Strength and support for overcoming challenges
Carol:
My name is Carol. I was in the Army from January 1983 until July of 1986.
Carol:
I was a 76th Victor I worked in a warehouse supply and I was stationed in Mainz, Germany.
Carol:
I went into the military to really just get away from like my neighborhood, where I grew up at. ‘Cause I grew up like in the hood, like in a tough neighborhood.
Carol:
I just felt like if I didn't go into the military, I wasn't going to never see anything.
Carol:
I didn't adjust well to being a civilian at all, I really wish that I would've stayed in the military.
Carol:
When I came home, I had a son and I really wasn't ready to be a mom and then, my mom was even more overbearing. My friends was on crack, and the neighborhood really went down. So, when I came home, I was depressed. I really came home to nothing. Then I went into like a real bad state of depression. Then I started wound up getting on drugs. My mom put me out, so I became like homeless. And it was really hard.
Carol:
A friend of mine that was in the Navy that lived down the street from me, he was telling me why don't I go down to the VA hospital in Philadelphia and I did.
Carol:
I was tired of living the way I was and yeah I was scared but the staff, they sat down and they talked to me and reasoned with me and I told them I was scared and they knew I was scared. And I went to rehab, I went to the Rehab at the VA Hospital in Wilkes-Barre and I stayed in rehab for a couple of months out there.
Carol:
You know they really help you out as far as like, dealing with becoming like a civilian again, once you leave the military, they help you deal with your issues about what's really going on with you.
Carol:
The VA Hospital will help you if you have addiction problems, and even mental problems. Because I have a doctor that they had referred to me that I still have.
Carol:
He's a part of like the outpatient that I go to and he's really good. I've had him for like a year now.
Carol:
Even though their grown, but I got my kids in my life. My mom is 91 years old and she lived to see me get off of drugs. I go to school now. I want to be a drug and alcohol counselor for adolescence. I went to the VA and I got help. And I will continue to go to the VA.
Once you make the first step, they’ll be there to help you.
