VA support provided tools to manage stress

Antoinette:

My name is Antoinette, and I served in the Navy for 20 years. My last tour of duty was at the Navy and Marine Corps Reserves Center in Cincinnati, Ohio, and from there I retired in 1996.

I learned a lot. I learned to be diversified in different things and the logistics. I learned financial. I learned how to do facilities management. I had a lot of responsibility. That budget was the hardest because I had to submit weekly reports and do a monthly reconciliation which I got a lot of interruptions on drill weekend, so I had to find time to do that after hours.

That stressed me out having all that responsibility. And I was the only one available on the weekends. I just went to the doctor and told him I was stressed out. My Senior Chief also realized that I was stressed out, so he sent me to a school for a week, a financial. And that stressed me out even more. I told him that school just stressed me out more. When I went back to work, I was just going to be stressed, so they sent me to a doctor. They sent me to the emergency room because we didn’t have a Navy hospital. So, I went there, and they gave me some medicine to calm me down because I was really upset. They put too much pressure on me wanting me to take more responsibility than I should have had.

I was an E-6. I was up for E-7. I had made the board, but I decided to go on and get out of the entire program. The post office was very stressful working at a branch. All of the multiple duties and flip-flopping hours. I did dispatch. I did the window clerk. I tossed the mail, distributed the mail to all the carrier routes. That’s where really the stress came out after the service.

I talked to a lady at the VA hospital in Dayton. I just tell her that I just can’t sleep, and I’m just stressed out sometimes. She just asks me how’s everything going. I was going to school and that was stressing me a little too, but other than that I was fine.

I started going to Miami University of Middletown where I live, and I took up business. And I graduated in May. So, now I’m on the job search because I was in chapter 31 voc rehab. And for two months they get an education specialist and a Vet rep to help you find a job, and they give you great leads.

I think you need to continue. If you have an issue, you might continue to have it if you get in the same environment. So, I think it’s good to continue to go to get the reassurance that there is help out there.