Army Veteran Crafts a Better Life Through Mental Health Treatment
I was a lead medic. And one of the guys, he wanted to take my shift for the day and he set off an IED and we lost four people, including him. He took my shift and didn't come back.
My name's Greg. I joined the Army in 1983, served until 2002, started out as military police. Then I switched over to Special Forces 18 Delta, and then from there, 65 Hotel. My PTSD is, I feel bad for leaving my buddies there. I left because I was evacuated. They were still there for six more months after I left, so the mission was still going on. So I just feel like I let them down.
Being in special forces or anywhere on the front line, you know that you can count on people to your left and to your right. The comradery is there. You don't fight it in your jobs in the civilian world, you just feel guilty. You feel not connected with anybody. You feel alone, you feel frustrated, you feel abandoned.
I got in legal trouble actually and trying to be proactive and trying to get to the Veterans Court because Veteran courts get a little bit different approach at things. So I was trying to get proactive with that and volunteered for the Inpatient 7-week Program. And during that time, probably the best thing in the world happened is my granddaughter was born. At that moment, I started changing my life to be more towards my family.
The best thing I got out of that training was the CPT cognitive processing therapy. Your issue in your head is, "I'm not good enough." So you write that down on a piece of paper. Universally, you'll always find out that your initial thought was probably wrong. You're not useless. You got stuff to do. That feeling you have, you don't have to have that. A lot of it is in your head. It's from what you've experienced, but you're not experiencing it now. Seek the help. The alternative is so much worse.
I've lost brothers. I just lost a brother last Memorial Day. I still struggle to this day of keeping relationships because the anger just is a flare to me. My biggest thing is my daughter. Honest to God, my daughter. We call each other when we're down and supporting each other, and she's the best thing I got.
The ketamine treatments, that was almost as life changing as the inpatient. With ketamine, it allows you to change the channel. If you can get enrolled in ketamine clinic, I highly recommend it.
So I got into crafting. I like creating. That's it. I like putting chaos into order. So I just look at my scraps of leather and I said, "What can I make out of this today?" I mean, it was a place to start, and I think I'm getting pretty good at it now.
If you don't have something ongoing, you're going to always be looking for your glory days. A lot of guys will never find the same degree of glory, if you want to use that word, that they did in the military. They'll never experience that again so they're going to only be living in the past if you don't have something to drive you for today. Just listen to yourself and seek help.
