PTSD Care Puts Veteran Back on Track After Suicidal Thoughts
3 minute read
PTSD Care Puts Veteran Back on Track After Suicidal Thoughts
3 minute read
After decades of nightmares, years of harsh scrutiny of her body type during her Army service, and daily post-service feelings of danger, Tia reached a breaking point that included thoughts of suicide.
“I was ready to give up,” Tia recalls. “I didn’t want to live anymore. I didn’t want to feel the things that were going on in my head. I knew that I wasn’t living life to the fullest and pretty much made it to the point where it’s either I get help or I’m not going to make it.”
The counseling and other therapy she received through VA became her lifeline, addressing the posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that was driving many of her symptoms. Therapy put her back on track in life—and behind the wheel of a race car, where she is thriving.
Experiencing a rough ride during and after service
Tia joined the Army in 2001 as a telecommunications transmission systems operator.
“There was a lot of things that impacted my mental health while I was in the military, one of which being quite a bit of disrespect from male soldiers,” she says. “I was scrutinized in front of a lot of people about my weight, and I was put on the overweight program, even though I was severely fit.”
“Even to this day, it still kind of sticks with me that I need to be smaller,” she adds. “In everything I do, I worry about what I’m wearing. I’m worried about what people are going to think about me.”
After completing her military service, Tia faced other challenges. She found it hard to adjust to a new role of managing a household full time. And she couldn’t escape feelings of being in danger.
“Not trusting people, not feeling safe, always feeling like I was going to be attacked at some point,” she says. “I was extremely vigilant, constantly watching my back. Never felt like I could completely relax without the use of alcohol or even marijuana.”
Unable to find healthy ways to manage these feelings and symptoms on her own, she found it hard to maintain relationships with friends and family. “My relationship with myself was awful, so trying to have a relationship with anybody else was rough,” she says.
Using therapy and race car driving to find a new course
Tia first sought help through a VA women’s clinic, then eventually landed at a nearby VA Vet Center, where she felt a strong connection because many of its counselors were Veterans.
Through VA, Tia received a PTSD diagnosis and talk therapy, which she says proved to be the most helpful in getting her back on track. Then she took to the track in a more literal way, discovering a passion for motorsports as a racer.
“For me, it’s very therapeutic because it gives me, I think, the adrenaline that I had in the military that I absolutely loved,” she says. Therapy also has helped her feel comfortable enough to use her visibility in racing as a vehicle to tell other Veterans about the value of mental health care.
“Just going from being where I was to where I’m at is a journey I never pictured for myself,” she says. “Being a race car driver, doing interviews for the news, podcasts—my main focus is just to help as many people as I can that might be suffering like I was.”
