Unveiling Reculturation: The Lasting Effects of Military-Civilian Transition Stress by Sean McNaley
He couldn’t breathe. The cereal aisle of his local grocery store was too much to take in. Fifteen years in the military, where your meals and your schedule are carefully planned out for you, and now . . .this. “I panicked. I couldn’t decide. I just ditched my cart and walked out,” he would later describe. The story of Sgt. James Miller is the story of thousands of veterans returning to the land they once called home and feeling like foreigners in a place they don’t recognize. The term for what they experience is reculturation. And just like immigrants in a new land, the process of coming home for our veterans is a cultural shock to the system that impacts their identity, their sense of belonging, and their mental health. A new study draws these parallel lines between the acculturation of immigrants and the reintegration of veterans with revolutionary implications for how we must rethink our veterans’ transition back to civilian life. It’s called “Reculturation: A New Perspective on Military-Civilian Transition Stress” by Jeremy Joseph, et al., and it is forcing the world to redefine the process of our veterans’ reintegration back into civilian life as a cultural transition that requires a critical support system and a collective understanding.
Transitioning from the military to civilian life can be compared to the experience of an immigrant or emigrant because there is a major difference in cultural environments. Military culture is unique, with its own language, norms, values, and social hierarchies. Therefore, as military members leave service and return to civilian life, they have to adjust to a new culture, which is why the term “reculturation” is becoming more widely used. Studies of acculturation among immigrants can be applied to this context, showing how cultural transition can impact identity and feelings of belonging (Joseph). Military members are socialized into a culture that values discipline, collectivism, and mission-orientation. In contrast, civilian culture may place more emphasis on individualism and is often more ambiguous. For example, a veteran who is used to a clear hierarchy and direct communication in the military might find the more informal and nuanced social cues of civilian workplaces challenging to navigate. This dissonance can lead to frustrations, with one Marine describing it as “speaking a completely different language while everyone expects you to be fluent.” This cultural gap extends to practical issues in adjusting to life after service. For instance, veterans may struggle to translate their military skills and experiences into civilian job lingo or to engage in social interactions that lack the built-in community found in military units.
The use of the term reculturation helps to understand why veterans might still feel like “cultural outsiders” when they return to their home country, even though they have not moved to a different nation. Veterans often need to balance retaining aspects of their military identity that they value with adopting new cultural norms to fit into civilian life. This negotiation can have significant consequences for their social integration, employment success, and mental health. It was reported that organizations that have developed cultural orientation programs similar to those given to immigrants and others that enter a new culture have reported that their members had much more successful transitions.
Social stigma plays an insidious role in the reculturation process, particularly in areas of mental health and seeking help. Military members, according to the Ganz Scale of Identification with Military Culture (GIMC), score much higher than civilians on adherence to the values of duty, selfless service, and personal courage, three central components of military culture (“Military Culture”). This suggests a high level of indoctrination in military members. If a person has a high level of identification with a culture, they are more likely to adhere to that culture’s values and practices and less likely to engage with those that are outside of that culture. It is not surprising then that a high percentage of military members eschew mental health services and help-seeking in general; if seeking help is a sign of weakness and failure to be “adroit, stoic, and strong” as one veteran notes in the article, and veterans have been inculcated with this understanding as a central tenet of military service, they are unlikely to view seeking help as a viable option (Ganz). The report states that the higher the GIMC score, the more support for the belief that seeking help is a sign of weakness, and GIMC score was a risk/protective factor for self-harm and suicide in study participants (Ganz).
As someone who has had to seek mental health treatment outside of the military, I understand the stigma I had to overcome as a veteran when it came to treatment seeking. While as military critics might point out, this is a self-inflicted stigma and it would be advisable that veterans need to be more persuadable to the idea of help-seeking, it is important to recognize that military acculturation seeps into a service member’s very identity. Seeking help is not just an action a person decides to take or avoid; it is a choice that has been ingrained to an almost instinctual level in veterans through years of socialization. The stigma is also external as veterans worry about the impact it will have on their careers and reputation. In the study cited in the article, military members who had sought post-enlistment help had a lower worry about it negatively affecting their careers than those who had not (JCES, 2022). This suggests that those who do seek help have a lower stigma around it, but in order to even consider it, you need to first overcome the stigma that it will be a career-ending move.
