I didn’t have PTSD, but I had chronic depression and adjustment disorder,” he explains. “There are a long list of other things that can wrong with you mentally. For some reason, the media, and social media just lumps it all in together. It is completely inaccurate and it drives most of us insane.”
Getting the correct diagnosis is very important to the road back to society and it takes a lot of support from family and friends to help the Veteran understand and make the right decisions. Decisions to self-medicate is not the answer but a doctor can decide if the condition warrants proper medication for short term or even long term. Medication gets a bad rap many times and if prescription drugs do not numb the mental thoughts of a person it is helpful but numbing the brain to stop it from thinking hurts the Veteran or anyone with PTSD.
Often thought a spouse can inherit PTSD but after reading more about chronic depression and adjustment disorder I think that be what they are facing. Depression about the concern of their loved one and are you doing enough and adjustment disorder in learning how you yourself has to change your life. The process of loving your Veteran enough to stay through the bad times will turn into good times. Not all bad times will disappear but you will get more and more good times as healing for both of you progresses.
Seeking help is hard for Veterans because they see this as a weakness and they are trained to be strong and tough but all Veterans are humans first and suffer from inside love of people and fighting in a war to protect our County makes them a hero in my book. We must help them to forgive themselves for anything their job made them do and that is what brings them home. This is probably the toughest job in the world. Being away from loved ones, being in a new situation that takes stress to a maximum level. This stress is what being on mental thoughts of what do I do next, how do I become normal again. Veterans are normal and these feelings are also normal.
Take time to think about Veterans and even though you try you could never put yourself in the place they are mentally and therefore we need to love all of our hero’s
By Carolie Watkins
Guest Opinion Columnist
