Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that's triggered by a terrifying event either experiencing it or witnessing it. Symptoms may include flashbacks, nightmares and severe anxiety, as well as uncontrollable thoughts about the event. More specifically I will want to talk about symptoms after war, and most importantly the treatment that is being offered at the VA hospitals and what is being done to treat this medical condition. Who am I. I am a father to a daughter, a husband to a beautiful wife, a son to a loving mother, a big brother to his little sister, but most importantly I am a Marine. “I am a rough looking, roving soldier of the sea. I am cocky, self-centered, overbearing, and do not know the meaning of fear, for I am fear itself. I am a green amphibious monster, made of blood and guts, who arose from the sea, I travel the globe, festering on anti-Americans everywhere I go for, the love of Mom, Chevrolet, baseball, and apple pie. I’m a grunt. I’m the dirty, nasty, stinky, sweaty, filthy, beautiful little son of a bitch that’s kept wolf away from the door for over 235 years. I’m a United States Marine, we look like soldiers, talk like sailors, and slap the shit out of both of them. We stole the eagle from the Air Force, the rope from the Army, and the anchor from the Navy. And on the 7th Day, when God rested, we overran His perimeter, stole the globe, and we’ve been running the show ever since. Warrior by day, lover by night, drunkard by choice, Marine by God”. I Join the USMC in 2007 because I have always wanted to make a difference and having the authority to make a difference makes me happy. I have a love and hate relationship with the Marine Corps its complicated. I love the bond that I have created with my fellow brothers in arms. To this date I have not been able to have bond with friends the way I bonded with my fellow brothers. After my last tour to Afghanistan when I was back in the states I didn’t notice anything different I felt fine. I found a decent job. Boy did I love sky diving I was jumping out of a plane 4 to 5 times a week. I was trying to feel a live I guess I was looking for that edge trying to get that excitement back in my life I remember combat like if it was yesterday “Bang”, "Pow", "Boom", "Crack", "Pop" and "Roar” was the sounds of war. Condition 1 ladies was the final order that I issue, see you on the other side (Safety on, magazine inserted, round in chamber, bolt forward, ejection port cover closed). The rush that was there wasn’t there anymore the excitement that I was looking for meant opening my parachute at a lower and riskier altitude I felt numb. The experience of reaching an altitude of 15,000 feet and then free falling for about 60 seconds at speeds of up to 125mph and yet I felt indifferent I don’t know why I was feeling this way. My family notice a change I felt detached from them. I loved my family but something was missing I lost interested in being with them. As time progress I realize that I wasn’t the man that I was. I wasn’t enjoying the things that I use to enjoy. Something was missing I wasn’t happy. I tried to reason and see why I was feeling that way but couldn’t figure out why. I was a live with good health. I had my family by my side. I had everything I needed to survive but yet I was missing something I didn’t know what it was. For a while I just thought I miss my brothers from the Marine Corps, I didn’t feel like if I had depression. I started to try to analyze what was the problem that I had. For a while life seem to normal to boring I started to think maybe I was missing the adrenaline that I have felt during combat. A Couple of months pass by then I started to get nightmares. It was horrifying nightmares of things that happened during war. I would wake up disoriented not knowing where I was. That was the hardest part of war realizing that the damage was done already. I was a globe away from danger months had past, and now I was reliving these moments in the comfort of my own bed. The nightmare started getting stronger my wife was scared to lay next to me at nights. I had a mix of emotions I was angry and sad and couldn’t believe that this was happening to me was I not strong enough. It was a hard thing to do but my family was supporting me on my decisions I went to seek for help. I went to the VA regional hospital and talk to a doctor. The VA hospital was amazing they sat me down and started to help me. One of the many problems that I see is that we live in a society where our government is taking too long to decide what they want to do and how they need to help our Veterans. I was in a point of my life that if I didn’t seek the help that I needed It would have been very hard to do this on my on. I hear and see news reports of veterans committing suicide and other horrible stuff. So I think we should find a way to help our needed members of the arm forces that are not receiving the help they need.
