VA treatment helps Chuck manage schizophrenia

VA treatment helps Chuck manage schizophrenia

Chuck:

My name is Chuck. I served in the Army in 1974 and 1975, 82nd Airborne. When I in, I went through all the training: basic, advanced MOS, 82nd, I even did joint maneuvers. But then my mother died. So, I came home on leave. Having your mother and father dead, as well as other family members, I was going through a massive amount of stress in terms of anxiety. And from there, I was crawling out of depression. I was getting into this other life and all of a sudden, I started seeing things.

You know how you dream when you’re sleeping? Imagine if your dream channel is open while you’re awake but it also has dominant power at the same time. Then your dream world overlays on the physical world and you react to your delusions of the dream even though the physical world is what’s supposed to be the dominant.

I went to the VA and said, “I need your help. I’ve been out of control for years, and I gotta stop.” And so, I got a psychiatrist and she monitored me every week. There was always their little training programs. There’s CBT and Catch It. It was like a group thing, and it was little exercises that teach you different things. My big thing is catching the negative thought pattern. It causes me the problem.