A Voice For Our Veterans
In honor of Veterans Day, we are going to begin to give a voice to our veterans in Part One. In Part Two we are going to offer insights on how we can be better friends, countrymen/women when our veterans return and actually when they are away as well.
For the purpose of these two articles I have spoken to a Veteran/officer/Jag lawyer who by his own admission has a unique perspective which may represent some, but definitely not all. Although he has been deployed to both Afghanistan and Iraq and has represented as a lawyer those who have been in active combat, he hasn’t himself. The answers are a conversation between us.
Please understand these articles cannot address all concerns. This article is meant to begin a conversation-an important conversation, and to begin a connection.
A: What it is like to come back to the people in a country not at war (some oblivious to what is going on in the world) after being in a country that maybe has only known war?
V: Depression, frustration, anger and maybe even disgust depending on your experiences while deployed are all appropriate emotions for returning veterans. We as a country have so much and many take this for granted. Many people know nothing about other countries, where they are geographically, what life is like, how little they have materially, whether they have the right to vote (a voice in their government), whether they have only known war, whether women and children have only known war, how war impacts families, for starters.
We veterans are trained for our jobs, we may or may not have seen horrific examples of life’s ugliness, life’s unfairness, life’s betrayal while fighting abroad. When you return to a country where people are complaining about their lattes, so to speak. After being in a country where women and children are starving, being shot, are being used for human shields, and a bunch of other horrible conditions, how can you not be depressed, angry and frustrated? How do you make sense of so much abundance taken for granted in our country?
Continue reading here: www.recovery.org/pro/articles/a-voice-for-our-veterans
Dr. Anne Brown PhD, RN CS, is a psychotherapist, author, speaker, and coach. She is an experienced broadcaster and contributor to the media. She received her BS in Nursing from the University of Virginia, her MS in Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing from Boston University, and her PhD in Addiction Studies from International University. Dr. Brown has held numerous key positions, including Alcohol Clinical Specialist at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, MA, and Program Director of the Outpatient Drug and Alcohol Program at Greater Cape Ann Human Services in Gloucester, MA. She moved to Aspen, Colorado in 1987, and developed a private practice providing therapy for families, individuals and couples.
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