Homeless Veterans

People go to war and some come home and some do not come home, but the ones that do come back are not always the same. Some come back to nothing and some come back to find things have changed. Some cannot go back to their old lives because of mental illnesses, physical illnesses and some people just change.

The men and women that go through and see the things they do have a hard time coping with those things that they do and see. They try and make that stuff they went through go away by drinking and doing drugs, and they get addicted to them From the National Coalition for Homeless Veterans, they say that seventy percent of veterans have substance abuse. Sometimes that's the only thing that gets them through the day. They go through so many things like killing people, watching their brothers and sisters die beside them or getting hurt themselves in the line of duty and many more things that we could not imagine going through. Those things can be hard to go through and some people never come back from it. So, when they go home, they sometimes end up on the streets because their families cannot handle them like that or they spend all their money on drinks and drugs and lose their house, and some are addictions can come from after they get back with physical, or mental disorders.

With physical disorders like TBI (traumatic brain injury), a leg or arm loss, eye or hearing loss from a bomb going off. These can be very big life-changing events in someone's life and can change someone not just physically but mentally too. Sometimes they do not have the money for all the surgery's that come with it and all the physical therapy that they have to do after surgery to get better, and some of them do not have that money and they cannot get a job to pay for all those bills and they end up on the streets.

PTSD can cause you to be stressed all the time and sometimes they do not get over it. It can cause a person to get violent at times and some think they are back at war. A study at Yale University showed,sixty-three percent of male homeless veterans and seventy-seven percent of female homeless veterans have PTSD. Some get over it and some do not. Many times, it can change a person and their families cannot handle their disorders. Ways that a family will split up can be from money problem's that come with the medical treatments, the behaver from the PTSD, the substance abuse, and the lack of support the family gives. This can all lead to veterans going homeless. People would not disagree with veterans being put on the streets but some do not take action and help them. all talk but no show, is what some people would call it. People might not think it is right for veterans to be homeless but what are they doing about it, nothing. If people just did something like donating money or clothes, help build houses or something little because a little can go a long way.

In conclusion, the veterans need help, they do not belong on the streets of the country they fought so hard to keep safe, and some even lost their lives for us. We need to our part to the country and help the ones we sent off to war. Some come back broken and scared and they do not need to, they go through a lot from addiction to mental and physical disorders or come home a changed and not the same person they once were.

Works Cited

1. Linkddl. Counter Hit Xanga, www.linkddl.com/search/homeless-veterans.
2. Lennard, Natasha. Majority of Homeless Iraq and Afghanistan Vets Have PTSD.
3. Salon, Salon.com, 4 Dec. 2012, www.salon.com/2012/12/04/majority_of_homeless_iraq_and_afghanistan_vets_have_ptsd/.

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