Posted on Feb 7, 2018
For Most Vets, PTSD Isn’t The Problem, ‘Transition Stress’ Is. Here’s What That Means
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"If you are a veteran or know one, I think this article is extremely relevant and worth the read. I am fascinated by the "psychology of transition." TRANSITION is life and for most of us, it's really hard....especially the first 2-4 weeks. From leaving home to go to college, to becoming a parent, deploying, to starting a new school or job, becoming an empty nester, etc...the stress that comes with transition is real.
And this is why organizations like Team Red, White & Blue are so critical to veterans. When veterans get active in the organization, it eases the stress of transition....physical activity does that and so do supportive people. #EagleEthos" - Mike Erwin"
And this is why organizations like Team Red, White & Blue are so critical to veterans. When veterans get active in the organization, it eases the stress of transition....physical activity does that and so do supportive people. #EagleEthos" - Mike Erwin"
For Most Vets, PTSD Isn’t The Problem, ‘Transition Stress’ Is. Here’s What That Means
Posted from taskandpurpose.com
Transition
Stress
Team Red, White & Blue
Task & Purpose
Posted 6 y ago
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Transitioning from and into anything is a fact of life. People deal with it from their first day of grade school, transitioning to high school, joining the military, getting married. The military offers a myriad of programs to assist service members in transition, they even make it mandatory to sign up for these orograns in various forms a year out from separation. This includes classes on how to deal with stress. Once on the other side there are again an abundance of programs to aid Veterans with transition. All one need do is seek these opportunities and work hard at adapting. Beyond that I am not sure what people are looking for. Life is full of challenges and the human state is built for them. Thank you for your service.
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CSM Darieus ZaGara
And no offense but, standard service members in transition face nowhere near the challenges or complexities of those with PTSD.
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SSgt (Join to see)
CSM Darieus ZaGara - Completely understood- the stress from transition can definitely impact the challenges and complexities associated with PTSD!
Thank you for your insights and knowledge CSM!
Thank you for your insights and knowledge CSM!
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Very good post.
We don't focus enough on the fact that over the last several decades (really post-draft), the military has aimed recruitment at "selling" the services as superior to civilian life. It wasn't just a great place to learn skills that could make one more marketable on the outside...but a career that would offer exciting opportunities, recognition, respect and most importantly...security. I know that when I entered in the mid-1990s, the "joke" was why worry about what you'll do when you get out...you ain't!
When I went to my first ship, I had zero doubts that unless I got a DUI, ran the ship aground, or embezzled funds, I'd have every option to go right through till retirement...though I hardly had time to think about that. Every time CNN was on (because back then, that's what you watched) we'd look up and say, "yeah, talking about us again!"
When I did "imagine" life after the Navy, I just assumed I'd end up working for Wood's Hole or NOAA, or something like that...if I didn't take all that "mad cash" and go become a pilot in Alaska.
What an idiot.
When I first found myself without the Navy, I literally sat on my doorstep in Virginia Beach, everything I owned in the back of my jeep, with absolutely ZERO idea of where to go.
The first thing I did was to walk down the pier to a merchant ship thinking, "sure, they'll take me"...but it turns out I needed about $50k more in training to sign on. Then I thought, "Heck, I've been running a flight deck for a few years, maybe the airport needs me." Finding out that I couldn't even get a job putting gas in planes was a shocker. Finally, I put in for the FBI...only to find out I didn't score high enough on the academic tests to make it in.
Defeated, I headed home to Tennessee and got a job behind a hotel desk as a clerk. A little later, I landed a job on a construction crew. Most days, I'd keep it to myself that I was a former officer who had once had aspirations of being a test pilot. Then one day, I'm literally digging in a ditch next to a guy from another crew who was wearing a ball-cap with captain's bars on it. I said, "Those yours?" He put down his shovel, looked at me with real pain and said, "Yeah; I was 82nd once."
When I finally managed to get "back" through the SELRES and the IA program...I had the "big picture". Didn't matter what detailers said, didn't matter what anyone else said; I had 24 months before I'd be spit back out onto the cold hard shores of reality with no job, no position, no nothing.
I got smart the second time around.
All the same, I faced a whole new round of issues I didn't even recognize at first. My first REAL civilian job came around less than six months after I de-mobbed from Afghanistan. I found myself going from armed convoys and advising a foreign military to sitting in a cubicle going over spreadsheets. I had no close friends, spent all my free time in bars, and almost lost that job trying to figure out where the missing pieces were.
It's taken almost ten years, marrying a wonderful woman, and finding myself a father before I shook the feeling of being "lost", meaningless, valueless.
We don't focus enough on the fact that over the last several decades (really post-draft), the military has aimed recruitment at "selling" the services as superior to civilian life. It wasn't just a great place to learn skills that could make one more marketable on the outside...but a career that would offer exciting opportunities, recognition, respect and most importantly...security. I know that when I entered in the mid-1990s, the "joke" was why worry about what you'll do when you get out...you ain't!
When I went to my first ship, I had zero doubts that unless I got a DUI, ran the ship aground, or embezzled funds, I'd have every option to go right through till retirement...though I hardly had time to think about that. Every time CNN was on (because back then, that's what you watched) we'd look up and say, "yeah, talking about us again!"
When I did "imagine" life after the Navy, I just assumed I'd end up working for Wood's Hole or NOAA, or something like that...if I didn't take all that "mad cash" and go become a pilot in Alaska.
What an idiot.
When I first found myself without the Navy, I literally sat on my doorstep in Virginia Beach, everything I owned in the back of my jeep, with absolutely ZERO idea of where to go.
The first thing I did was to walk down the pier to a merchant ship thinking, "sure, they'll take me"...but it turns out I needed about $50k more in training to sign on. Then I thought, "Heck, I've been running a flight deck for a few years, maybe the airport needs me." Finding out that I couldn't even get a job putting gas in planes was a shocker. Finally, I put in for the FBI...only to find out I didn't score high enough on the academic tests to make it in.
Defeated, I headed home to Tennessee and got a job behind a hotel desk as a clerk. A little later, I landed a job on a construction crew. Most days, I'd keep it to myself that I was a former officer who had once had aspirations of being a test pilot. Then one day, I'm literally digging in a ditch next to a guy from another crew who was wearing a ball-cap with captain's bars on it. I said, "Those yours?" He put down his shovel, looked at me with real pain and said, "Yeah; I was 82nd once."
When I finally managed to get "back" through the SELRES and the IA program...I had the "big picture". Didn't matter what detailers said, didn't matter what anyone else said; I had 24 months before I'd be spit back out onto the cold hard shores of reality with no job, no position, no nothing.
I got smart the second time around.
All the same, I faced a whole new round of issues I didn't even recognize at first. My first REAL civilian job came around less than six months after I de-mobbed from Afghanistan. I found myself going from armed convoys and advising a foreign military to sitting in a cubicle going over spreadsheets. I had no close friends, spent all my free time in bars, and almost lost that job trying to figure out where the missing pieces were.
It's taken almost ten years, marrying a wonderful woman, and finding myself a father before I shook the feeling of being "lost", meaningless, valueless.
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Its been 50 years and I am still "transitioning" . I was back and forth six times and was more at home there.
They are going in circles lumping groups together and then tearing them apart
They are going in circles lumping groups together and then tearing them apart
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SSgt (Join to see)
What advice do you have for the current generation of service members transitioning out?
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