News From the Cause
Healing Hidden Wounds: The Mental Health Crisis of America's Veterans: (JOINT FORCES QUARTERLY)
July 02, 2009
After our return from the first deployment, I held small roundtable discussions with my Marines and Sailors to talk about what we had seen, how each of us would characterize the deployment, what it was like to be home, and how those feelings manifested themselves. Many of the participants in these discussions commented that the operational tempo of the deployment was incredibly demanding... and they liked it; that being back in garrison was slow, boring, and meaningless; that those who didn't deploy with us "just didn't get it;" and that everyone missed those they served with. Although only a few admitted they had experienced symptoms of combat stress (e.g., sleeplessness, anxiety, anger, intrusive thoughts) most everyone's alcohol consumption had gone up exponentially, suggesting there were some issues my Marines, Sailors, and me , were not dealing with very well. [click here to view] (http://www.ndu.edu/inss/Press/jfq_pages/editions/i54/20.pdf)
