All defence force members should be given funding and support to be retrained in a new vocation, not just medication and compensation payouts which are forcing veterans in their 20s into retirement.
Isaac Adams, who served in the army for five years, said while he was struggling with mental health issues when he was voluntarily discharged, he rejected a compensation payout.
"The system treats people with medication and compensation," Mr Adams told the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide on Friday.
"I was only 25, 26 at the time. I wasn't prepared to retire and I didn't want to receive a compensation payout, I just wanted to move on with my life."
Mr Adams, who is now in his final year of an honours course for exercise physiology, was told by his rehab officer on leaving the army that he wasn't mentally well enough to do a university course, and didn't even realise it was an option.
Retraining for civilian life was a major challenge for veterans who wanted to learn a trade or find a new vocation, he said.
He said all veterans, including the many "really functional" former defence members, deserved help to rebuild their lives. But on discharge young people went from being well paid to suddenly having no resources.
"Where are you going to find a job on $80,000 a year with no industry experience?" Mr Adams said.
"Either they are trying to go through uni or train to do trades? I think those guys... you can really support them better and help them get going."
The commission heard after leaving the army Mr Adams had stumbled upon horsemanship therapy when he was struggling with his mental health.
The program, initiated by Racing NSW, was aimed at retraining thoroughbreds once they were retired from track work and were often "lost", "hypervigilant" and difficult.
Mr Adams said he was immediately struck by the similarities with veterans. It proved such a powerful therapy he now runs a similar program in Ipswich Queensland for both veterans and disabled groups.
"I saw a parallel there with the veterans that come out of the military... (I) had so much purpose in my life and I identified myself with that purpose," he said.
The commission also heard evidence from former federal sex discrimination commissioner Elizabeth Broderick, who conducted a review of the treatment of women in the Australian Defence Force in 2011 and 2012.
Ms Broderick said like most organisations the military was "invented by men, for men and even today are still largely run by men".
She said women remained a minority in the military, and that created "unacceptable behaviours... sexualised work environments, everyday sexism" because women continued to be seen as "the other".
"The problem for women is they can't be too blokey, they can't be too feminine... so they are trying to walk this femininity tightrope."
Alexandra Shehadie, who worked alongside Ms Broderick in preparing the review, said the impact of sexual harassment and sexual assault on women in the forces could be "devastating", with some interviewees reporting they had become suicidal.
The experience could damage and destroy the careers of female victims, she said, leading to "ostracism, victimisation by peers and by their leaders".
This had led to a "silencing effect... because reporting was just not an option," she said
Ms Broderick said while the organisation was changing, like all other coalition militaries around the world it remained a "hyper-masculine culture" where the bonds were "very intense".
"The idea that you don't jack on your mates is about a culture of silence, if something happens to you on the team, you essentially suck it up."
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