I lived in the silent ranks of the military for seven long years. The first ten months of being a military wife was great. It came time for the first deployment, this is when everything started to change slowly. About nine months after he returned from the first deployment came another eight to ten month deployment. Then this same pattern went on until he did four convoy tours to Iraq and Kuwait with in a 5 year period. Things went from great to it all just faded away. Living with an Operation Iraqi Freedom veteran, I developed my own stereotype of veterans. Before, it all began he was a nice caring individual who loved me unconditionally. We spent a lot of time together, for example, we went to the movies, to the bowling alley, to sporting
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Things started deteriorating, he started lying, being very distant and angry over the littlest of things. No matter what I said or did it was never right or never enough. PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) had effected not only his life but our marriage and our children 's lives as well. Statistics of Veterans with PTSD from Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Enduring Freedom (OEF) are about 11-20 out of every 100 Veterans (or between 11-20%) who served in OIF or OEF have PTSD in a given year (“How Common is PTSD? - PTSD: National Center for PTSD”). In conclusion I want to make everyone aware no matter if a veteran sees little combat or a lot of combat it is still a possibility that they can develop PTSD. Stereotypes of people with PTSD are hardly ever positive because, most with this disorder are emotionally cut off from the real world, they have a hard time relating to and getting along with their spouse, family, and non military friends. These lead to failed marriages, lost friendships and sometimes a loss of a life. PTSD is very real, and living with a war veteran for seven years has changed my whole perspective on the
Things started deteriorating, he started lying, being very distant and angry over the littlest of things. No matter what I said or did it was never right or never enough. PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) had effected not only his life but our marriage and our children 's lives as well. Statistics of Veterans with PTSD from Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) and Enduring Freedom (OEF) are about 11-20 out of every 100 Veterans (or between 11-20%) who served in OIF or OEF have PTSD in a given year (“How Common is PTSD? - PTSD: National Center for PTSD”). In conclusion I want to make everyone aware no matter if a veteran sees little combat or a lot of combat it is still a possibility that they can develop PTSD. Stereotypes of people with PTSD are hardly ever positive because, most with this disorder are emotionally cut off from the real world, they have a hard time relating to and getting along with their spouse, family, and non military friends. These lead to failed marriages, lost friendships and sometimes a loss of a life. PTSD is very real, and living with a war veteran for seven years has changed my whole perspective on the