Fear is Life
It's really hard to explain and express feelings to someone who hasn't felt or seen what I have. How can I express to anyone moments that I have lived? How can I explain fear to a society who understands fear as unpleasantness? It feels as if it was just yesterday that my team got hit with an I.E.D (improvise explosive device). This explosion took the life of a friend and scar many. Emotion so profound are hard to express sometimes it feels better to just sit in silence than talk to anyone. PTSD is a growing epidemic that many honorable men and women are facing today. “Nearly 1 in 5 combat veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan will suffer from PTSD.” So why most veterans wait days before they get to see a doctor. There were more vets experiencing extended delays in Jacksonville Florida than in the entire states of New York and Pennsylvania combined. I hear and see news reports of veterans committing suicide because they didn't receive the attention that they needed in a timely manner. This reports are outrages and most be dealt with accordingly. I will make my voice be heard by voting and appointing officials that will help fix the problem. The fair act bill helps Veterans’ Access Care through Choice, Accountability, and Transparency Act of 2014. This billed passed through Congress with overwhelming bipartisan support, and will expand survivor benefits and educational opportunities and improve care for victims of sexual assault and veterans struggling with traumatic brain injuries. But the main focus of the new law is to ensure that veterans have access to the care they’ve earned. This bill that has been signed by our President really helps the Vets in need at least that is what it seems like. The problem is that the bill got signed and now that the VA is asking for money “The VA has asked for $168 billion for next year, of which $95 billion is mandatory spending programs. But the House of Representatives wants to cut the request by about $1.4 billion”. This cut will affect construction of VA building, cemeteries, bonuses which help attract highly qualified people that we need, and most importantly it will affect the lives of our beloved men and women that have serve. Veteran are waiting long periods of time for treatment and the reason they are waiting to be seen is because there isn’t enough qualified workers at the VA. We’ve been throwing taxpayer dollars at the “war on poverty” for 50 years and should we stop and make decisions as to whether all these government programs are working? Looking at the last six years would tell you that with the increase of food stamps and poverty rolls, the answer to that question would be pretty clear. However, try to cut back on welfare, food stamps/EBT card issuance, and you’ll have the liberal progressive socialists screaming from the rafters of the U.S. Capitol. “In October 2014, the latest month reported, there were 46,674,364 Americans on food stamps. Food stamp recipients have exceeded 46 million since September 2011”. VA reports show an increase in suicide “Levi Derby, who hanged himself in his grandfather's garage in Illinois on April 5, 2007. He was haunted, says his mother, Judy Casper, by an Afghan child's death. He had handed the girl a bottle of water, and when she came forward to take it, she stepped on a land mine”. Why cut the funds when this not the only case of suicide PTSD is a mental illness that needs to get treated. Veterans are suffering not only from PTSD they have many other obstacles that they need to face and with the help and guidance of the VA veterans should receive the treatment they need. This, lack of flexibility to give veterans a real choice, the cuts, the discussions about whether veterans actually deserve a medical system to call their own, all leads to the same place: it leads to a place where the needs of veterans are secondary to ideology. That’s unacceptable, and that should be unacceptable to anyone who claims to actually care about the sacred responsibility we as a nation have to care for those who have gone to battle. Statistics show that only .05% of the nation servers in the arm forces. We are promised everything but when we return we don’t have the resources to use what we need. Why must my brothers in arms suffer the pain of war alone? Did we not pledge our allegiance to our Beloved country the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA! Did we not put our oath to test and upheld it. The first steps is to change the way the VA does business. Hold people accountable for misconduct, and relieved the appointed officials of their duties for mal practice, and investigate. Reached out to veterans to make sure that there getting the treatment that they need in a timely manner. We need to educate ourselves and appoint officials that will shake, and rattle some cages. Veterans’ affairs secretary Robert Mcdonald has been making some noise. We as a nation have elected officials like him to represent our needs and if he is failing us we need to make some noise and unite as a nation and call, write, and protest until our needs are met. Join me and help make a difference let’s vote and elect the proper authorities to office. Let us tax payers choose how our money gets spend.