Both women and men can experience sexual harassment or sexual assault during their military service.
VA refers to these experiences as military sexual trauma, or MST. Like other types of trauma, MST can negatively impact a person’s mental and physical health, even many years later. Some problems associated with MST include:
- Disturbing memories or nightmares
- Difficulty feeling safe
- Feelings of depression or numbness
- Problems with alcohol or other drugs
- Feeling isolated from other people
- Problems with anger or irritability
- Problems with sleep
- Physical health problems
