The 4 letters that could destroy your career: PTSD.
One of the biggest misconceptions in the military right now is that seeking help for PTSD will ruin your career.
Only, it won’t.
I can understand why this misconception is believed. Our service members are trained to be tough and strong to go to war and while not expressly stated, it’s insinuated that seeking help for any kind of distress (mental or physical) is seen as “weak” and “broken.”
That couldn’t be farther from the truth. Seeking help takes an incredible amount of strength and courage.
Here is the saddest part. Studies have shown that our service members WANT help. Researchers asked 2,500 soldiers in Georgia to fill out the standard Post-Deployment Health Assessment twice– once on record and a second time anonymously. Over 68% took part in both surveys and the results nearly doubled for any questions about PTSD and treatment. How insane is that?
Soldiers are tailoring their answers to the questions about their health based on what they think their supervisors want to see.
But at what cost? A rise in suicide attempts, domestic violence and divorce.
No matter what your relationship is to the military– a spouse, active-duty service member, veteran, parent, family member or friend– each one of us has been touched in some way by the effects of PTSD and non-treatment.
And when something horrible happens, we wonder what we could have done, how we could have prevented it and how sad it is that they couldn’t get help.
It’s a vicious cycle that needs to end. There should be no reason why our service members continue to suffer in silence.
Because when you think about it, they aren’t suffering alone. Their families are suffering too. One study showed a tie between PTSD and a higher rate of domestic violence.
While that isn’t a very big surprise, imagine the family whose service member returns home and begins verbal or physical abuse that wasn’t there before. While the spouse may suspect PTSD, any urging to get treatment is met with more violence because who are they to question the person who just lived through hell?
PTSD and combat stress affect all of our military members and families.
It’s a no-win for everyone.
What’s the solution?
Stop glorifying war and start treating war as the traumatic situation that it is. Because until we begin to expect PTSD to be the norm, instead of the exception, we will continue to miss a diagnosis.
That is unacceptable.
This is a question I had to ask myself for years. I’m now out of the military after 12 years, 9 months and 5 days of service. My career ended following a civil domestic violence charge. I served in OIF 4 times. After the first deployment I knew something was wrong inside. Yet I sucked it up and drove on. That’s what we’re taught, right? Things in my House quickly fell apart over the following 10 years as the deployments, relocations and various training became frequent. Yet, I constantly saying to myself nothing is wrong. I’m ok everyone else needs to stop making me mad. So I believe it boils down to thus; Solders have an image of toughness. Nothing bothers them and when it does we simply suck it up and drive on. Probably is sooner or later it will fall apart. Service members have to realize that eventually your career will end. Then all is left is the rest of your life. Seeking help when you know you need it, is a greater service to you and your family.
This is a question I had to ask myself for years. I’m now out of the military after 12 years, 9 months and 5 days of service. My career ended following a civil domestic violence charge. I served in OIF 4 times. After the first deployment I knew something was wrong inside. Yet I sucked it up and drove on. That’s what we’re taught, right? Things in my House quickly fell apart over the following 10 years as the deployments, relocations and various training became frequent. Yet, I constantly said to myself nothing is wrong. I’m ok everyone else needs to stop making me mad. So I believe it boils down to this; Solders have an image of toughness. Nothing bothers them and when it does we simply suck it up and drive on. Problem is, sooner or later it will fall apart. Service members have to realize that eventually your career will end. Then all is left is the rest of your life. Seeking help when you know you need it, is a greater service to you and your family than anything you do on the battlefield.
I am an Army widow of a soldier that completed his life. He was told that an incident that happened would affect his career! Who tells a soldier that, especially while on deployment!!! PTSD is too common among our soldiers and until the military can accept and understand this is real it will continue to take lives. No one wants to talk about it. How many briefings do soldiers go thru, how many are listening. PTSD affects families as well. For the year 2013 there were 968 suicides in our military which equals 2.6 per day!!!
My thoughts and prayers go out to families of those who have sacrificed for our freedom!!