Military Joining The Army With Ptsd

[moonbeam]

I'm going to stick to the original question.

I don't advise going into the military if you already know you have PTSD. In the military you are likely to see combat which is understandably very stressful. And stress is really bad for PTSD. Additionally, if you have a flare up of symptoms and can't sleep, have flashbacks, dissociate, etc. You don't have space to deal with them in a combat/war zone and put both yourself and your fellow soldiers at risk.

I can understand the desire for a challenging and rewarding work but please reconsider other lines of work, like um teaching, social work, medicine, non profit sector or even government work here in the UK.

Just a thought.

 

[J.Nem]

Hey Anthony, hope you are well. I recognise your intelligent and honest thinking and acknowledge the evidence is with you but I honestly say this in love, If I did not truly believe there was a better day ahead, I just do not know where I would be. I have earned the ragged right to say that after what I have been through, we all have. That is a fact. No one should be able to take away that glimmer of hope from us - isn't that what others often did to us, to leave many of us where we are right here, right now? Hopeless? Let's never, ever perpetuate the work of the wicked for them, even unitentionally. Never, never, never give up your hope.

 

[moonbeam]

If I did not believe there was a better day ahead I do not know where I would be.

Anthony didn't say better days aren't an option.

You used the word cure. Which is a bad word because cure means get rid of completely. There is currently no true scientific cure for PTSD. What we aim for is to reach a point when our symptoms are much lower and that we have adapted coping strategies to help deal with them when they return. PTSD is cyclical as well and symptoms can be almost gone for a long time and return.

That doesn't mean we aren't capable of having good times. Believing that the future will be better is a good outlook especially if you take steps (like therapy, mindfulness, etc.) To work towards a better future.

But please don't use cured as that gives a false hope to sufferers and/or makes people who don't have or understand PTSD believe that it can be cured and we can "just get over it."

Think of it like Diabetes. People with diabetes can learn strategies to help manage their condition, they aren't cured.

 

[J.Nem]

Please, be gentle, a forum remonstrating I could not bear today. All I can say is this, if you 'walked a mile in my shoes' then you would truly understand, I of all folks have the least right to hope for a day of being 'healed'. But my beliefs as a Christian allow me that potential luxury and comfort. If you wish to censure me and say 'you are not allowed to say that', go ahead, I will shut up and never say/type it on here again, as you wish. But I will always believe it.

 

[Deleted member 28812]

@J.Nem Maybe it's a bit off topic but I know you are a fellow Christian and maybe you like those 13 Bible verses about all things being possible: http://bible.knowing-jesus.com/topics/All-Things-Being-Possible

 

[illusionist]

J Nem......I fully understand you needing to believe that we can be cured....honestly I do. I myself was told my symptoms would come back again....refused to believe it until one day they came crashing back...and it floored me, a very dangerous time for me. I now know that it is better to accept that there is no cure...I am now well equipped for when it does rear it's ugly head (as in recently), and am aware of the signs and know that I have to continually work on my life skills etc.

Yes, my life is really good now...I no longer suffer the way I used to but I do have to be well aware of the possibilities. I think that it is very important that people seeking help realise this. I am optimistic in that I will carry on having a life that is mainly free from the worst of symptoms.

 

[J.Nem]

I understand. I am thinking of you. I was only speaking from my own life experience as you are speaking from yours. Let us agree that we are glad we have our lives today and this place of safety to share with each other in freedom and love and mutual respect and without fear.

 

[holdenmonty]

@Solara you just f*cked with the wrong people. I know Friday and you Solara have no right to call somebody that has served in the military a disgrace
. I didn't go "outside the wire" or out on any convoys but what I saw and experienced was enough to have PTSD.
You should try serving in the military pick any branch. I would suggest the Air Force because it's probably the most relaxed of all the branches but guess what there is a statistic out there that only about 1% of the population of the United States ever serves in the military.

@Solara you don't know Friday's military service you don't have a copy of her DD214 you have no f*cking idea what all she has gone through only the stuff that she feels comfortable enough to post on here so please do not post about things that you know nothing about. People like you are probably the reason that not very many people from the mycombatptsd forum comes over to this side of the forum because they don't feel like being called out by people that don't know shit about the military.

 

[holdenmonty]

@Solara Also there are lots of woman in combat. Also in the air force there is a Elizabeth Jacobson that was killed in action while on a convoy in Iraq. All convoy's in Iraq or Afghanistan is considered combat. Heck just being in Iraq or Afghanistan is considered combat. When I was deployed in 2010 I recieved hostile fire pay. What is that you ask.... it means that I got paid a little bit extra because I could have died any single one of the days that I was over there. I would like to say more but I should be a little respectful.

