Disorder In Veterans

There are more than 1.8 million service members that have been deployed to the Middle East. According to O-donelle (cite), approximately one-third military personnel served two tours of duty or more and with each deployment, there is an increased risk of combat stress, depression, and injuries. Due to the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, many service members return home with traumatic brain injury (TBI) or polytrauma. TBI occurs when a sudden trauma or head injury disrupts the function of the brain and may happen from a blow or jolt to the head or an object penetrating the brain (Military, 2016). TBI is also known as the “signature injury’ caused by war. Other than brain injury, veterans also suffer from polytrauma. Futhermore, the U.S. Department
In addition to these symptoms, veterans develop post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and may have extreme periods of sadness and irritability (Ragsdale, cite). PTSD is common among military service members. Veterans with PTSD and has a history of mTBI demonstrate more severe PTSD symptoms than veterans with PTSD without a history of mTBI (Gros, cite). Symptoms usually start soon after the traumatic event; unfortunately, it may not appear until months or years later. The U.S Department of Veterans Affairs (2015) stated that there are four symptoms of PTSD: reliving the event, avoiding situations that reminds you of the event, having more negative beliefs and feelings, and hyper arousal. Unfortunately, PTSD among military service members is often higher than the civilian population at an average of 42% of veterans. The vivid memories and nightmares is the one main contributing symptoms of PTSD. While sleeping, the veteran will exhibit tremors and sweat. Risk of caregivers getting hurt during this time increases due to the chance of recipient unknowingly and unintentionally grabbing her/him and causing bodily harm. Some are unable to sleep and may develop insomnia; therefore, this increases their risk of depressive symptoms that may lead to suicidal
Children are affected when a parent is injured due to combat. According to Hayes et al. (2010), boys are prone to replicate their father’s disruptive behaviors and may find it difficult to understand the returning parent’s injuries. The injured parent may have a hard time controlling their anger; therefore, this increases the burden and stress on the caregiver. While one parent is trying to help stabilize the veteran’s moods, they are also responsible for helping the child adjust and react accordingly. Sometimes the caregivers may spend more time trying to meet basic needs of everyone in the family rather than focusing on developmental needs of the child. Due to this, children will have poor psychological adjustment especially when the parents do not have good coping