PTSD - Coming Home From War

Return from War

A Guide for Families of Military Personnel

This guide can help family members with reintegration following war. Learn how other families and military members dealt with common challenges.

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A Guide for Military Personnel

This guide is to help military personnel understand what to expect when returning from a war zone, and to help them to better adapt back to home life. Includes full color photos, stories, and live links! View online or print for handouts.

Deployment Information for Servicemembers and Veterans

Videos

• The New Warrior: Combat Stress and Wellness for Veterans and Family
• Women Who Served in Our Military: For Veterans and Families

• Mental Health Effects of Serving in Afghanistan and Iraq
  An overview of the mental health effects of serving in OEF/OIF.
• Help for Veterans with PTSD
  Answers to questions about PTSD and service-connected disability that are frequently asked by Veterans. Provides information about resources for treatment.

Deployment Information for Families

• Coping When a Family Member Has Been Called to War
  Provides tips and resources to help families cope before, during, and after a family member is deployed to a war.
• How Deployment Stress Affects Families | Dé qué Manera el Estrés de una Movilización Puede Afectar a las Familias
  Explains how deployment of a service member to a combat zone can be extremely challenging for a family.
• Children Coping with Deployment
  Explains how children react to a parent's going to war, with suggestions for helping children cope.

PTSD - Women Veterans with PTSD

Issues Specific to Women

We now know a great deal about women's experiences of trauma and PTSD. The most common types of traumatic experiences women have are different than men. Also, while both men and women report the same symptoms of PTSD, some symptoms are more common for women or men. Some research shows that women may also be more likely to seek help after a traumatic event.

This section provides information about trauma, PTSD, and treatment that is specific women.

General Information for Women

• Women, Trauma, and PTSD
  Learn about trauma and PTSD in women.
• Sexual Assault against Females
  Defines sexual assault, how often it occurs, and the characteristics of perpetrators. Discusses women's reactions to sexual assault and what to do if you have been sexually assaulted.

Combat-Related Trauma in Women

Videos

• Women Who Served in Our Military

• Traumatic Stress in Women Veterans
  Discusses stressors faced by women Veterans and what can help.
• Women's Mental Health Services in the VA
  Describes services offered to women Veterans, including the Women Veterans Health Care Program.
• Rape of Women in a War Zone
  Summarizes the prevalence and effects of war-related rape on women in a war zone, such as in Kosovo and Bosnia.

The Service Animal assists the disabled person overcome their physical and/or emotional disability as an owner/handler team.  Originally a Service Animal was only a Seeing Eye Dog used to help with only the physical disability of loss/severe reduction [legal blindness] of eye sight.  Later Service Animals of all types were introduced to help by alerting people who are deaf, pulling wheelchairs, alerting and protecting a person who is having a seizure, or performing other special tasks such as assist with balance while walking.  More recently title Service Animal includes treating of patients with psychological complications such as PTSD and combat related stress disorders.  This use of Service Animals [Dogs in particular] has proven that the reduction of PTSD related symptoms occurred in as many as 82% of patients studied.

More and more Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans are being written prescriptions for Service Animals to help combat related PTSD.  Service Animals can help alleviate stress, loneliness, anxiety, the feeling of a vulnerable back. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states that owning a Service Animal can decrease your blood pressure, cholesterol levels, triglyceride levels and feelings of loneliness; they also increase your desire for exercise, outdoor activity, and opportunity for socialization. Caring for a Service Animal requires responsibility and adherence to a daily schedule which are very beneficial in treating combat related PTSD.