Returning Combat Veterans Essay

Substance Abuse in Returning Combat Veterans Returning combat veterans have difficulties contributing to our society based on their problems with substance abuse. There is an issue of returning combat veterans not being able to afford treatment for their illnesses, so they resort to self-medicating and use drugs and alcohol. Although it is worth considering that some combat veterans manage to escape their addiction for some time, but will usually end up relapsing and only hurt themselves more. We may also be concerned about some combat veterans not being able to adjust to their new lives and resorting to substance abuse a method of stress relief. Returning combat veterans are unable to help the country they protected due to not being able

Andrew J. Saxon, MD, in his online article, “Returning Veterans with Addictions”, argues that “Recent work also provides encouragement that some medications can simultaneously treat substance abuse and PTSD.” (Andrew J. Saxon, “Returning Veterans with Addictions”). This proves that there is still hope for those have fallen to substance abuse. It means that with enough treatment that any returning veteran might be able to recover, right? Wrong. Saxon later asserts that “It remains to be determined whether integrated treatment for pain and substance abuse would improve outcomes for active troops and veterans who have both problems.” (Andrew J. Saxon, “Returning Veterans with Addictions”). This indicates that treatment might even worsen the addictions of returning combat veterans. This is a valuable point because it means that trying solve substance abuse within returning veterans is like a gamble, some might escape but more likely, it’ll only worsen the already horrible situation that combat veterans are in. Returning combat veteran might be able to escape substance abuse with proper treatment but it is more likely that they will only end up in a worse situation than