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Montana Difford

Honors English 4

Mrs. Sydlowski

25 January 2019

Veterans: Do They Require Better Care?

Back in 2010, former president Barack Obama said, “Just as we have a solemn

responsibility to train and equip our troops before we send them into harm’s way, we have a

solemn responsibility to provide our veterans and wounded warriors with the care and benefits

they’ve earned when they come home” (“Veterans’ Services”). But are these veterans actually

getting the proper care they need? Veterans returning from long tours overseas may have

suffered from some type of physical wound, but what’s often overlooked is the almost

guaranteed psychological strain, the mental wounds, that these warriors are put under while

being put on the front line. With these mental disorders, come other potential consequences,

most of which do not appear to have good outcomes. Mental disorders, such as PTSD and

depression, can have symptoms that may influence one’s behavior in such a way that can lead to

agitation or an act of violence either against others or even themselves. Not only that, but if the

veterans do not get the proper treatment, then they can turn to self medication, often in the form

of some sort of substance abuse. Now add the possibility of substance abuse with the increased

agitation that can arise from PTSD, and it becomes a situation where the veteran has a hard time

adjusting with the general population and holding down a job, leading to strained relationships

with loved ones and the loss of homes. These veterans have fought wars in the name of their

country, they have fought to maintain the country’s freedom, but many end up alone and fighting
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to remain afloat after their tour is over. Therefore, veterans of war must receive better assistance

from the United States government so they may deal with their possible mental health issues and

negative consequences in the future because of lack of treatment.

To start, war veterans are at an increased risk of mental health disorders. In addition to

the physical injuries that may have received while on tour, they are forced to also endure

emotional injuries as well. These emotional injuries come in the form of mental disorders like

PTSD, or Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. PTSD is a long lasting, serious condition that

includes insomnia, flashbacks, and increased anxiety and stress during everyday situations. With

war veterans having been exposed to the harsh conditions of military combat, they are at a higher

risk of having PTSD, and yet they are not receiving the proper care to combat it. As stated in the

Five Finger Death Punch video for “Wrong Side of Heaven,” “An estimated 460,000 veterans

suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder- PTSD” (Eskander). At least 460,000 veterans have

risked their lives for this country and are suffering in their daily lives as a result. Veterans need

more assistance in battling these mental disorders than what they are getting, and the U.S.

government is not paying enough attention to the mental strain they are put under. To add to that,

war veterans are also battling with depression. Depression is a common occurrence in those with

PTSD, and is actually more likely to occur in those with PTSD than in those without. Paired with

PTSD, depression can be devastating, and yet a large number of those who have risked it all to

serve their country are left to combat it alone. In April of 2008, a RAND Corp. Research Institute

study was released that stated that about 300,000 of 1.64 million veterans of Iraq and

Afghanistan suffered from PTSD or depression (“Veterans’ Services”). That is at least 18% of

veterans who will be battling depression and very few of them are likely to receive proper
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treatment. Mental health disorders among the troops is increasing, and must be dealt with

properly. It is not just physical injuries that these veterans experience but mental ones as well,

and while the government may try and provide the support, they fall short in the fact that many

veterans will not disclose such information easily in fear of looking weak and unfit for service,

or even judged. This country is faced with a large number of veterans out there suffering from

mental disorders such as PTSD and depression who are not receiving the proper care they need,

and without proper treatment, the results could be devastating.

Next, not only are veterans at an increased of mental disorders, but they are also at risk of

other negative consequences if not given proper treatment. These negative consequences can

come in the form of potential violence against others. When a veteran has PTSD, they can react

with hostility to others due to the increased irritability and dysregulated anger that can

accompany the mental disorder. With the rise in PTSD among the troops, a large portion of

veterans struggle with re-entering civilian life, and it is due to this that there's a rise in cases of

spousal or child abuse and neglect among returning veterans (Aikens). Returning veterans who

are not given the proper treatment for their mental disorders are then failing to reconnect with

society and it is leading to violent outburst against the ones they love without any way around it.

PTSD is a mental disorder that puts the victim in a situation of being alert and as such they may

feel helpless, which prompts the need to react defensively or in anger. These reactions can be

against anyone, even those that they love, but they cannot help it and without the proper

treatment, the veteran could potentially lose everything- family, respect, their home life.

Aggression and anger are not uncommon in those with mental disorders obtained from being in

military combat, and it is due to this that there’s increased actions of violence against others in
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veterans since they would not be completely comprehensive of what they are doing while having

an episode. Not only can the mental disorders ensue violence towards others, but it could also

prompt it against themself. With depression and PTSD being such common mental disorders, it

is not surprising to learn that veterans are also at heighten risk of feeling that suicide is the

answer to their problems. Suicide is the worst possible answer to any problem, but to see

someone who went through a battle zone for their country do so because they felt there was no

other way out of whatever hole they found themselves drowning in is terrible. As reported in the

article “Veterans’ Services” from the​ Issues and Controversies d​ atabase,

May 10, 2011, the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ruled that the

VA

had to provide better and more timely mental health care than it has been to the veterans

it serves. The ruling accused the VA mental health system of ‘unchecked incompetence.’

