I've known infantrymen that fought in every war during the 20th century, including one old fart that served under Black Jack Pershing and a sailor that shouldered a rifle during that clusterfuck in Nicaragua back in the 20's... and let me boil down their collective advice to this:
1) The world is stupid. People are stupid. No one understands except other combat vets. Fuck off and go camping or something and spend some time totally by yourself. Decompress at your own rate, and accept they will never know or understand what you do... and that's OK.
2) Beer. Lots and lots of beer. No drugs or hard liquor or you will crawl up a needle or into a bottle and die. Go camping with about 20 crates of your favorite beer. Do not become a functional alcoholic in the process.
3) Accept you have an extremely weird set of survival instincts and weird shit will set you off for the rest of your life -- smells, dreams even. Come to terms with it.
4) Talk to other vets as often as you can. That always helps.
5) Buy a copy of David Grossman's 'On Combat' and read it. It will explain, psychologically and physically, what you've been through. Every vet I know who's read it raves about it.
Comment too long. Click
here to view the full text.