How Deployment Affects Personality and Perspective

Veterans who have been on tour commonly experience a major change in perspective following their service, as deployment in active warzones or life-threatening situations can be wholly transformational and traumatic. These experiences have profound effects on each veteran’s personality and worldview, with many carrying these perspectives or changes back into civilian life. 

Families may also notice these changes in their loved ones upon their return from deployment. Actively adjusting to these changes after veterans return home is necessary to create a healthy and supportive home atmosphere. Coping with these changes in personality and perspective is incredibly difficult, both for veterans overcoming trauma and its effects on families reconnecting with their loved ones. Therefore, professional treatment may be necessary to create a healthy transition to civilian life. 

It can be impossible for those who have not lived through military life to fully understand the challenges and traumas often associated with the lifestyle. After all, spouses and families of military personnel face their own challenges. Nonetheless, there is no way to truly emulate the situations that veterans may have encountered while deployed. As a result of these challenges, it is common for veterans to appear as changed people when returning home from military life. 

For some, the loss of brothers and sisters in arms can feel overwhelming, with survivor’s guilt fundamentally affecting daily life. Others may experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as a result of the harrowing effects of war, with life-threatening situations, moral injury, and more all being common. However, these can all continue to impact a veteran’s personality and perspective in civilian life even long after they have returned from deployment.

Veterans commonly experience changes in personality throughout their time in the military. Some may become more jaded from their time in service after experiencing loss or witnessing the destruction inherent in wartime. Others, who have experienced the dangers and impact of deployment, can emerge with increased expressions of anger or a more confrontational personality. Combined with practices of denying emotional vulnerability instilled throughout military training, it is common for those returning from deployment to express an entirely new personality and attitude that can compromise or strain even established relationships. 

Traumatic experiences can also make an individual more suspicious, paranoid, or otherwise disconnected from loved ones and peers alike. It is common for veterans returning from deployment to adopt a more isolated lifestyle than before. Moreover, this can complicate the transition process and make it difficult for loved ones and families to best support veteran loved ones throughout this time. 

Living through the challenges of military life also has a profound effect on the perspective and worldview of veterans. It can be impossible to be exposed to the life-threatening dangers of military life or an active warzone while on deployment and not experience some kind of altered perspective. Traumatic images and memories can stick with an individual throughout their time in service and deployment and into civilian life, bringing feelings of pessimism, hopelessness, and other changes. 

Some veterans may also adopt new perspectives based on survivor’s guilt and their own mortality. Further, others may experience compromised perspectives of their own self-worth or the purpose of living. Many returning home from deployment may have altered perceptions about their environment, viewing everything through the lens of an active warzone or with a new sense of danger or unease. Guided by PTSD, these changes in perspective can bring even greater feelings of anxiety, depression, worry, panic, and more. Additionally, such complex challenges can inform the use of drugs or alcohol as a coping mechanism. 

The experiences of each veteran will be unique. Expecting relationships and lifestyles to remain entirely consistent as before a loved one’s left for deployment can make their return more difficult. Rather, it is normal to expect some degree of change, and families and loved ones of veterans will be tasked with making these adjustments alongside veteran loved ones. Deployment and active warzones are fundamentally transformative and can have lasting traumatic effects on veterans, whether they lost fellow service members, were injured themselves, or witnessed the injury of others. 

To reiterate, expecting some degree of change is necessary. Working to explore these changes in personality and perspective can create the best home atmosphere for veterans adjusting to life after deployment. However, there may also be times when professional help is needed to aid in this transition. One example includes when veterans turn to the use of drugs or alcohol as a coping mechanism, which can quickly develop into an addiction. Professional help is necessary to explore the connection between the experiences of veterans and their use of these substances. 

Others may benefit from a community of peers to challenge the effects of PTSD or these changes in perspectives. Our rehab in Hawaii offers veteran-specific care to address these changes in personality and perspective after deployment that may be necessary to contextualize the experiences of veterans while creating a safer home environment and mental state. It is completely normal to view the world through a new lens after deployment. However, these new perspectives can still have profound and debilitating effects on veterans’ emotional health and daily routine. Professional help can be instrumental for veterans looking to make their transition to a healthy civilian life while processing the effects of military deployment in daily life. 

Deployment is a profound experience, with each tourn impacting veterans’ mental and emotional health, exposures to trauma, and even substance use. However, Hawaii Island Recovery can help you and your loved one address and challenge these profound experiences in a healthy way, promoting the best path to a healthy and sustainable sober civilian life. We offer an array of programs designed to address the unique challenges that veterans face on tour, with dedicated and trauma-informed rehab in Hawaii available at every stage of recovery. We also curate a veteran recovery community, helping connect you with peers who are navigating their own similar challenges and creating an atmosphere of healing and progress. For more information on our programs, call (866) 390-5070.