It noted that approximately 18 veterans coming suicide every day, a rate that veterans’

advocates groups say is higher than that if the general population, and criticized the VA

for bureaucracy and delays in processing mental health claims. (“Veterans’ Services”)

Approximately 18 veterans a day die by their own hand all because they aren’t getting the help

they need. They fought and lost friends to a horrific battle, only to return and have to continue

fighting, except now they are in it alone without their brothers in arms with them on the field.

The government is failing those who put their life at risk to grant them the freedom that they so

cherish, but when they finally return home from tour, they aren’t given the proper care that they

require and are suffering so much that they see taking their own lives as the only escape and

answer. With everything veterans have given for this country, it is only fair that the government
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provides the proper care and treatments that they require so that readjusting into society is easier

and the violence against those that they love and would never wish to harm and the increase of

suicides can finally start to subside.

Finally, veterans are at even more potential negative consequences if they aren’t given

the treatment they need. If veterans cannot get the proper treatment for their mental disorders,

they are likely to turn to other sources to help cope with it better, and often these other sources

come in the form of either drug or alcohol abuse. The dependency on these substances can lead

them down very dark roads and lead to more consequences that can have a rather large impact on

the veterans. According to the article “Older Adults as Caregivers for Veterans with PTSD,”

“Nearly a third of veterans diagnosed with PTSD will also have a substance used disorder. And

nearly one-half of veterans with lifetime PTSD also meet the criteria for a substance use

disorder” (Klippel and Sullivan 43). Nearly a third of veterans with PTSD, meaning that nearly a

third of the approximate 460,000 veterans that are struggling with PTSD could turn to substance

abuse. That’s about 151,800 veterans that may turn to drugs or alcohol in order to cope. This

dependency will lead to them having a difficult time getting and keeping a job, as well as causing

possible tension between them and their friends, family and loved ones. In addition, many

veterans end up homeless, with no help due to the constant battle with mental illnesses of all

kinds. A large number of veterans are living on the streets, struggling, without any way of

getting the help they so desperately need. According to “Soldiers' Mental Health” from the

database ​Issues and Controversies, “​Despite the sacrifices they made for their country, U.S.

veterans battling mental illness did not receive a great deal of public support. Indeed, a number

of mentally ill veterans were pushed to the margins of society, where they became mired in
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homelessness or alcoholism” (“Soldiers’ Mental Health”). After all they’ve sacrificed, all

they’ve lost and given, they get rejected because of an illness they cannot possibly help. Lost and

alone, these veterans suffer out on the streets, cold and confused, with no way to seek proper

treatment. They are then forced to fight not only their mental illness, but also struggle with

having no decent shelter, no warm bed, no roof over their head, nothing off all the materialistic

items that anyone else would take for granted. They fought for the country that they loved and

cared greatly for, yet when they need help fighting against their own minds, they get cast away

and forgotten. They are forced to go about this alone, with no help and no home. They cope with

drinking and drugs, not knowing what else to do, but that only brings about more repercussions

that they must face. Too many of this country’s veterans never receive the treatment they so

deserve and end up turning to drugs and alcohol which then can lead them down a slippery slope

to homelessness and alienation.

In short, veterans must be provided with better assistance for the psychological strain

they have endured for the sake of this country. Veterans have endured much on the tours they’ve

done for this country, and the least that the United States can do to compensate for what these

veterans have seen and done is provide the proper care. Veterans returning from war have more

than just physical wounds; they also have the ones that lurk deep within their own minds that

take the form of a mental disorder. Veterans are known to be at a higher risk for mental disorders

such as PTSD and depression, and yet so many suffer through these disorders without ever

receiving the proper treatments. Without these treatments, they turn to self-medicating with

drugs and alcohol which can lead them down a slippery slope. The mental disorders can also lead

to increased agitation, and the veteran may not know how to release is, which can result in
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violence against loved ones. Then there’s the combined effect of the substance abuse and the

strain mental disorders can put on a family, which leads to the veteran losing their homes and

living on the streets. With this in mind, there’s no wonder why suicide rates among returning

veterans are higher than that of the general public. With all that they’ve sacrificed and suffered

for this country, is the United States failing their veterans by letting this happen?
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Works Cited

Aikins, Matthieu. "Mental Combat." ​Popular Science,​ vol. 282, no. 3, Mar. 2013, p. 40.

MasterFILE Premier.

Eskander, Alec, producer. ​Wrong Side of Heaven​. Directed by Nick Peterson, Five Finger Death

Punch, 2014.

Klippel, Cory, and Greg Sullivan. “Older Adults as Caregivers for Veterans with PTSD.”

Generations,​ vol. 42, no. 3, Fall 2018, pp. 41–46 ​Sociological Collection.

"Soldiers' Mental Health." ​Issues and Controversies,​ Infobase Learning, 11 May 2007. Accessed

7 Nov. 2018.

"Veterans' Services." ​Issues and Controversies​, Infobase Learning, 15 Aug. 2011. Accessed 7

Nov. 2018.