Living with PTSD: the challenges a veteran can face

To be a ‘veteran’, you need to have served for a minimum of one day in the Armed Forces. For many, life after service can be difficult. While the uniform comes off, the struggles often stay. Mental health issues like PTSD, anxiety, and depression can be just a few of the battles faced by those who’ve served. The trauma they experienced whilst serving doesn’t always show on the outside, but it can affect day-to-day life in ways that can be hard for us to understand.

What can result in military trauma?

A common misconception is that combat and being ‘shot at’ are the only reasons a veteran might be traumatised from their time in the military. Whilst it is true that combat is a common trauma that may result in a mental health condition like PTSD, there are many other roles in the military and aspects of service life that can expose someone to equally traumatic experiences.

At Combat Stress we see veterans from a variety of roles in the military, such as medical, intelligence, logistics and engineering, who would never describe themselves as having been involved in front line combat. Their experiences of witnessing atrocities, being unable to provide aid or prevent harm and seeing footage of mass destruction, can be equally as traumatic.

Alternatively, some veterans present to us as survivors of sexual harassment, bullying and assault.

The challenges of daily life

Regardless of the cause of military trauma, it is something that can affect even the most ordinary aspects of daily life.

Changes in mood and thoughts, intense feelings of anxiety, anger, or being in a constant state of ‘fight or flight’ can make things we take for granted, like taking a bus, walking through a park, shopping in a supermarket and sleeping in a bed, anything but ‘normal life’ for veterans.

Triggers – whether sights, sounds or smells – can emerge from seemingly innocuous scenarios. A walk through the woods can elicit fears of landmines just off the path, or that any dangling branches are tripwires, a summer BBQ has to be avoided due to the smell of cooking/burning meat, popular TV shows rendered unwatchable due to the featuring of emergency services, and firework displays bringing unwanted reminders of the battlefield.

Life, for those affected veterans, can be incredibly isolating, overwhelming and distressing.

Giving veterans their lives back

It’s a line we hear so often from veterans who have been through our specialist treatment service, ‘Combat Stress gave me my life back’.

Our treatment is proven to help veterans recover from complex mental health issues, and yet many veterans suffer in silence – with their problems only increasing in severity and complexity – because they don’t feel like they qualify for, or are worthy of, receiving help.

We are here to help, regardless of the nature of your military service, regardless of the cause of your military trauma, and regardless of the way your symptoms present themselves in daily life.

Please call our 24-hour helpline (0800 138 1619) for confidential advice and support.