Beyond PTSD, psychological issues resulting from military-civilian reculturation include Major Depression, Panic Attacks, Social Anxiety, OCD, PTSD, and Generalized Anxiety. Veterans are “at-risk” for all of these psychological disorders but are more likely to develop Generalized Anxiety Disorder than other types of anxiety (NVHS). Psychologists argue the major cause of such psychological difficulties in the context of cultural transition is the effect of ‘culture shock’. Culture shock is a state of mental disorientation caused by the change in cultural cues, and military-civilian reintegration is not immune to its effects. The psychological consequences include identity disruption, uncertainty of belonging, and value dissonance. Military service offers a clear and strong sense of identity, purpose, and belonging to service members. When they leave the military, the roles that provide psychological assurance are quickly taken away. One Army veteran recounted “I went from being somebody to nobody overnight” (VAPOV).
The identity disruption from losing these roles can cause severe psychological distress to service members who feel lost as they try to find their new roles as civilians. Similarly, veterans also face the loss of military community. Military service often creates strong community bonds through camaraderie, shared experiences, and interdependence. Military-civilian transition severs these connections, often leaving veterans feeling isolated and lonely. Studies have shown that veterans with stronger social support show more psychological resiliency when reintegrating, suggesting the importance of community support in transition. The differences in values between the military and civilian cultures can also lead to psychological distress in veterans.
Military culture values completing the mission, selfless service, and collective responsibility, and so veterans can experience moral distress when faced with what can be seen as civilian values of individualism, materialism, and self-centeredness. This clash of values can cause a sense of alienation and moral confusion. It is these psychological effects of military-civilian transition, in addition to PTSD, that make so many traditional transition programs that focus only on employment and veterans’ benefits such a failure. A deeper psychological impact that must be considered is the loss of cultural identity, sense of belonging, and values that are inherent to military culture.
Veteran affairs organizations point to problematic representations of the reintegration process in the media as one cause of reculturation challenges for military personnel who return to civilian life. While coverage of the issues that veterans face has increased in recent years, mainstream media sources have been limited in their understanding of the cultural dynamics involved in transition, favoring instead two dominant and competing narratives: service members either return home as psychologically damaged individuals who may pose a threat to their communities, or the reintegration process is depicted as smooth, and there is no sense that any issues exist. These basic assumptions inform the ways in which film and television characterize military veterans. Common portrayals of veterans in these media include damaged heroes with post-traumatic stress disorder, homelessness, or substance abuse issues; community heroes struggling to find a purpose without military service.
Contrastingly, some commercials or patriotic television programs depict easy transitions, and grateful communities that welcome veterans back. Veterans themselves have expressed concern about these stereotypes, and research shows that veterans are less willing to self-identify as such because of these stereotypes. A Navy veteran said, “I stopped mentioning my service in job interviews because I could see them immediately wonder if I was unstable.” One potential way to address this concern is through social media. Although it can also reinforce stereotypes, social media platforms are also places where veterans can share their transition stories and connect with support networks. Veteran-generated content can provide alternative and counternarratives. One solution that can be employed to improve these media portrayals is to improve media literacy in veterans and civilians alike, by teaching them to be more critical of how they view veteran stories.
Employment discrimination presents another pervasive social issue. Despite laws against veteran discrimination, more subtle cultural biases persist, including assumptions about mental health. Civilian employers’ misinterpretations of military communication styles and leadership approaches can lead to the marginalization of qualified veterans. Organizations implementing cultural competence training for hiring managers report higher veteran hiring and retention rates, validating culturally informed practices. Healthcare navigation, perhaps the most critical of these social challenges, is a necessary and often complex aspect of successful military reintegration. Veterans, transitioning from the military healthcare system, must learn to navigate civilian healthcare while managing service-connected health concerns. Accessing and using healthcare is an important part of successful reintegration.
