Returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan today are scores of warriors who are dealing with the effects of operating in a war zone. The mental health institution is suffering from a deluge of patients who are experiencing moderate to severe symptoms of PTSD and other psychological problems. According to the US Department of Veterans Affairs, an estimated 20 veterans commit suicide each day, a number that has increased by 32 percent since 2001. Forty percent of returning American veterans struggle to adapt to civilian life after serving overseas, while 20 percent suffer from clinical PTSD or major depression. Half of these will not seek treatment, not understanding that there is help for what they are going through.
The stigma attached to seeking mental health care is especially strong among members of the armed forces. As a result, war veterans are especially difficult to for mental health care professionals to reach. The last thing most returning soldiers want is to be sitting on the couch in some psychiatrist’s office answering the doctor’s probing questions. In this case, it can take the counseling of peers to help relieve some of the pressure and bring healing and wholeness to those wounded in heart, mind and spirit.
Many veterans find daily life after returning from war to be a daily struggle. They will try their best to live a “normal” life. They may get married, have a couple children and hold down a job. But flashbacks, nightmares, sleeplessness, survivor’s guilt and panic attacks can slowly undermine the returning veteran’s ability to cope and function in the civilian world. It’s not uncommon for a veteran to turn to drinking and/or drugs in desperation to escape from the memories sealed up inside his head. The veteran may also express anger and become withdrawn from normal human interactions. Someone exhibiting these symptoms is a prime candidate for support from a peer group.
A Unique Method of Support
Peer support is unique in the way it connects with veterans. Rather than a visit to the psychiatrist’s office every week or so for evaluation of medication effectiveness, support groups provide day-to-day help with adjusting to civilian life. The role of those involved in one of these groups is not to provide medical or psychiatric treatment but to help guide those who are struggling to the care they so desperately need.
It may take outside prodding to get a person to participate in one of these groups. This was the experience of a US Army Specialist Jason Early. When Early was nineteen years old, he served in the Kirkuk province of Iraq for 14 months as a military policeman, a trainer for Iraqi police officers and a Humvee turret gunner. One day he was sent on an errand to take some photographs of a burned out truck near the police station in the area.
He approached the truck with his camera, expecting to see no more than a destroyed exterior and a gutted interior. To his horror, he found himself looking the scene of what appeared to be the gruesome execution of a family. Falling back on his training, Early blocked his emotions and methodically followed the orders he had been given. He took pictures and returned to base. Not for many years did he realize how permanently these images (and many others like them) were branded in his brain.
Early’s military career ended after he suffered a minor stroke. He moved back to California with his young family to live. For years, he resisted the efforts of family and friends who tried to help him. His coping skills consisted of drinking large amounts of alcohol. Early’s father, concerned about the direction his son’s life was headed, decided to get him involved in a support group.
Early was still in denial about his symptoms and initially thought the visit was a complete waste of time. However, as he listened to the other men speak, he began to think differently. Perhaps the months he spent in Iraq photographing scenes of carnage, piecing civilian body parts together and experiencing near death multiple times caused some emotional and mental wounds that could use some attention.
The Key
The very thing that alienates veterans from society— the feeling that they don’t fit— is their key to peer counseling and support. There is a greater bond between support group specialists than with psychologists or psychiatrists. Peer support is the glue that helps hold struggling veterans together as they go through the treatment process and gives them a place where they can unload and find those who understand on a very deep level.
Veterans have expressed the feeling of support and understanding they experience when in a group discussion-oriented setting with other veterans. Those who have not been in combat are not going to understand what a soldier has been through. A veteran is more likely to feel at home with those who have already been through similar experiences.
If a crisis point is reached, most veterans are not likely to pick up a telephone and call a suicide hotline, the VAC Service Line, or the Veterans’ Crisis Line. But they may call or use social media to contact another veteran. Veterans have expressed their willingness to speak with other soldiers over a therapist. Someone who has “been there, done that” is easier to open up to than a person whose knowledge is not first hand.
We have previously written about the importance of affinity in forming peer support groups. Veterans have also mentioned the benefits of separate support groups. A US Veterans Administration study found that veterans of Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom would be separate from Vietnam veterans. Males and females would also be separate. Although some see these separations as beneficial, others feel that greater integration would provide a broader experience base and knowledge base to draw from.
Veterans who are able to help others overcome their struggles feel a sense of empowerment that can help them with their own healing. To a veteran, the duty to assist a fellow soldier remains even after discharge. For them, supporting another struggling service member is an obligation.