Impact of PTSD on Social Readjustment

Native Vietnam veterans report more social readjustment problems than do white Vietnam veterans. Identified problems include difficulty finishing school, difficulty finding or holding a job, inability to earn a sufficient income, difficulties with a spouse or children, and trouble with the law.

PTSD is often the key to readjustment problems. Native veterans with PTSD are very likely to isolate themselves not only from their families but also from their co-workers, neighbors, former friends, and society in general. When they do have contact with people, frustration and conflict often arise as a result of feelings of vulnerability, intense anger, alienation, and guilt. Often, Native veterans with PTSD describe feeling profoundly demoralized - like outcasts who have been banished or exiled forever from a safe home or community.

"It seemed like the life I had before Vietnam, it didn't exist anymore. The harder I tried to find it, the further away it got. When I realized that I could never go back, I got pretty tore up, pretty sad. And ... I didn't know how to deal with who I was. I couldn't go back."