Breaking Minds

It’s not the battlefield that breaks most soldiers. Not the physical toll, not even the trauma of combat though those scars are real and deep. For many serving in the UK military, the true damage begins much closer to home, behind the barracks’ walls, whispered between ranks, or scrawled anonymously on digital message boards. It begins with a cruel joke that isn’t funny, a ritual that strips dignity under the guise of "tradition," or a barrage of cyberbullying that isolates someone already trying to adapt. These are not isolated incidents; they are systemic. And the real tragedy? The institutions meant to protect and rehabilitate our service members including the Office for Veterans’ Affairs (OVA) often fail to even acknowledge the psychological carnage. When most people think about the psychological toll of military service, they picture combat stress, PTSD from active duty, or the difficulty of reintegration into civilian life. But a darker, often-overlooked reality haunts many veterans: the persistent, corrosive effect of bullying, humiliation, and hyper-sexualised initiation rituals. Across regiments and units, an unspoken code governs newcomers. “Earn your place” becomes a euphemism for degradation. Recruits are often subjected to deeply invasive rituals sometimes involving nudity, coerced drinking, sexual humiliation, or mockery framed as “banter.” In elite circles, these acts are even more normalised part of a toxic rites-of-passage mythology. The language is coded. “It’s just a bit of fun.” “Man up.” “It was done to me.” These phrases serve as both justification and silencer. Victims are discouraged from speaking up, lest they risk being ostracised or labelled as weak the kiss of death in a hyper-masculinised environment. Yet psychological research is crystal clear: prolonged exposure to demeaning treatment, especially in high-pressure, hierarchical systems like the military, leaves deep emotional wounds. Bullying is not character-building, it’s character-dismantling. In the 21st century, bullying doesn’t stop when a recruit leaves the barracks. WhatsApp groups, military forums, and anonymous chat apps have become digital arenas for psychological warfare. Leaked group messages from serving members have revealed casual racism, misogyny, and targeted harassment of individuals who don’t “fit in.” The military’s attempt to crack down on digital misconduct has been lacklustre at best. Training on online etiquette is superficial. Investigations are rare. And when consequences do arise, they tend to punish surface-level behavior rather than root causes. Moreover, there is no cohesive policy linking digital bullying to long-term mental health impact. The prevailing attitude remains that online harassment is “less serious” as though trauma stops being trauma when it travels through fibre-optic cables. Initiation rituals are often justified as morale-building or team-bonding exercises. Yet, psychologists have long warned of the long-term effects of such practices. Coerced humiliation triggers the same stress responses as traditional trauma: cortisol spikes, sleep disruption, hypervigilance, dissociation. Victims often experience shame, depression, anxiety, and intrusive memories. In many cases, this leads to Complex PTSD (C-PTSD) a form of trauma rooted not in singular catastrophic events but in sustained emotional abuse, often perpetrated by people in positions of trust or authority and because C-PTSD doesn’t stem from combat, it’s often misdiagnosed or entirely missed by military and veteran facing support organisations and psychologists. This is where the Office for Veterans’ Affairs could step in as the guardians of post-service wellbeing by recognising the nuanced invisible wounds caused by toxic internal cultures. The Office for Veterans’ Affairs, established in 2019 to “champion veterans and their families,” has achieved marginal wins in housing and employment but when it comes to psychological trauma not linked to combat, their response has been tepid and largely symbolic. Worse still, when veterans do come forward with stories of abuse, they often encounter a Kafkaesque system of buck-passing, lack of documentation, and outright disbelief. One of the most insidious aspects of this problem is how it sustains itself generationally. A corporal humiliated as a private might go on to humiliate others under the justification of “toughening them up.” Thus, trauma is passed down like a grotesque inheritance. This phenomenon known in psychology as transmitted institutional trauma ensures that the same systems that cause harm also perpetuate it and because the military is a closed culture, self-reinforcing and resistant to external scrutiny, reform becomes a herculean task. Empathy, understanding, and emotional intelligence are too often painted as antithetical to the military ethos. The stereotype of the stoic, hardened soldier still dominates public perception and internal recruitment materials but that image is a mask, and under it, many are quietly falling apart. The real strength lies in creating environments where vulnerability is not punished but protected. Where soldiers are not just expected to survive brutality, but supported in their humanity. Instead, the institution often chooses the opposite: glorifying silence, punishing whistleblowers, and marginalising those who express trauma that doesn’t fit the “heroic narrative.” When these service members return to civilian life thats if they don’t discharge early due to stress they’re often left to navigate their trauma alone. Many will never get the help they need. Some will turn to substance abuse. Others will struggle to maintain relationships, jobs, or even stable housing and tragically, a disturbing number will end their lives. Suicide among UK veterans remains a pressing issue, yet we rarely hear the stories of those who took their own lives not because of enemy fire, but because they were emotionally battered by the very institutions meant to protect them. The sad reality is that until the OVA and MoD expand their definitions of trauma, they will continue to miss thousands of silent casualties. The UK military has long prepared its members for the horrors of war. But it has done far too little to protect them from the horrors within its own ranks. Bullying, online harassment, and sexualised initiation cermonies are not relics of the past but are real time present-day, active threats to mental health. Sadly, sometimes, the deepest wounds are inflicted by those who swore to have your back.

Tony Wright CEO Forward Assist.