Returning Home Research Paper

INVISIBLE WOUNDS

Returning back home after a week-long vacation and noticing how strange your normal surroundings seem can be hard to explain to someone. How weird it is to re-adjust to a new schedule and the feeling of sleeping in your own bed. Imagine how different it seems for soldiers after years being deployed to return back home. They are re-adjusting to a new “normal.” Coming home to the life that once existed prior to deployment and secluding the survival mindset can occur as difficult. Many soldiers distinguish themselves bestriding between two contrasting atmospheres. With their mind functioning as if enclosed by danger, but in reality they abide in the safety of their prior surroundings. While leaving the war zone with or without

As those who bravely serve our country return home, the issues encircling the re-integration require attention. What a soldier experiences on the battlefield can comprise of traumatic events or even injuries that can permanently transform the way soldiers view themselves and the world as a whole. The soldier has had to live in an environment that seems foreign to civilians. The sights, smells, and the daily routine of the soldier can only be imagined but not re-lived by the family. Family members don’t thoroughly grasp the malaise the soldier suffers through. Often military personnel live through traumatic experiences that lead to post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. The disorder, PTSD, can develop after someone becomes exposed to traumatic events in their lifetime. At some point in veteran’s lives, 7.8 percent of Americans will experience PTSD as estimated (Shapiro). With the experiences soldiers face, it often forcefully compels individuals to change

For many service members, it’s difficult to re-accustom themselves to the domestic civilization once left behind. Studies show that relationship stress and family re-structuring can reach a peak 4 to 9 months after the soldier returns back home (Marek). While deployed, major life events might occur as the military personnel reside: arrival of babies, funerals, new jobs, households moving, family vacation, holidays, and school events. All of these events take place as a family, in person. Children have aged and your partner may have taken on new responsibilities in the elongated absence. During deployment, soldiers continue to either communicate by email or phone for a short period of time. Becoming accustomed to not conversing with your family or included in those bonding events may cause families to become farther apart than initially. Stepping back into those relationships with your family and friends after your involvement may make soldiers feel like they no longer fit into their family. Families might have also established new routines or traditions during the absence that both the family and the veteran will have to accommodate