By Andrea Calcagno
 
March 18, 2009
 
MEDFORD, Ore. -- Experts say exposure to combat violence in Iraq and Afghanistan is causing more soldiers to experience Post Traumatic Stress Disorder when they return home.
 
Military representatives say this may be one factor contributing to a recent increase in the army suicide rate.
 
When soldiers return home from war, they go through a series of reintegration classes. Psychiatric services are made readily available, but it is left to the soldier to seek help.
 
After returning from war, it took two years for Alexander Akers to get the help he needed.
 
"If I had pushed it at the beginning when I got home, instead of trying to put it all behind me, and trying to get away from the military, I probably would have been not going through what I did," says Akers.
 
Akers served in combat arms in Iraq and suffered from PTSD upon returning home.
 
"I was jumpy all the time. I was extremely violent, getting in fights, non stop paranoid, you name it. The only thing, I was lucky enough that I didn't get into was drug use. And I think some of the guys have gotten into that, and I just turned to alcohol instead," says Akers.
 
"A lot of times when they come back, they are using alcohol, they are using drugs, they are using other things, and I wouldn't be surprised that many of them are resorting to taking their own lives rather dealing with what they're dealing with. Whether its undiagnosed PTSD or even if it is diagnosed, they may not feel they can get relief from that," says Steve Fogelman with Kolpia Counseling Services..."They're in an environment where literally anybody can be the enemy. And there's really no barriers for them, no safety or security for them. And they end up getting this very hyper-vigilant kind of attitude, and that's literally how they get through."
 
Fogelman say soldiers must detach themselves from emotions like trust and relaxation when involved in daily combat.
 
"When you're out there on a daily basis, your having to search for bodies. Sometimes your seeing bodies, I mean... you learn to switch the morbidness off, and you just got to treat it very clinically," says Fogelman.