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Veterans Coming Home

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Many veterans have a hard time adjusting back into society after war, shifting family dynamics drastically. Veterans who arrive home after war often feel what Luis Carlos Montalván describes in his article, “We are all a slip of a chair or a terrifying moment away from an entirely different life...” (Luis Carlos Montalván, Coping with Mistreatment.) Many veterans who come home after war are impacted by a single traumatic event. This event often changes their psychological thought process resulting in mental illness. As a family member who saw one of their own go off to war feeling optimistic and happy, can be pretty devastating seeing the trauma of war affect one of their own in such a negative way. Families often have to care for their veteran and provide for them, which is something that many of them have never experienced before since it was the other way around. Families living in this situation are often affected financially and mentally, becoming unable to pay medical bills and finding themselves becoming depressed as well. Many times veterans take their lives because they can't cope with the stress. Similarly, Stefanie Pelkey shares her experience of loss when she says, “When my husband got back from war, his light was gone. He just didn’t joke around anymore, he had a lot of anxiety, he’d tap his feet a lot and he also started sleeping with a gun, so he sought help.

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