PTSD, Military Service, and the Veteran.

This section of the Opsmedic web site deals with a form of denial that many people live with on a day-to-day basis. In this section we will focus on a negative aspect of military service which can occur in any Military Force in the world. During National Service in the SA Defence Force each person will have coped with different events in a different manner, and here we aim to allow the participants, and non-participants of National Service, to learn from the experiences of those who progressed through "the system". We wish to show members of the Defence Forces that it is acceptable and normal to talk about what you may have gone through.

There should therefore be a mechanism whereby one can "release the pressure", and this then results in the person making sense of any prior events and thereby reaching closure. While, as with any war or military action, there are things that the human mind blocks out, this "blocking out" is never permanent and memories of these events can recur for long periods of time afterwards. In some cases they have recurred for periods of ten years, or even longer. In one way many members who did service in SWA/Namibia use a mental block of "they hated the border", and yet on a return there they find that the place has a natural beauty, and is very tranquil. It perhaps wasn't the place that they hated but some other stimuli.

Military service in the SA Defence Force required one to be a "Soldaat" (a Soldier) - the hidden meaning behind this title was that one had to be "a man and not a mouse". While a soldier may have had certain support systems available to him while he was part of the system, it must be highlighted that on leaving the system, he effectively became a Veteran. It is renowned the world over what problems have surfaced for veterans of any conflict. It is also common knowledge that many governments have after a period of conflict abandoned their responsibilities toward their veterans - this is definitely true despite loud protestations to the contrary.

For many former SA Defence Force servicemen it was an embarrassment to be referred to as being "bossies" (mad). To recognize that one may not be "bossies", but simply be suffering from PTSD, is in effect the first step to recovery. We aim with this site to cover certain symptoms of PTSD and will then comment on the specific symptom. These symptoms are not the equivalent of a daily horoscope in the newspaper where it is so general that ninety-nine percent of people can assume that it refers to them.

While this section of the site is designed from a historical perspective, its content is just as apt today in terms of the effects on the human psyche, whether the conscript is in the South African Defence Force, or any other Military Force in the world. We aim to encourage people to share their memories, and in this manner we hope to improve the lives of the many participants of any form of military action throughout the world.

Copyright © 2001 S. Le Roux AND OpsMedic. All rights reserved.