Originally shared by Rugger Ducky
Imagine you are a 23 year old veteran, just left the military after 2 combat tours. You are in great shape, proud of yourself and your service. But ready to move on and try civilian life for the first time as an adult.
You are given a shipment of yourself and your household goods to your home of record. A piece of paper detailing your military service.
So you go home to a place that has not changed, while you have greatly. You are immediately isolated, because your buddies from the Army are all scattered, and your civilian friends from HS ask inappropriate questions or shun you. You try looking for a job (what is a good job for an 11B?), but despite all the signs saying “We proudly employ veterans”, you cannot get a job. Potential employers ask you about your service, and as soon as you say you served in combat, their demeanor changes. You never get called back.
Eventually you start feeling more anxious. Locking the doors and windows repeatedly before you can sleep. Sitting in the corner of every room, or immediately adjacent the exit. You are drinking out of sheer boredom. Start picking fights over little things that really never bothered you before. Especially anything that has to do with anything you see as an affront to your integrity or courage.
This is how PTSD takes over.
The “Opiate Epidemic”, while a viable topic for discussion, is not really an epidemic.*
An average of 22 veterans are committing suicide every single day.
Every single day. 22 veterans feel so isolated, so alone, and so wounded by the scars they bear inside and out that they take their own lives.
As Veterans Day approaches, I want to remind each and every one of you that you can make a difference. Reach out to a veteran in your life if you think they need it. Reach out and give them a hug even if you think they are ok. (Do ask first, and don’t hug around the neck. Just a bit of advice.)
Invite them to social gatherings, but don’t be offended if they do not come, or only stay a few minutes. Keep inviting them. When they do come to the social events, do not pressure them with questions you would never ask a civilian friend. Instead, just be a quiet and supportive friend.
*Our nation freaks out about heroin and opiates every 20 years or so. Its a pretty cyclical problem, and we know both the cause and ways to actually help.
Photo by: David Leeson/The Dallas Morning News