Mental Health Stigma in the US Military

   While searching for an article to write my post about, I came across this line: A Mixed Message about Stigma in Military Mental Health Care Coming from a psych background, this is one thing that I find not only interesting, but important. I have spent the last 6 years working in the mental health field, the last year has been spent working with adults through my ER and Austin State Hospital.  One of the things that became very clear while working at ASH is that there is a problem in how veterans are treated for mental health issues after serving overseas.  Many of our patients came into ASH shortly after serving tours in Iraq. Generally these patients were male, and in their 20's.  They tend to suffer from severe, uncontrollable anger as well as schizophrenic symptoms such as paranoia, delusions of grandeur and persecution, and flat affect.  The symptoms these patients were suffering from were never experienced until after going overseas. According to about.com, 30% of US troops develop mental health problems within 3-4 months of returning home. The government and the military need to find a way to get proper treatment for our veterans so that they can live a normal, successful life. The stigma of having mental health symptoms or a diagnosis causes individuals to not seek treatment, which leads to unemployment, substance abuse, and suicide. When reading this article, take into consideration the men and women you know that are serving in the military, then think about what you would want for them if they began to suffer from mental health problems.