What is combat stress?
Combat stress (sometimes called combat and operational stress or combat and operational stress reaction) is a common response to the mental and emotional effort service members exercise when facing tough and dangerous situations. Combat stress is not an illness and may be experienced by any service member during both peace and war, due to stressful conditions during training, deployment, humanitarian missions, government support missions and other assignments. Combat stress can cause problems with the way one thinks and responds to emotions. Many service members experience changes in behavior and sometimes, symptoms present in physical form. Symptoms may be noticeable immediately following a stressful event, but can take several days — even months — to manifest. Oftentimes, troops first notice changes soon after returning home. Symptoms that continue for weeks or months, become increasingly worse or include violent or self-destructive behavior call for immediate medical evaluation and
