re: Substance Abuse & The Spec Ops Community

I don't think most people who have never been in combat realize the hyper-awareness that comes with people actively trying to kill you on a daily basis. It is very difficult to go from being "switched on" all the time to sitting on your couch back home so a lot of guys turn to the bottle or worse to escape.

It's not natural to kill people all the time and it takes its toll no matter if you're a SEAL, SF or some leg grunt. Training helps with the actual killing but the problems arise when guys get back home and sit around thinking about all of the shite they did and get inside their own head. Some guys handle it better than others but a lot of guys, at some point, have issues with drugs or alcohol. Just comes with the job.