April is Stress Awareness Month

TWIN FALLS, Idaho (KMVT/KSVT) — We all experience some form of stress throughout our lives but, too much stress can be mentally and physically harmful. When it comes to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) veterans suffer the most. With seven out of one hundred veterans experiencing PTSD at some point in their lives, it is something that needs to be brought to attention.

During Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, 29% of veterans had PTSD at some point in their life.

It is shown that Veterans of the same service era who are deployed are three times more likely to be diagnosed with PTSD versus ones who were not deployed. Data from older studies suggests PTSD is more common from Vietnam Veterans but there cannot be certainty because many veterans from those eras are not alive.

Older veterans have PTSD symptoms 50 or more years after their service. PTSD increases with age for several reasons including nightmares, bad news on television, and having medical problems. Symptom patterns of PTSD can vary, with some happening as soon as the traumatic experience occurs, sometimes later in life, or they can be high then go down then come back later in life.

Military occupation, combat situation, type of enemy, and several other factors contribute to whether a veteran experiences PTSD and to the extent.

Female veterans are more likely to experience military sexual trauma (MST) which is when there is any sexual harassment or assault while in the military and can happen at any time during war or peacetime.

PTSD is more common among veterans who use VA healthcare and more common among women veterans using VA healthcare due to MST.