Mail From Home Lessens PTSD Symptoms

Mail From Home Lessens PTSD Symptoms? Well it depends on what is in the mail. A box of favorite snacks, a loving letter about how much they are missed and drawings from their kids could remind them they are loved and someone back home is thinking about them. Then again, there is another kind of mail. Dear John letters, mail from neighbors telling them there is a strange car parked in the driveway all night long, a stranger has been cutting their lawn or complaints by the spouse back home about how they are never around will leave a very bad taste in their mouth. The types of mail they can get could either help or hurt but we should be wondering what the hell this study was even done for. It is all common sense, which apparently, the military is lacking.

Study: Mail From Home Lessens PTSD Symptoms
May 25, 2011
Military.com|by Amy Bushatz

The more mail a happily married Soldier receives downrange, the less likely he is to have PTSD issues when he comes home -- but frequent mail for unhappily married Soldiers can result in stronger symptoms, a new study says.
While frequent mail from home works as stress relief for happily married Soldiers, it likely causes unhappily married Soldiers additional stress, the study's authors said.
"What we believe is that the communication is acting as support for the [Soldier]," said Sarah Carter, the report's primary author. "It may be that for those that aren't as satisfied, it's just not offering the same extent of support that those that are very satisfied are getting from that communication."
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Mail From Home Lessens PTSD Symptoms

It said that "symptoms" of PTSD are lessened but not the rate of PTSD, but again, this would fall under common sense. When they have supportive people standing behind them it makes living with PTSD a bit easier to cope with. When they are alone, it is harder. It makes the need to isolate excusable, which is a common desire for combat veterans but supports the notion no one will ever understand them. For the lonely deployed, no news is not good news for them.