Once A Warrior-Always A Warrior Analysis

The novel Once a Warrior-- Always a Warrior, is a self-help book describing the effects and hardships of not only combat deployments, but the struggle of returning home following a combat deployment. The novel recognizes veterans who have deployed and left everything behind and returned with medical conditions such as post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), mTBIs and other conditions ranging from substance abuse to insomnia and addresses possible solutions to these issues. I want to look at a few things that I personally feel I could take away from the book and explain them. First of all, nobody will return from combat and be the same person they were before they left, as Hoge says referring to a veteran and their spouse, “each person has matured individually during the deployment period and

It is not rare for doctors to prescribe antidepressants and/or anti-psychotics to those who are suffering from PTSD or mental issues such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Also common is the prescribed use of sedatives to promote sleep in veterans who are suffering from insomnia or other sleeping conditions. Unfortunately, these can be very dangerous. Referring to sedatives or hypnotic sleep medications, “These medicines work on specific nerve endings in the brain, called benzodiazepine receptors, which act by slowing down the nervous system.”(Hoge, 2010 pg 77) Sedatives and other prescription sleep aids should only be used as a last resort and if they are used they are to be taken with extreme caution. Typically what will happen is veterans who drink heavily after deployment will use alcohol while under the influence of these medications. Seeing as how these drugs slow down your nervous system, when they are combined with alcohol the result can be deadly. Furthermore, these drugs can be highly addictive and in turn will make things worse in the long