This Army medic veteran says it better than most.  He gives as clear an insight into the difficulties of transitioning from war experiences back into civilian life as anyone I've seen in these videos before.  He knows the problems, because he has not only experienced them, but he had faced them head-on, looked at them for what they are, and has found the most useful tools to be put to use in handling them in the healthiest, most effective of ways.  

Casey shares some of his own personal experiences in the war zone, and those he has experienced on his return.  He talks about how, as a combat veteran, you simply see the world very differently than your civilian counterparts.    

For combat veterans, the ordinary is always potentially extraordinary.   What civilians experience as nothing, the combat veteran may see as a matter of vigilant concern.  That's what you had to be aware of over there.  A piece of what looks like garbage alongside the road, may not be that at all.   But those experiences don't translate well back here in civilian life.  A combat veteran will react to things in the environment differently than a civilian who has never been to war.  He found that, though he couldn't talk about things with family and friends, he could talk to other soldiers.  They had shared experiences that civilians simply, most often, cannot relate to.   He had a support system, a fellow-community that he could depend on just as much as he did when he was in Afghanistan with his unit.

Veterans, we do have a community that we can count on for understanding and help.  Lean into it.   You will not have to do this forever.  It is, though, a valid place to begin your transition.  You're transition will eventually be complete.  And it will be YOUR transition and no one else's.  You will find YOUR OWN way, but you do not have to do it alone.  

That's the biggest challenge for veterans. recognizing that we actually not alone.   The most important thing we can do for ourselves is to get with those who are going through the same things.  Each of our brother and sister veterans bring valuable, personal information from their own experiences facing this transitional challenge.  We can learn from each other and feel their support as we find our own way back into the ordinary of civilian life.  

We need to let go of the false pride that we can do it on our own, or that we are required to do it on our own.  There is a valid and caring community of brother and sister veterans that we can count on just as we did in the throws of combat.