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The Importance of Language and Connections

Knowing what we know now about the self-memory system and its influence on goal setting, we can focus on how these goals can be met through the use of language. Language is a very powerful tool that can be utilized in transition to help express your goals, motivations, needs and emotions to close family and friends for them to better understand. This will help to create a new community, which many Veterans struggle with after being discharged. In order to do this, we must first learn about the different uses of language and how each can be used to make a smooth transition back into life as a civilian.

Language is what helps us as humans think and communicate to one another everyday. However, different people tend to use different phrases or lingo depending on the environment they are in. This alone can reveal a lot about a person. For example, it is no secret that the military has their own lingo, which in turn creates a community, and becomes a part of their identity. In this way language plays a role in maintaining a sense of identity in keeping with the self-memory-system. That is, the SMS explains how we code our autobiographical memories into words and how we use them as part of our identities and goal setting purposes. To add onto that thought, Conway and Pleydell-Pearce mention that “autobiographical memories are primarily records of success or failure in goal attainment” (e.g.,Barsalou et. al., 1998).  This means we are able to create future goals based on the goals that we have previously achieved or failed in our past which helps to create a sense of self through these experiences. For this workbook we are able to reflect on these types of experiences in order to create goals for the future.

As lingo can be used to create a community and sense of self, metaphors can achieve the same goal but by playing an active role in shaping the mental representations and thoughts of various topics. One way that metaphors can shape thoughts is by guiding a person’s interpretation of language (Boroditsky et. al., 2017). This happens through source and mapping of the brain. A source is the domain of knowledge, the key words that are being used in the metaphor to be interpreted. The mapping is the actual spread of activation in the semantic web of your brain. This goes back to memory and how schemas are made in our minds and how we retrieve them; through retrieval cues and social context. As an example, take into consideration frequently used sports metaphors that are used in various settings.  “Down for the count” means someone is no longer active, “slam dunk” means a sure thing,  and “touch base” means to stay in touch . These metaphors not only signal a behavior, but also an autobiographical recollection that can make you feel more — or less — connected. It is important to note that people’s prior knowledge of the source domain also plays an important role in being able to establish the mapping for metaphors (Boroditsky et. al., 2017). In other words, metaphors will only work to bring up autobiographical memories when the individual has prior knowledge of what said metaphor is referring to.

Now that we have a better understanding of how language fits into our model we can talk about how it can be utilized to make a more promising return to civilian life. One of the most common challenges during re-adjustment is returning to or finding work. The United States Department of Veteran Affairs notes that “A Veteran may have never looked for, applied for, or interviewed for a civilian job, especially if they had a career in the military” (2015). This could also indicate that they have never learned how to or have created a resume and need to learn how to translate their military work and skills into civilian terms. Depending on how long someone was in also, they may not know where to start when looking for new employment outside of the military. When asked about translating accomplishments in the military into something of value to employers and friends, U.S Marines Veteran Michael Henderson stated “People aren’t going to be able to understand what you did and you’re not going to be able to really explain it to them because you still haven’t rationalized it yet” (Dworak-Peck, 2017).

Another common challenge that veterans face after being discharged is creating joining or creating a community, and reconnecting with their role in the family. The United States Department of Veteran Affairs states that “When moving to a new a new base or post, the military helps military personnel and families adjust” (2015), however, this is not the case when you separate from the military. That type of help is not so common and makes it difficult for the veteran and their family to join or create their own social community. Another challenge that ties into this, is not being able to or not wanting to talk about traumatic experiences faced while enlisted. This creates a barrier and makes joining a community more difficult because civilians do not understand what you have been through, and you do not know how to share those types of experiences. In one article, The Difficult Transition from Military to Civilian life, author Rich Morin tells readers that “those who served in a combat zone and those who knew someone who was killed or injured also faced steeper odds of an easy re-entry” (2011). In other words, even if a person did not experience an injury themselves, by knowing someone who did or who was killed can lead to a difficulty in transitioning to civilian life and sharing those experiences.

We know that sharing stories about traumatic experiences can be difficult and has an impact on creating or joining a new community. We also know that writing can have a positive effect on emotions, well-being and the trauma itself. James Pennebaker uses the analogy of traumatic experiences being like secrets. Pennebaker states that “if keeping a secret about trauma was unhealthy, it made sense having people reveal the secret should improve health” (2018). In other words, writing or talking about traumatic experiences can benefit both mental and physical health by decreasing stress. We will use this as a layout for writing activities to help well-being and opening up enough to learn how to express their needs and emotions to family and friends, even coworkers to help build that sense of community outside of the military.

Going back to the use of language and using it to create community and build on well-being for veterans, we also need to understand some Do’s and Don’ts. Some of the Do’s for this section is:

• Do
  • Take it slow. You cannot rush the transition
  • Share your story. It is okay to feel strange in a new setting, but by opening up you may find someone who DOES understand and wants to listen/help. You may help someone without knowing it.
  • Learn how to express your feelings. You should be able to share your needs with close family and friends for support.
• Don’t
  • Give up. It takes time to open up and learn how to share what you have been through
  • Shut people out. They want to help just as much as you want help.
  • Put too much pressure on yourself.

Language is a very powerful tool that is used to help us communicate daily and can be used in many different ways. With these activities veterans will be able to learn how to use language to communicate goals, needs and emotions to help create a new community for themselves and others. This is critical because having a sense of community after leaving one you have been accustomed to for so long can be difficult on the vet and their family to feel like they belong. These activities and this workbook can make that more achievable and less stressful.