 

[holdenmonty]

@Solara I love your little thing about calling out a liar... it's one thing to call out a liar when you know 100% positive that they are a liar and it's a completely different thing to be a totall ass to just about everybody on the forum. I to have been seeing all your different posts and even though you are blunt there is a right way and a wrong way to say something and you usually say things the wrong way. In my personal opinion you should think about what you're going to say before you say it. You will earn a lot more respect from somebody by doing that. I have always also wondered are you a woman or a man? I know you don't have it on your profile thing and whenever I attempt to look at your profile page it shows nothing. Are you ashamed of yourself or something?

 

[Deleted member 28812]

Why don't you tell @FridayJones that you are sorry @Solara?
You seemed to have believed that no female marines serve in combat in the US military but people have explained to you that you have been wrong. Note also that nobody at mycombatptsd.com thinks @FridayJones is a catfish. Now that you know you could tell @FridayJones you are sorry for your mistake... because mistakes happen but at least the person should say she is sorry if she causes offence.

 

[Friday]

I got this, @holdenmonty :sneaky: thank ya, though, darlin.

@Solara, there are a f*ck load of women in combat.

I was a crew chief on a phrog ...

A quick google search will show that they're trying to get women through combat training, but so far, none have succeeded.

(which means SERE school/first half of BUDS... Women have not only completed combat training in the USMC after boot camp as a basic effing requirement for all Marines, but every crew chief & pilot -as well as a handful of other MOS's with women in them- has to complete half of BUDS & adv combat training before you can have your name painted on steel. And, no. They don't shave your head. That's eccentric hair, and it will land you in the brig. Moreover, I have girlfriends who were radio operators. That means that not only did they do the standard combat training that we all go through, but then they were sent out to 29 stumps for infantry training. Radio Operators have some of the lowest life expectancy, but like wingers, navy medics, motorT...they're considered support staff. Hands down one of the most grunt jobs out there, and women have been doing it, and doing it well, for over 20 years.),

...coRated/cross trained as a SAR swimmer... Until for some damn reason Congress decided to ban women from CCing the CH46. So I got put on a door gun while I waited to get picked up for school. Again. Tell me what f*cking sense it makes that a door gun isn't considered combat forward, but CC is? Whatever. Hardly the last time I'd switch jobs in order to stay combat fwd. I sometimes joke that I spent my entire time in, in school... Because I bounced MOS's like a rubber f*cking ball. Which is emf*ckingbarrassing, to be yanked outta your unit and sent back to school like you don't rate, by the by. Shame & rage. Not something to be proud of. Those of us who were good at our jobs though, and liked by the ole boys network, usually landed on our feet. Sometimes, sure, as a novelty. Like a talking dog. With T&A. And a wicked mouth. But also cause I proved myself, over and f*cking over, as being able to hack it. Do my damn job, pull my weight, work hard/play hard. Because you had to. Each and every single new unit. You didn't? You get kicked over to being a secretary so fast your head would f*cking spin. Or you get kicked out.

There's 12 kinds of added guilt for women with combatPTSD here in this country, cause we had to fight for our jobs. Over and over and over. No one wants you there. Not congress. Not other Marines. Not even half the WMs. <chuckling> And apparently not people who spend 2 seconds on google. We were literally asking for it. C'mon. f*ck me up. Harder. I can do this. I've got this.

I was airWing in the USMC, although I was usually attached to a grunt unit, cause that's where most of my ole boys worked, so those were the strings I had to pull. Did very little ground pounding until after.

Is my trauma history over the top? Maybe. In some parts of the world, for sure. But in the circles I ran in? Bitch, please. I don't even have a right to complain. Smoking cigarettes and playing spades while others were getting seriously f*cked up. And don't even get me started about working for NGOs afterward. I'm popping in for a few months of vacation -at most- working with kids and adults who have been fighting for years. Some, their whole goddamn lives. Meanwhile I'm just breezing in and out and collecting a fat check at the end to go party. My shit sounds over the top? Pfft. Please.

The only reason you don't hear about this shit, so you don't know how absolutely not special any of my history is, is because we don't talk about it. Ever. Ain't nobody else's damn business, unless they were there with you, and then there's no f*cking need to talk about it. Well I got f*cking desperate this summer, and decided to try anything ... Even f*cking talking about it. Break every rule in the motherf*cking book and open my pie hole and start blabbing. Sympathy? Sympathy can kiss my ass. That my own goddamned walk in the park f*cked me as bad as it did is something I will probably never admit outside of semi-anonymous internet-land. I can barely admit it here.

If you had any f*cking clue about my Marine Corps, though? You'd know how much I downplay this shit, even on here. Don't talk about my Corps like you know something.