A security guard at NATO headquarters in Kabul. Credit: Torbjørn Kjosvold, Norwegian Armed Forces From 2001 to 2021, about 9,200 Norwegian soldiers served in Afghanistan. The vast majority of them have managed well in the years that have followed. According to a new survey conducted by the Norwegian Armed Forces Joint Medical Services, however, a significant number of veterans struggle with mental health issues.
"All Norwegian veterans who served in Afghanistan were invited to participate in a large health survey in 2020," says Associate Professor Andreas Espetvedt Nordstrand at NTNU’s Department of Psychology. He is also a senior researcher and a lieutenant commander in the Norwegian Armed Forces.
Veterans tend to be highly disciplined people, so it isn’t a surprise that the response rate was so high, with 6205, or 68%, responding to the survey. This means that the results are credible and likely to be representative for the entire veteran population.
"One topic in this survey was ‘problematic anger ,’" says Associate Professor Nordstrand.
The results are published in the journal BMC Psychology . More anger than PTSD
Only in recent years has "problematic anger" become an important part of research regarding veterans and trauma. Researchers have often chosen to concentrate on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
"Over the years, we have understood that PTSD is just one of several possible trauma-related mental disorders," says Nordstrand.
PTSD is a so-called "fear dysregulation disorder." It is often a consequence of exposure to life-threatening events.
"In recent years, we have seen that factors other than fear often contribute to health problems among veterans. These factors include witnessing suffering or death in others, or exposure to serious moral transgressions. Trauma-related disorders can manifest in various ways beyond just fear dysregulation. For example, they can trigger alcohol problems , depression or insomnia," says Nordstrand. Studying anger for the first time Trauma research has rarely addressed the connection between trauma exposure and anger issues. Nordstand believes the reason for this is probably that researchers have concentrated on fear dysregulation instead."No one has studied anger among Nordic veterans before. Anger among veterans has received little attention internationally too, and leading military psychology […]
Study: For Afghanistan veterans, anger, not PTSD, is the main problem