Are We Ignoring Our Veteran’s Addiction Problems?

by Bridget on May 24, 2012

At a staggering rate, soldiers are returning from overseas with a myriad of devastating brain injuries. Many come home suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Among those veterans who have returned home with PTSD, roughly 65% suffer from addictions to drugs or alcohol. While the consumption of large amounts of drugs or alcohol by soldiers is not a new phenomenon, the way we are ignoring them is.

The Walking Wounded

Many point to the aftermath of Vietnam as a time period when veterans came home to a society that ignored them. Vietnam vets were often described as “the walking wounded, addicted to heroin and homeless.” However, while the drug culture was a major influence on many soldiers during the Vietnam conflict, most veterans gave up the drugs once they returned home. Also, most of them were able to successfully integrate back into society. However, this is not the case with the new generation of veterans who are returning from a baffling conflict. Veteran’s groups have begun to make charges that our soldiers are not being cared for and that their health needs, specifically regarding addiction, are not being met.

Mental Health Issues

One of the most challenging aspect of treating returning soldiers with mental health issues is the sheer number of veterans coming home. As the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq begin to slowly wind down, hundreds of thousands of veterans are coming home to an uncertain future. Many of them have been deployed, and redeployed several times. It is not unheard of for a single soldier to undergo 5 different deployments during their time in uniform. It is no wonder that so many of these brave individuals are coming home with severe PTSD.

Running Out Of Resources

Unfortunately for soldiers coming home, both the military and Veterans Affairs office have been stretched so thin, and are so overwhelmed with the number of people coming home that they are not able to make sure that everyone is getting the care and treatment they so desperately need. “I think the military is taking the problem of addiction seriously, now” says the executive director of Veterans For Common Sense, Patrick Bellon. “But it’s been more than 10 years (of war). So the response to mental health, to addiction, has simply been too slow for soldiers.”

For this new generation of veterans, who were promised medical care and treatment for the rest of their lives after they came home, it appears they will need to wait in line a lot longer to get their care than they previously thought. Estimations for the cost of healthcare for this generation of veterans exceed one trillion dollars. Yet, many in Congress feel that this is too much and are trying to trim money away from these veterans who have sacrificed everything. This is unconscionable and cannot be allowed to happen. If we take even more money away from the health care needs of our veterans, it has been proven that we will be pushing many of them into a life of drug and alcohol addiction. These soldiers deserve access to high quality drug rehab centers to help them combat their substance abuse and PTSD issues. Hopefully, the nation will realize how much these individuals gave for us, and we will be willing to return the favor by demanding our government provide them with what they were promised.

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