Leveling Up: Veteran on Taking Ownership of His Healing
I had a panic or anxiety attack, and it shut down my body. That was kind of the first event to really put me onto a track to take care of my mental health.
My name is David. I served with the United States Marine Corps from 2010 to 2014 and I was a combat correspondent 4341. Something that impacted my mental health was just the day to day. It can build up inside a person. I probably worked 80 hours a week on average.
My transition experience, it was challenging on a lot of levels for my mental health, so I was being treated. I think the last year I was in, I was on medication and my mindset was, oh, I'm gonna be leaving this stressful environment so I should be in a better place. What led me to seek help was just kind of, I think most of it was loneliness, but slipping back into depression I think is something that's very common. You don't necessarily have the friends that you did when you left, and that kind of network isn't there anymore, so it's easy to collapse into yourself a little bit and have to figure out how to start again.
If you're going back to school, you're a little bit older, you might feel a little bit self-ostracized in that sense. Adjusting was kind of hard, back to civilian life. I think I went just psychotherapy for a while before going back on the psychiatric route and getting medication, but I'm glad I did both. Mild anxiety, but a major depressive disorder is the big one. Some of the symptoms I think are pretty classic. Not wanting to leave bed, just waking up, and I would be in my bed for hours, just, you know, laying there and kind of hate life and yourself a little bit too. I think for me, it was mostly saying it out loud and then being accountable to a person. 'Cause I mean, I'm not great at making and keeping promises to myself. I still receive psychiatric care.
Being outside and being with friends, it's just a nice experience. One of my hobbies is just having too many hobbies. I like to just try doing a lot of different stuff. I mean, I've worked on my car. It's a 1995 BMW 318ti so it's a bit old and it's almost at 200,000 miles.
I also play a lot of video games. There is a good Veterans video game community. I know "Call of Duty" has a whole thing, but in Boston, we have "Frost Call," which is a local organization that does meetups. I think having those communities is important. I think community is definitely a great thing to have. I love being with people and being able to help people.
Get your VA healthcare. It is something you are entitled to, you earned, and just getting that in your whatever service connected disability you may have. Take more risks. Don't worry about what other people think about you. Don't be afraid of passion, I think is a strong one too. Personally, I think mental health treatment is never a bad thing. It's always something that you can build off of and it's good to have that jumping off point. There's a lot of things that you might not know about yourself or that you keep locked up and you know, not addressing. Therapy or, you know, anything like that can really just make you aware of those things, and I think that's important.
