because like other veterans, he is suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Over 300,000 of 1.7 million veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have post-traumatic stress or major depression, according to a study done by the Rand Corporation, Center for Military Health Policy Research.

There are three types of symptoms for PTSD: avoiding stimuli related to the traumatic event, hyperarousal such as difficulty falling or staying asleep, and re-experiencing the event.

Shupert says he experiences most of these symptoms but difficulty falling and staying asleep is the main one.

“My mind just runs at night,” Shupert said. “I think about everything on the Earth from movie quotes, to complex math problems, to my future.”

Among Iraq War Army veterans who were deployed for about a year, 18 percent suffered from PTSD and 15 percent also suffered from depression, according to the Rand Corporation study.

Only about one third of Iraq War soldiers reported receiving mental health care while deployed. Not everyone who tested positive for a mental health disorder wants help because of negative attitudes by peers or commanders, according to the Rand Corporation study.

Another study done by Joint Mental Health Advisory Team 7 reported that 49 percent of soldiers screening positive for a mental health disorder don’t seek help because they would be seen as weak. The next biggest concern that 48 percent reported was the fear that unit leadership might treat them differently.

When Shupert returned from his service in 2011, he found himself struggling with PTSD and sought help through the Veteran’s Administration.

“A lot of guys think seeking help while you’re serving is a coward’s way out because it’s drilled in your mind that way,” Shupert said. “But I was done and realized I needed it.”

After returning home, the need for help is even greater. PTSD’s symptoms may take months or even years to show. Only about 23-40 percent receive professional help after deployment.

Shupert currently lives in Spring Hill, Kan. and has to drive 37 miles to Leavenworth, Kan. or 27 miles Kansas City, Mo. to see a doctor. When he finally gets to one of the VA hospitals, he experiences long wait times. Shupert received treatment in the form of therapy and prescriptions and is trying to get a routine together.

Shupert says that in the past six months he has not been to the VA because of previous bad experiences but says he is doing a lot better mentally. He still gets nervous in large crowds and doesn’t sleep much, but the treatment he received helped tremendously to get him back to living in the civilian world.

Shupert’s dialogue on his struggle with PTSD

 Photo Courtesy of Chris Shupert