The Latin term veterānus passed into Spanish as a veteran, a concept that can be used in different ways. In some countries, people who have reached a mature age are called veterans. In this case, veteran can be used as a synonym for old or old.
For example: “A vet was injured by a falling sign”, “I don’t want to go out with vets: I would like to meet an attractive young man”, “Who is the vet sitting at that table? Your face is familiar to me…”
Veteran is also someone who has been in an activity for a long time and therefore has a lot of experience. For these reasons, the veteran of a trade is often of advanced age in the context of the job at hand. This means that a footballer who is 37 years old and has a professional career spanning two decades is a veteran. Of course, if we think of a 37-year-old man on a day-to-day basis, we would not define him as a veteran, but as a young man. But in soccer, the average age of active players is much lower. In the military, a veteran is a soldier who has retired. The notion is often used to name combatants who participated in a war: in this case, we are also talking about war veterans. An American soldier who fought in the Gulf War in 1990 is a veteran. This person is likely to suffer all kinds of physical and emotional consequences from his involvement in the conflict. That is why veterans must have state assistance. In this context, we speak of post-traumatic syndrome in war veterans, since there is a long list of symptoms that are shared by many people who have survived a war, such as the following: * apathy, inability to speak (a condition known as mutism), and isolation from the environment (social self-isolation); * inability to connect with your own feelings towards other people; * feel that sadness takes over them, that there is no better future, very similar to one of the characteristics of depression; * Difficulty falling asleep or disturbances such as nightmares, usually with certain elements that are constantly repeated (death of a partner, fear of endangering loved ones, etc.);
* Easily irritable character, with very abrupt and sudden mood swings, something that makes it especially difficult to live with other people; * memories of his experiences on the battlefield appearing suddenly and invading daily life, altering mood and often preventing concentration on activities such as study or work, as well as interpersonal relationships; * Marked anxiety and periods in which bipolar disorder manifests, characterized mainly by extreme mood swings, with moments of depression or mania. This specific symptom of war veterans makes them more prone to cardiovascular diseases, which often lead to death; * Constant feeling of not being valued fairly, or of not seeing their efforts and sacrifices duly recognized by society. Regarding the consequences on a physical level, it is not uncommon for a war veteran to lose one or more of his limbs, which causes disturbances in his senses. If such a condition represents a misfortune for any person, we must not forget that the soldiers undergo severe training and that they take care of their physical condition with great dedication, so the blow from one day to the next is especially hard.
