Hawaii Island Recovery 
Moving from active military duty to civilian life as a veteran is a massive change, and this transition can be difficult to navigate. For many veterans, this change in lifestyle, culture, and more can lead to culture shock and many other stresses. Navigating transition stress and all of these changes while maintaining sobriety can be challenging. Having a plan to address this time while prioritizing sobriety is paramount for a healthy transition to daily veteran life after service.
The Profound Effects of Transition Stress
Transition stress is something that all veterans will have to navigate once they are discharged from active duty. Military personnel live in a unique culture, often with vastly different norms and experiences than civilian counterparts. With such a drastic lifestyle after service, transition stress can be intense, with many profound effects. Some of the symptoms of transition stress among veterans include:
- Feelings of isolation
- Loss of a sense of purpose
- Lack of established structure or understanding
- Anger
- Irritation
- Depression
- Difficulty finding gainful employment
- Anxiety
These challenges can be further compounded as veterans are tasked with not only establishing an entirely new life as a veteran while surrounded by people who do not necessarily share their life experiences, perspectives, and culture but also while continuing to navigate challenges such as symptoms of trauma, PTSD, survivor’s guilt, and mental health disorders stemming from the experiences of military life.
Looking for any way to cope with transition stress is normal. However, navigating transition stress without a plan can lead to several potentially self-destructive coping strategies, including attempts to self-medicate with drugs or alcohol.
Transition Stress and Addiction
The use of addictive substances can be common across military life. From regular exposure to traumatic events both in the line of duty and on base to coping with the emotional effects of survivor’s guilt, loss, grief, stress, and more, there is no shortage of unique challenges that veterans must face. The use of alcohol or drugs to push down these difficult feelings is common and even informed by acceptance of on-base drinking cultures and attitudes towards substance use. However, it is still a destructive method of coping with these stresses that does little to confront and overcome them.
Transition stress is no different, demanding dedicated attention to overcome. However, many veterans may still carry these cultures and ideas surrounding drugs and alcohol into veteran life, informing potentially dangerous attempts at self-medicating these stresses. Left unaddressed, these attitudes can quickly develop into addiction, furthering the need for professional treatment programs like those at Hawaii Island Recovery’s drug and alcohol inpatient treatment centers.
Navigating Transition Stress in Sobriety
Abstaining from self-destructive attempts to cope with transition stress, culture shock, and more is just the first step. While avoiding the use of drugs or alcohol is crucial, veterans are still tasked with developing new strategies to address these profound challenges. Hawaii Island Recovery is an important resource that can help veterans establish the best strategies during their transition to veteran life.
Get Involved With Local Veteran Peers
Having peers as a veteran during the transition from military to civilian life is paramount. Feelings of isolation are incredibly common during this time. Many veterans may feel as if they are leaving behind a family of brothers and sisters in arms, and others may feel emotionally isolated, even while surrounded by family and community, due to vastly different experiences and cultures.
Local veteran support groups, VA outposts, and dedicated veteran healing programs like those at Hawaii Island Recovery are instrumental in challenging these feelings of isolation and connecting veterans with others who not only understand the challenges but can also provide new insights, stories, and perspectives on how they navigated transition stress themselves.
Start With Self-Care
Self-care is an important part of navigating stress, ensuring that the body and mind have the rest needed to tend to difficult situations. Effective self-care routines involve getting sufficient sleep, eating healthy, tending to personal hobbies, exercising, and engaging in interests even while navigating stressful challenges. Self-care can also provide veterans with the emotional resilience necessary to navigate transition stress and prevent each person from feeling overwhelmed during this time, staving off urges, cravings, and other self-destructive responses to stress.
Set Expectations
Transition stress and culture shock are already difficult to navigate. However, many veterans may expect themselves to be able to jump into new professional careers and positions upon their return to civilian life. Managing expectations can be necessary to avoid setting unrealistic or even impossible goals or timelines for oneself. Working with family, peers, and professionals is necessary to help pace oneself throughout this transition, provide ample time to navigate stress, adapt to a new culture, and tend to emotional needs in sobriety. Jumping into intense careers right away or without providing time to transition effectively can lead to unnecessary stress, which can further a person’s use of drugs or alcohol to cope.
Transition stress and culture shock are unique challenges for veterans being discharged from active duty. If you or a loved one are navigating transition stress and culture shock, as well as the challenges of addiction, mental health disorders, trauma, and more common during this time, we at Hawaii Island Recovery can help you today. Our effective drug and alcohol inpatient treatment centers are available to help you explore your needs and goals in recovery, navigating not just substance use but an array of challenges in tandem for a truly effective approach to healing. We also create a community of veteran peers to challenge feelings of isolation throughout your transition and recovery. To learn more, call us at (866) 390-5070.
