[fiblye]

The description is spot on and not condescending.

There are many veterans out there who will tell anyone that they just don’t know what to do once they leave the forces. They need to have their entire weekly schedule planned out and someone to help them with that planning. Many ex-cons have the same problem, and you’ll find a similar issue with 18 year olds who are fresh out of school and pushed out their parents’s home.

This phenomenon, institutionalization, is a very real issue. For guys who have their whole life planned out daily for them and superiors to assist them with finding housing and dealing with medical care, having a load of freedom tossed at them when they’re over 40 is overwhelming. They’re not dumb. It’s just that humans have trouble adapting as we get older.

A considerable number of veteran support networks and veteran-oriented jobs exist to help people adapt to retiring during middle age.