Why Is this So Hard To See?

I've talked before about the most recent DODs  "findings" regarding servicemember/vet suicide. They cited "domestic discourse" as the common denominator. I laughed. THEY DIDN'T EVEN TRY!  Have you ever met someone with an undiagnosed or ill treated or newly developed case of ptsd or tbi? None of their marriages are picturesque.  You're going to find it almost all ptsd cases of a married individual. They also cited financial issues. PTSD specifically turns molehill into mountain. We cannot cope with every day stressors the way we used it. Don't blame it on the family. GO DEEPER. IF YOU ACTUALLY CARE AND WANT TO HELP FIX IT!

Let me drop some numbers on you here: one-third of all our countries homeless people are combat vets. 76% have drug alcohol and mental health issues. I firmly believe that happy healthy people don't turn to drugs and alcohol. It's a symptom of a deeper issue. People want to treat addiction but don't touch WHY they use so they don't get clean. Why are our vets sleeping in a cold alley, downing a bottle of vodka just to sleep at night? Because someone at the VA told them they were NOT sick ENOUGH.

I am so irritated by the stories I hear every day from vets who went for help and we're marginalized, their concerns minimized or completely blown off. In my experience men generally don't like to see doctors so if a man...a proud veteran comes into a hospital and asks for help you better take that shit seriously! I PROMISE YOU IF YOU TURN HIM AWAY HE WILL NEVER ASK AGAIN. THAT...IS THE BEGINNING OF THE END. IN THAT ONE MOMENT YOU'RE EITHER GOING TO SAVE HIS LIFE OR SIGN HIS DEATH CERTIFICATE.

I have a friend who went to the local VA center finally, after years of struggling and spoke to the doctor. Within five minutes this doctor told him all the anxiety, paranoia, sleep issues and panic attacks were due to his current divorce proceedings and completely dismissed him. He walked out of that office seething. He called me and told me what happened. I told him if a year doctor wants to nail you down within minutes of talking to you they are a shitty doctor and their opinion CA to be trusted. He MUST go see a different doc. I knew he had it. I'd spent time with him and recognized behaviors that aren't just temporary environmental stress.  I convinced him to see another doctor. He was properly diagnosed and began treatment.

Had I not urged him to try again he probably wouldn't have. He told me later had he not gotten the right help and support he would not be here today.

Why is this happening so often? Why do I keep hearing the same story from every branch of service, in every state of this nation? Why is it so crystal clear to me but unnoticed by people who can change and fix it? Is it they don't notice or they don't care? It's starting to feel like the latter.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

False Domestic Violence Allegations and Personality Disorders

Domestic violence is a major issue in our society today, laws have been made to protect those suffering from abuse in the home. It took many years for such laws to be enacted. At one time it was perfectly acceptable for a man to hit, berate and sexually assault his wife. It was considered a valid exercise of authority from husband to wife. We have come a long way. The authorities now recognize this as what it is, abuse.  Because new laws exist women can live freely without fear of violence. Many women are alive today because the court's protection. With that being said, it is also now being used as a tool by women to exercise power over men in their lives. It's a sad and disgusting result of the very laws to protect us. False allegations of domestic violence are at the very least an insult to women who are abused. It makes efforts to secure protection even harder for women who actually need it.  If you are going through a divorce or custody issue and file false charges to gain
Read more

Service Member Suicide

It was recently announced that we have lost more service members this year to suicide than in combat. The statement is shocking, considering we are occupying Afghanistan and other war torn areas of the world and everyday another name is added to the list. People don't want to talk about the suicides. Its as if its a shameful secret swept under the rug. According to the Army soldier suicide is up 80%. EIGHTY PERCENT. We are doing something wrong. It seems that those who truly need help are afraid to talk and those who don't want to quickly blame PTSD for any shortcoming they have in life after war. On the news, if someone robs a bank the first thing they report is he was a combat veteran in one of the branches of the US Military. They skirt around PTSD as a motive. PTSD is real and its not an excuse to toss around lightly. I know why our service members don't reach out. I have been personally effected by it and now since my husband is weeks from retirement and 20 years of
Read more

The Gentle Giant

Image
There are three men in my life that since childhood I have trusted explicitly. Jaime Valenzuela, Sean McGee, and Kenny Loveless. They have loved and protected me for 25 years and have always been there for me in thick and thin. The relationship was special with those three and even to this day I know for a fact that if I called them and told them I needed help their first reply would be "who's ass needs kicking?" It would NOT matter who, or if I were right or wrong they had my back. Today we lost one of those guys and in a way the world feels a bit less safe. We learned that Kenny passed away. He will be sorely missed by so many. We grew up together in a small farming community in Missouri, in the same neighborhood just one street away. There was a group of neighborhood kids who were together daily usually mobbed up in one or the other's front yard. We were as thick as thieves. For the most part even though half of us moved far away and we all grew up to have lives
Read more