I was sitting in the chair, heart racing, sweat pouring down, wanting to jump out of my skin. Mr. Hyde was pounding to get out trying to rip through my chest and crawl out of my head. My entire body was drenched in sweat and I wanted to crawl out of my clothes. Then I felt the slight touch of her hand on my leg. She started to caress my leg to calm me down. She wanted me to know she was here and I was with her and not over there in the desert. She grabbed my arm and held my hand and continued her loving caress. She was able to calm me down to where I could use my breathing techniques to slow my breathing even further, reducing my racing heart to its normal speed, and to sit down and enjoy the rest of the movie.
I was watching Transformers 2 Revenge of the Fallen, and it was awesome. Up to the point where Sam is injured and they call in for a medivac. A chopper swoops in and the screen goes in slow motion. It’s an aerial view from above the chopper. You see the sand fly away as it approaches for landing, but those mere seconds were enough to drive my Mr. Hyde to its boiling point. I lost my mind and wanted to jump from the balcony to get away, to go, to hide to unleash the beast elsewhere so none else can witness what PTSD does to a person. Fortunately for me, beauty calmed the best, this time. What will happen when she is not around? Who pays the price of Mr. Hyde escaping? The answer is everyone.
My name is David Osborn and I’m a U.S Army veteran from Desert shield/Desert Storm. I was stationed with the 1st Cav division in Saudi Arabia and later Iraq. This was a swift war, not like the battles that are fought on the streets of Iraq today. Not to mention we are fighting in Afghanistan as well.
The Army has had 41 confirmed suicides this year (as of June 09). Last year there were 142 confirmed suicides, and the year before there were 115. What I want to know is how many suicides were there during this time frame for veterans who are no longer on active duty but served in a war zone?
The Army is mobilizing, creating, and providing more support than ever before in the history of our country. However, this support is for only those serving while on active duty. What happens to the soldier after they leave the service? Their care now becomes the responsibility of the Veteran’s Administration or private health care professionals. In a lot of case the private sector is not equipped to handle this type of trauma, and may even misdiagnose the real underlying cause of a person’s depression or current situation.
For the soldier to truly receive the help they deserve for serving our country, the care needs to start before they deploy to a war zone, continue while in the war zone, assessed upon returning from the war zone, and most importantly transitioned to the VA upon the service members discharge.
