The day Kabul fell, veterans, mental health crisis hotlines lit up

On 15 August, Taliban combatants arrived in the Afghan capital, Kabul, and took custody of the country.  For almost a month, civilian and skilled battalions on the ground and around the world, whether pro or against the war, have rapidly returned to their pre-2001 stagnation and eliminated the next 20 years of military existence.  For chiefs, specifically, handling mentally and emotionally with this turn of events can be extremely challenging. The day Kabul fell, veterans, mental health crisis hotlines lit up

According to the consented psychologist and veteran serving in Afghanistan, combat is one of those events that you can’t imply in stories.  Even if you illustrate it perfectly, it still doesn’t invade the harsh emotion that one senses when deployed and the emotions that are elicited when documenting what is happening in Afghanistan right now, ”  

According to Cavallaro, a veteran,  every veteran may undergo several kinds of bad events several times. Some may have been undergoing depression, anxiety, or PTSD in which you may observe an increase in symptoms. Others may not have these issues and still experience significant emotional stress that could be anger, sadness, or anxiety. According to the department of veterans affairs, it has been shown that most of the Afghan war vets that have a record of mental illness are experiencing new or exacerbating symptoms since the Taliban recaptured Afghanistan.

Dealing with the Mental Health of veterans

As a whole, veterans’ mental health conditions are passing through higher rates of difficulties. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, between 11% and 20% of veterans of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars passing through post-traumatic stress conditions in the following year.

In the days after the Taliban’s rule began again, government agencies footed in to encourage veterans’ mental health care. The Department of Defense also released a list of mental health services for veterans and their family members to help them and seek them out.

According to Michael Embrich, a veteran and a member of the U.S. Secretary of Veterans Affairs committee on the readjustment of veterans, they can reach out to their local vet center to get health care besides these resources. There are a series of community-based counseling centers placed there that help veterans, active service members, and their families to achieve all kinds of social and psychological services. He also confessed that the Vet Center counselors and workers are trained and capable to talk over the hardships of war, casualty, pain, and shift aftershock,”

Military family members also relinquished and may have lost someone in Afghanistan. Similar to those who served, these individuals may also need help from experienced ones and loved ones to rely on.

Withstanding Mechanisms for Veterans:

For past and current trouble, veterans such as Cavallaro utilize a few strategies to survive the distress they suffer. For starters, she stoops heavily on resiliency. “Many veterans may be attempting with lots of negative thoughts like ‘everything I did in Afghanistan was completely wasted.’  What can be more positive is the notion that these actions did help make an effect on the local population and kept them safe.”

She points out the significance of concentrating on the good things that came out of it, the lifelong friends brought about, and the people that may have been encouraged at the moment.

According to her, many events occur in our world that cannot be described by words.  War is one of those experiences that you can’t quite put into words. Even if you explained it perfectly as per your view, it would still not capture the raw emotion that one feels while deployed, and the feelings that are triggered during news content of incidents such as what is going on in Afghanistan presently. She also concentrates on giving appreciation and spirituality. In the past, she says that it has been demonstrated to “reduce depression and support post-traumatic growth.”

During the pandemic and now with the current events in Afghanistan, Cavallaro has also carried out motivation and control by restricting the amount of time she uses up to consuming the news. “Seeing the impressions of the departure from Afghanistan is overwhelming because of all that was sacrificed over the years and it can feel extremely disheartening and veterans may contemplate if their surrender was valuable or if it was meaningless,” according to Cavallaro. This can be especially valuable for people who have friends or former collaborators in the country.

In addition to a craving for professional care, Embrich recommends reaching out to fellow veterans to share your feelings with, instead of bottling them up.