Cultural differences in healthcare expectations and communication can hinder appropriate treatment. The success of cultural navigator programs, guiding veterans in interpreting and accessing civilian healthcare, underscores the importance of this cultural dimension. Family systems also experience significant strain during reculturation as military families grapple with shifting roles and expectations. Spouses who have adapted to military culture face their own reculturation challenges, while children raised within military environments may encounter difficulties acclimating to civilian social norms. Family-centered transition programs that account for these cultural dynamics show promise in supporting family stability during this period. The interplay between military transition and social issues demands an approach that moves beyond siloed interventions, acknowledging the cultural bedrock of these challenges. By weaving cultural orientation, translation services, and bicultural competence development into social services, communities can provide more comprehensive support to veterans on their path to successful reculturation.
Transition to civilian life is the “human experience of moving between the culturally most disparate life settings.” This transition is a process of reculturation, the second culture shock. It is especially complex because service members feel a personal responsibility to adjust in the new environment in addition to the need to feel accepted and at home there. We know from experience that the transition from military to civilian life is among the most significant life changes that an individual can face. It is a cultural shift in identity, belonging and worldview, and our understanding of this transition can be transformed when we recognize it in those terms. When framed by culture shock, veteran reintegration is “understandable as a multidimensional set of psychological, social and economic challenges.”
The difference in thinking is so significant that an additional acronym – WRT or Withdrawal Reculturation Transition – can help us adopt this new perspective. The problems service members encounter are not just practical and economic, nor do they solely relate to acceptance by civilians. Transition services often feel disconnected from the returning veterans they seek to help because these programs don’t recognize that cultural shift. The psychological challenges of this shift are likely a greater cause of post military deployment problems than PTSD, TBI, and other related issues.
Misrepresentations of service members and veterans in the media also create more obstacles to reintegration by misinterpreting the veteran’s cultural perspective. The complex social issues which are themselves inextricably connected to veteran transition are the ones we should be working on, and framing veteran reintegration in this context has the potential to be the “revolution” many of us seek. Sergeant Miller returned to the supermarket eventually, but he took his friend who had also been in service with him. He felt like a fish out of water in that sea of options, and his friend had returned to the civilian world long enough to be able to interpret between the two cultures. The solutions to the problems of veteran transition are not easy, but looking at this change as one of cultural identity will help us move in the right direction. We need to provide service members with a way to recognize their military experience as part of their identity rather than as an isolated episode of their lives, to be abandoned in the civilian world. As a result, we will support the most important part of their reintegration into civilian life. If we continue to see the transition from military to civilian life as a time of “getting back to normal,” we will be forever stuck in an outdated perspective. The future of veteran services will emerge from a culturally informed approach to veteran transition. The modern military member doesn’t just go home. They travel between two of the most vastly different cultures anyone will ever experience.
Works Cited
Ganz, A. et al. “Military Culture and Its Impact on Mental Health and Stigma.” Journal of
Community Engagement and Scholarship, (Ganz, Yamaguchi, et.al) 01 Jan. 2022, www.jces.ua.edu/articles/10.54656/ZZHP12465. Accessed 8 Oct., 2025.
Joseph, Jeremy, et al. “Reculturation: A New Perspective on Military-Civilian Transition Stress.”
Military Psychology, Taylor & Francis Online, 01 Jan. 2023,www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/08995605.2022.2094175. Accessed 12 Oct., 2025.
“The Psychological Impact of Reintegration: Understanding the Long-Term Effects of Service.”
National Veterans Health Services, 09 May 2024, www.nvhs.org/the-psychological-impact-of-reintegration-understanding-the-long-term-effects-of-service/. Accessed 10 Oct., 2025.
