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who suffer from PTSD extremely volatile. Bursts of rage are not uncommon within Veteran families, as PTSD Veterans may more readily get into conflicts that they cannot adaptively resolve (Miller et al., 2013). Gradually, Veterans who struggle with PTSD may choose to withdraw to alcohol consumption or other substance abuse to avoid the pain of dealing with their past and present alone. Others may contemplate suicide (Bryan & Rudd, 2012) and too many actually pull the trigger.
Women Veterans’ Isolation
Much of what I described above is relevant and true for women Veterans as it is for men (Benedict, 2009). However, there are additional elements that make female Veterans sometimes even more susceptible to experiential isolation than male Veterans. For one, women are far more likely to return to a society that does not believe or even assume that they have been to combat. As one Veteran attests, “We don’t get the same respect, we have to fight for it. I don’t even tell people about seeing death and being shot at anymore, ’cause they don’t believe me. They assume all I did was office work” (Benedict, 2009, p. 199). War is still very much constructed along masculine stereotypes and meta-narratives (Hinojosa, 2010; Hutchings, 2008) and, therefore, it is difficult for women Veterans to claim the “warrior” identity they have rightfully earned. As if forced out of that identity, women Veterans may feel even lonelier in civilian society than their male comrades.
A second domain wherein women may feel greater isolation than men regards sexual trauma, both sexual assaults and sexual harassment on behalf of their unit members (Mattocks et al., 2012). Falling victim to military sexual trauma is much more prevalent among women than men, though it is not unique to women (Surís & Lind, 2008). Indeed, military sexual trauma may be extremely isolating for men as well (Monteith,
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