State of Mind: Veterans

For many years, as a young boy who was still discovering the world and what it meant to grow up in it, I didn't fully know what to make of my grandfather.

He was the vulgar old man who didn't take shit from anyone, and, in that same vein, sometimes made very questionable decisions about how to portray himself to the world. Yet he still loved his family a lot and became someone I looked up to as a role model in certain aspects of my life. However, it's not uncommon that we don't understand the full effect someone has on our lives until they're not around any longer.

One such part of my grandfather's life that I didn't really grasp until much later was his military service. He was a United States Marine and served in the Pacific Theater during World War II. His responsibilities often included setting up or repairing communication lines, and he was among the soldiers who arrived in boats during several beach invasion operations.

Not sure what that means? Well, if you've seen the beginning of the film Saving Private Ryan, then you have a pretty good idea of a what a beach invasion might look like; my grandfather experienced something similar during his tour... five times. Seems to me like doing that once is arguably enough to change a person for the rest of their life, much less five times. As an adolescent, not only was it difficult for me to comprehend much of this just in general, but it was even harder for me to recognize the effect all of this would have on an individual's mental health.

I was very reluctant to bring up the conversation of my grandpa's military background with him for a long time, and in a lot of ways I regret it. I really sought to learn more about his experiences in whatever manner I could; I always had great respect and fascination for my grandfather's time in the Marines. Despite that, I had only know the man after he had suffered with chronic depression for years, and I struggled with my own discomfort in bringing any of this up with him. I think my own personal reluctance to chat with my grandpa about potentially traumatic memories reflects a lot of the cultural attitude about this in the United States, as well.

For example, PTSD (or post traumatic stress disorder) is something many veterans encounter after they've served. For those affected by PTSD, it can be a frequent source of anxiety and sleepless nights, but is still something we sadly haven't learned how to properly recognize and address as a society. Somewhere between 11-20% of U.S. veterans who served in the Afghanistan or Iraq conflicts will have symptoms of PTSD in a given year. For those who served in Vietnam, around 30% have reportedly experienced PTSD over the course of their lives [1]. Despite this, veterans in the United States continue to receive worse medical benefits than many other citizens, sometimes only provided with limited coverage or enduring long waits to receive treatment.

“Between 11-20% of veterans who served in Afghanistan or Iraq will have symptoms of PTSD in a given year.”

Further complicating the issue, armed forces personnel in the U.S. who are still active and decide to seek assistance with mental health may be jeopardizing their careers. A recent report by the Government Accountability Office found that very little progress has been made to curb military practices which discriminate against folks who receive mental health care [2]; sadly, Department of Defense policies still remain that might prevent someone in that situation from being promoted. As described in the study, one military installation even has an "elevator of shame", whose sole purpose was to reach the mental health clinic in the facility. This sets a sad precedent for our soldiers, spurring them to mask or avoid their mental health concerns if they want to advance in their careers, and as a result, a number of them are forced to pay for counseling out of pocket in order to keep it "off the books".

It's difficult to pinpoint exactly how large of a factor my grandfather's service in WWII played in his mental health state, but I know it's bigger than he likely would have admitted. One very salient example of this, which my grandpa actually did share, was the fact that he believed his time in the war had actually made him infertile. In particular, my grandfather arrived at Hiroshima after the atomic bomb had been detonated and spent a fair amount of time in the city. It's likely that the high levels of radiation exposure he experienced there, of which the effects were not fully understood at the time, led to his fertility issues after returning from combat. This later culminated in a failed marriage for my grandfather, due to the fact that he couldn't conceive children. If not directly affected, my grandfather's life was at least indirectly altered in some way by that experience.

Suicide is another unfortunate reality that the U.S. military needs to address. In a comparison of military deaths across all branches of the U.S. armed forces in 2012, the number of individuals who committed suicide surpassed the number of those killed in combat, 349 to 295 respectively [3]. In the past few months, I've noticed one positive trend, though, which is the awareness surrounding the "22 veterans per day" movement. If you're unfamiliar with its origin, the statistic was first published in a 2013 study by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, which concluded that approximately 22 veterans take their own lives each day [4]. There's some debate about the accuracy of this number and whether it truly reflects suicides as a result of military service (and not other external factors), but I think what's more important is the discussion it's stirred up in our culture.

Through various social media and news sources, I've seen this movement manifested in a few ways: soldiers walking 22 kilometers with 22 kilograms of weight, people doing 22 push-ups per day for 22 days, among others. Regardless of the vehicle used for awareness, I find it highly encouraging that veterans (and others) have found an impactful way to continue this conversation, since the military itself seems to frequently adopt a role of ignorance in these matters.

Ultimately, the more public we can be about depression and suicide in veteran communities, the better; we need to reassure the men and women who have served that these are issues anyone might have to face in life, and that they're absolutely not alone in their struggles. If you know someone who has served in the armed forces, let them know they're appreciated and, if you can, strive to be an available resource for those folks when they need help.

Much Love,
Bryce

References:
[1] "How common is PTSD?" U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (August 15, 2015). [link]
[2] Zoroya, Gregg. "Pentagon perpetuates stigma of mental health counseling, study says." USA Today (May 5, 2016). [link]
[3] Pilkington, Ed. "US military struggling to stop suicide epidemic among war veterans." The Guardian (February 1, 2013). [link]
[4] Kemp, Janet; Bossarte, Robert. "Suicide Data Report, 2012." U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (February 1, 2013). [link]