After Chuck left the Navy, he experienced chest pains, which his doctor attributed to anxiety. Years later, school became another stressor. He sought treatment and support at VA. Individual and relationship counseling got Chuck and his wife to a good place. Now, he has the tools to manage his anxiety and navigate relationship problems.
View Video TranscriptChuck:
My name is Chuck and I was in the United States Navy 1971. It was kind of a brief term I was in. I had a trick knee that I didn't know I had until I got in boot camp and I got honorably discharged. I didn't really notice I was having a problem. I went to a place I was working and I was having chest pains. I thought maybe I was having a heart attack or stroke or something. So, I took several aspirin and just felt like someone was sitting on my chest. I talked to my doctor and he said, “Oh, it sounds like you had an anxiety attack.” And I didn't really know exactly what he was talking about and he explained it to me and he said, “Anytime that happens again, you need to go and get treated for it.” He said, “You need to get medicine; they have medicines that will help you through that.”
Since then, one time I was taking tests; I was going to school for nurses aid and I was taking a lot of tests and I was really doing a lot of studying and things like that and it was just kind of stressful and sometimes it goes away, it just depends on what’s going on. If you got a lot of things going on, it’s kind of stressful; sometimes you get a little anxiety. And then years later when I did have that problem I wasn’t working and so I had to go to the veteran’s administration and get some health care through them. They helped me out; they got me on some medicine. They’ve been very helpful with me and my wife as far as that goes. We got married seven years ago and we got married at a bad time when the economy was not doing very well.
My wife mentioned something about counselling and so, “Sure.”, you know, I’m here to work anything out; you know whatever it takes. So, that has helped us a lot going to counselling and trying to keep everything in check. We went to a thing called PAIRS; we would go to this room and we’d have all these discussions and they’d show us different things and we would get the information we needed to help us solve our marital problems. Then we started going to counselling at the VA itself and of course we have personal counsellors and then we have marriage counsellors, which was really, really helpful.
Who knows what would have happened if I hadn’t started you know doing this; taking these, going for counselling and getting help. We both have the tools and information that we didn’t have before. What I learned in the past, if you think you have a problem you probably do. So, if you think about something more than once it’s best to act on it and seek help or ask someone or try to come up with the solution for whatever problem you might have. There’s help out there, you just have to you know either pick up the phone or make an appointment or talk to someone.
No matter what you may be experiencing, there is support for getting your life on a better track. Many, many Veterans have found the strength to reach out and make the connection.
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