For me, because I don't have any ongoing health issues as a result of my service, I'm not a beneficiary of Veterans Affairs. I'm not entitled to it and I don't need it.
On the other hand, on a personal level, there are significant difficulties in moving from a uniformed, structured system into a system that is not structured and has the ambiguities of civilian life, which I didn't experience when I was in uniform.
That transition is difficult, and the lifestyle is difficult. The lifestyle that I enjoyed of regular work, hard work, travel, those kinds of demands, and the rigours of that system, were suddenly gone. Making adjustments to that required some psychological work on my end. I got myself a counsellor and worked with a psychologist, quite effectively, over six months to a year to make that happen. It was successful, but I had to pay for that process. I'm not complaining about that, personally. I'm just fortunate to be in a position where I could afford that service.