Armed Forces personnel, both currently serving and veterans, can suffer from mental health problems and subsequent alcoholism.

Specifically, those who have seen combat are more likely to struggle with mental health issues and alcohol addiction. Combat situations are extremely distressing; many soldiers who have been in battle or witnessed horrific scenes can come back with PTSD, which often stems from experiencing traumatic events.

The Ministry of Defence has published a report on mental health within the UK armed forces. Just over 3% of all UK armed forces personnel were assessed with a mental disorder in 2017/2018. Fewer officers suffer from mental disorders compared to other ranks, and women are twice as likely to be diagnosed with a mental disorder than men. The Royal Marines have the lowest representation at just 2.2%, with the Royal Ait Force the highest at 3.2%. The PTSD rate is fairly low, at only 2 in 1,000. Alcohol abuse in the Royal Marines has seen an increase every year since 2010/2011; however, alcoholism in the Royal Navy, Army and the RAF has been decreasing since 2007/2008.

We have created an infographic to highlight the key statistics from the report. Please feel free to link to this resource or share it on your website or social media*.

mental health and alcohol in the uk armed forces infographic

You can view the full report here.

*All references and shares to this infographic must have a dofollow hyperlink to this page.

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John Gillen - Director at Ocean Recovery

John Gillen - Author - Last updated: February 15, 2024

John is one UK’s leading professionals in the addiction recovery industry. Pioneering new treatment techniques such as NAD+ and ongoing research into new therapy techniques such as systematic laser therapy, John is committed to providing the very best treatment for people throughout the UK and Europe. During his extremely busy schedule, John likes to regularly update our blog section with the latest news and trends in the industry to keep visitors to our site as well informed as possible on everything related to addiction treatment.