Causes of Depression in Combat Veterans

English 101 B2

11 November 2013

Causes of Depression in Combat Veterans

There is a great deal of difference between being sad and being clinically depressed. Everyone will go through disappointing times in their lives, but the clinically depressed require a number of different tools to subdue their depression. Many veterans come back from deployments completely different from how they left. Many leave home as fun-loving, caring individuals. It is the situations these veterans go through that completely changes their behavior from how they were seen before leaving. Veterans' terrible recollections of experiences overseas are what causes them to be diagnosed with clinical depression.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a very strong contributor to depression in veterans. According to the DSM-IV-TR Diagnostic Criteria for Posttraumatic Stress Disorder:

1. The person experienced, witnessed, or was confronted with an event or events that involved actual or threatened death or serious injury, or threat to the physical integrity of self or others.

2. The person's response involved intense fear, helplessness, or horror" (Friedman 1).

Many veterans suffer from night terrors and insomnia caused by PTSD. These symptoms are challenging to live with when alone, but depression becomes more significant when their symptoms begin to affect their loved ones.

The transition from military to civilian life can lead to depression in combat veterans. Friedman states, "For many, such a sustained combat-ready orientation results in a pervasive and uncontrollable sense of danger" (Friedman 2). Often times veterans go to extreme lengths to protect their families from what they feel is imminent danger. One soldier was said to have grabbed the steering wheel from his wife out of fear of hitting a road-side bomb (Friedman 3). These added stressors on a veteran's family could grow to make the family resent them. The inability of the veteran to control their actions towards their family can make them isolate themselves out of remorse, further intensifying their depression.

The loss and separation of members in a veteran's unit is a strong cause of depression. Having a friend pass away is always difficult, but veterans lose friends that have shown in the past that they would