Military Abuse The military is a world filled with violence and the effects can be life changing. Veterans experience hardships in their lives after their service to the military, including homelessness, post-traumatic stress disorder, excessive use of alcohol, and domestic violence.
According to the White House Joining Forces Initiative, back in 2011 the military is made up of less than 1% of all Americans. Veterans make up about 7% of the population and currently the United States alone has 21,973,000 veterans. “During the conflicts that spanned the past twelve years, deployments became longer, redeployments were common and breaks between deployments were shortened,” (Hoffler) while experiencing extended life over-seas, it increased the chances to come home with trauma, specifically PTSD. Post-traumatic stress disorder is a mental health problem that occurs when seeing a traumatic event. Due to the traumatic experiences veterans have faced,
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military personnel than among civilians.” (Poehlman, Jon A) There are three types of drinking that can be categorized: Social drinkers, Recreational drinkers and Stress and coping drinkers. Social and recreational drinkers can be common during specific training periods or before one gets deployed. Social drinking is common especially after a long work week, field days, celebrations regarding promotions and retirements, or after a deployment (Poehlman, Jon A). Recreational drinkers are common when there is little access to activities around the area, which typically result in underage drinking or limited access to a vehicle (Poehlman, Jon A). When one deals with being a stress and coping drinker, alcohol is considered a coping method particularly for those in high-stress jobs such as the infantry. Many infantry men tend to drink alone to “forget” everything to cope with that they have seen, done, or lost. Most stress and coping drinkers experience