No, not a shrink. An actual combat soldier. Just speaking from personal experience. IMO, it's the people that vets come home to that cause most of the problems, with their lack of understanding as to what is actually going on in that person's grape. More than that, it's the inability of those people to openly admit that they have no clue and their insistance that they can, "help". I've noticed that in some cases the, "help", only made things worse.
The secret, IMO, is don't talk to people who haven't a single goddamn clue about what it's like to serve on a battlefield.
Your idea that sleep deprivation is a leading cause of PTSD only serves to prove my point.
To the bolded, first, I never said that sleep deprivation is a leading cause of PTSD. I didn't remotely imply that - you read into what I wrote and tried to draw a conclusion. (See post #15 for my thoughts on the issue)
My husband is a soldier - and he helps soldiers adjust when they come home so I speak knowing all the experiences he's gone through and all the people he's helped. . .war changes people, regardless of what you say and how you feel about it, it changes people. Not everyone sure, there are those who have no issues - but quite a few, absolutely.
Your point in this quoted post is different than your point in the previous post.
In the first post you said that "people had problems before the left . . ." as a prelude to their post-war issues.
However, in this post you point to "the people they come home to . . . and their lack of understanding" as to why they have issues.
While I disagree with the first point, I do agree with the second point. Yes - family and friends can make things more complicated. . . which is why therapy and FRG meetings, etc, for the family is great - but can't cure all issues and answer all questions.
One of the issues my husband faced when coming home was the kids - the kids got under his skin. He was away from them for 16 months, coming home, the baby that was born while he was deployed was almost a year old. . .the balance in the house had shifted - all the kids were older, we had a different home-routine. Things were different for him when he came home than they were before he left, that was the hardest thing to adjust to - life was different. On top of having all the kids - I was still recovering from pregnancy related health issues, I, up until he came home, had to have help from my Mom. That was different, too, having her come over often and so on - things were just strange for him.
It took me (all of us, really) years to sort through some of the stuff that happened after my husband came back. It wasn't his first deployment, that's for sure, but he came home with issues that definitely weren't there before (before as in - long before we even met).