A BBC Radio Ulster programme A Private Hell aired this morning, examines the effect of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) on soldiers who served in the North and asks if the treatment they have received is adequate.
Ms Frances Robertson is the clinical director of Hollybush House in Ayreshire, a treatment centre run by Combat Stress, a charity for ex-servicemen. She says those soldiers who served in the North were particularly prone to PTSD.
"The Falklands or the Gulf were conflicts with known enemies, they were prepared for that, Northern Ireland is very different," she says.
"They were there as what was ostensibly a peacekeeping force and what they were becoming involved in was guerrilla warfare; they don't know who their enemies are. To suddenly be faced with something like Warrenpoint and to have to go and clean up there they weren't prepared for that they weren't expecting that," she says.
One of those interviewed, John, was a sergeant in the Queen's Own Highlanders and was caught up in the IRA's Warrenpoint bombing. This was the group's most successful attack on the British army and left 19 dead.
He describes the aftermath and what he faced as part of the clearing up operation. "Pieces of meat, bits of bodies arms, legs, an epaulette, indescribable, horrific once young men just like something you'd see on a butcher's slab," he says.
"It's only when you go back to base and you hand in your kit and go for a shower and you are smoking that you start to think what happened out there, and why us?"
While the Ministry of Defence (MOD) says there are measures in place for dealing with PTSD now, it is obvious this was not the case in the past.
"Any shootings or anything you'd see that was horrific, the lieutenant or the boy in charge would bring down maybe three or four crates of beer and a few bottle of vodka and you just blocked it clean out of your mind," says Jim, another former UDR soldier. "We took it that was what you done and that was what we did, we though that was the answer."
Ms Robertson says alcoholism, drug abuse and a withdrawing into oneself are common symptoms of PTSD but says it is not just the men themselves who suffered.
She says she has treated women who have "sometimes woken up at night with the husband's hands around their throat, punching out at her, and they've never told anyone about it and never done anything about it. This man has been having nightmares and having flashbacks."
A Private Hell airs on Radio Ulster this morning at 11.30 and is repeated tomorrow at 2.30 p.m.