Veterans who reported sexual trauma, such as rape and threatening sexual harassment, were three times more likely to be diagnosed with a mental illness such as depression or post-traumatic stress disorder.
A study released in 2007 found that 22 percent of female veterans and 1 percent of male veterans reported sexual trauma in VA health-care surveys conducted in 2003. That study looked at veterans of all types, not just from Afghanistan and Iraq.
The new study found that these men and women were three times more likely to be diagnosed with a mental illness than those who didn’t report experiencing sexual trauma.
Among women who reported experiencing sexual trauma, 76 percent were diagnosed with a mental condition, compared to 47 percent of other female veterans. The rates were similar in men.
According to the study, the most common mental health conditions among the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans were depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorders, adjustment disorders (which cause stress and other problems during certain situations), and drug addiction or alcoholism. All were more common in men and women who reported sexual trauma; post-traumatic stress disorder was much more common in women than men in that group.
Learn more about sexual trauma in the military from the VA.
It is truly sad thgat a female vet has more to worry about than some militatnt taking her life.
Thank you so much for sharing this information. The frequency of sexually traumatic acts against military women should be cause for outrage… something needs to be done about this, but it starts with making people aware of this problem, which most people aren’t aware of in the first place. Thanks for doing your part.
I try to give the reader as much info as I can….and I agree…this is something that is unacceptable…to put a woman in harm’s way from war and then from her own comrades. Just how much sicker can this society get?