Veterans Day exists to honor the people who put their lives on the line to defend our freedoms. Many veterans carry a heavier load than they ever let on. Some have seen things no one should have to see, and the weight of those memories does not lift when the uniform comes off. For a lot of them, the pain shows up later, as depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and sometimes as drinking or drug use that started as a way to quiet it all down.
It is easy for a veteran to feel alone even in a crowded room, to believe no one understands what they went through or the thoughts they live with now. If that sounds like someone you love, the most important thing to know is that this is treatable. The mental health condition underneath the substance use can be named, treated, and stabilized, and the substance use can be treated alongside it.
When Substance Use Is Really a Symptom
For many veterans, drinking or drug use is not the whole problem. It is what a deeper, untreated condition looks like from the outside. Combat exposure, military sexual trauma, the loss of people they served with, and the hard transition back to civilian life can all leave behind depression, anxiety, or PTSD. When that pain has nowhere to go, alcohol and drugs can become a way to self-medicate, to get a few hours of relief or sleep. The relief never lasts, and over time the substance use becomes its own crisis stacked on top of the first.
Trauma is a bigger part of this story than many people realize, and it does not only come from combat. According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, about 1 in 3 women and 1 in 50 men screen positive for military sexual trauma when their VA provider asks. Trauma of any kind, on the battlefield or off it, can drive the symptoms that lead someone toward substances for relief. That is why the right starting point is rarely a substance-only program. It is care that treats the mental health condition and the substance use as two parts of the same picture.
This is what clinicians call a co-occurring disorder, or dual diagnosis: a mental health condition and a substance use disorder present at the same time. Among recent Iraq and Afghanistan veterans diagnosed with a substance use disorder, the National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that roughly 63 percent also meet the criteria for PTSD. The two feed each other, and treating only one tends to leave the door open for the other to come back.
How Common Substance Use Disorders Are Among Veterans
While on active duty, service members go through regular drug testing with serious consequences for a positive result, which keeps illicit drug use lower during service. The strain often surfaces afterward. The National Institute on Drug Abuse reports that more than 1 in 10 veterans have been diagnosed with a substance use disorder, slightly higher than the general population, and that alcohol is the substance most veterans entering treatment are misusing. None of this means a veteran is weak or made a bad choice. It means the systems meant to help often miss the mental health condition driving the substance use.
What Actually Helps
It can be hard to pinpoint exactly why someone starts drinking or using. With veterans, it is often an attempt to escape their own thoughts and memories. Effective treatment does not stop at clearing the substance from the body. When detox is needed, on-site medical detox handles the physical withdrawal safely. The real work begins after that, in identifying what triggers the use, treating the trauma or mood disorder underneath it, and building healthier ways to cope.
This is where a dual diagnosis program matters. A standard rehab may check a box for mental health, but it is built to treat addiction first. For a veteran whose substance use grew out of PTSD or depression, that gets the order backwards. Treating the substance use without resolving the trauma leaves the actual driver in place. Psychiatrist-led, trauma-informed care addresses the mental health condition as a primary diagnosis and the substance use at the same time, with evidence-based approaches like CBT, DBT, and dedicated trauma treatment rather than a one-size-fits-all track.
Destination Hope is a residential mental health treatment center that treats co-occurring substance use as part of the whole picture, never as an afterthought. Care is psychiatrist-led and delivered by a Masters-level-and-above clinical team, with an individualized plan built around what each person is actually carrying. Every veteran’s story is different, which is why the treatment is too.
If you or a veteran you love is struggling with trauma, depression, anxiety, or substance use, you do not have to keep watching this alone. Reach out to our admissions team or call (954) 302-4269. We will help you understand what is really going on and what a path forward can look like.
Crisis and Emergency Resources
If you or someone you know is in a substance use or mental health crisis, help is available now. Contact the SAMHSA National Helpline at 1-800-662-HELP (4357) for free, confidential treatment referrals 24/7. Reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by calling or texting 988. The Crisis Text Line is available by texting HOME to 741741. For emergencies, call 911.
