Fighting an Iraqi insurgency with no clearly defined enemies or front lines has left American soldiers highly vulnerable to post-traumatic stress disorder -- especially those who have endured long, repeat tours -- Cox News reported Nov. 16.

Experts expect that PTSD rates among returning veterans of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan will be at least as high as those among Vietnam veterans. Faced with extreme combat stress, many soldiers are already turning to alcohol and other drug abuse, according to military health authorities who add that many soldiers are not getting needed treatment.

Currently, about one in six Iraq/Afghanistan vets are being diagnosed with PTSD, but that rate is expected by some experts to increase to as high as 30 percent or more.

Jesus Bocanegra, 24, dealt with his memories of combat in Tikrit, Iraq by drinking heavily when he came home, and later turning to marijuana and cocaine. "The only way to sustain yourself day-to-day is to keep yourself drugged up," he said.

Bocanegra stopped taking drugs, but it took him two years to get an appointment at the nearest VA hospital, where he eventually was diagnosed with PTSD and prescribed medication -- but no counseling.

A government study found that almost four out of five soldiers diagnosed with PTSD were never referred to any further mental-health evaluation or services.

Many soldiers said that marijuana and prescription drugs are widely available in Iraq, and used by soldiers to cope with violence and combat. Others are addicted to painkillers or sleeping pills given to troops in the field.

The military does test soldiers for drugs, but only once per year.

Some soldiers diagnosed with "mild" cases of PTSD after returning home have later been sent back for another combat tour. Joyce Raezer, director of government relations at the National Military Family Association, said such soldiers are bringing "all the baggage from the last deployment into the next ... The stress is cumulative."

The VA's Ira R. Katz said the agency has enough resources to help all returning vets, either in person or with online interventions. But many returning vets say that they face a variety of obstacles to getting help, from geographic to bureaucratic. Some say they were ignored after initially being identified as suffering from PTSD.

"The impact of these repeated deployments is enormous," said Amy Fairweather of the veteran's group Swords to Plowshares. "It contributes to all the elements for substance abuse, mental illness, and family dissolution. There's only so many times you can be uprooted from family and work. Not to mention that they're over there in hell."