This explains a LOT more! My dad was also in the army and served in Vietnam (British troop but was still involved somehow).

In the army you're taught to "suck it up" from the start. So before you even get into the effect that being in the forces actually has on one's mind, you can see where that kind of mentality comes from.

Plus, our parents are from a different generation to us. Mental illness has always existed but only sort of recently has the scientific and medical understanding of psychiatric illness developed and helped us to understand, diagnose and treat people suffering from a psychiatric condition/disorder/illness/whatever term doesn't offend you or whoever reads this.

Therefore, they simply don't understand. A lot just believe it's a load of c**p because "these things never existed when I was your age". No. They've always existed, we just hadn't truly understood them at the time.