Veterans Share Their Tools for Mental Health Recovery
I didn't quite know what it was, but something was off. I wasn't the same person and I accepted that, but I didn't accept that for a long time that I had changed when I come back.
I started to show symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. I had anger issues, I had anxiety.
When you're having acute anxiety, it's not when you're trying to figure out why am I having this? Fighting it, it's not going to work, but that's the natural inclination, is to fight it off.
I started drinking and pot led to, you know, the cocaine and, but I had went down the rabbit hole, so to speak, so deep that it was, you know, virtually impossible to get out. I went to the Brooklyn VA, I gave it a shot. And it was one of the best things as far as on my road to recovery that I could have done.
At the Vet Centers, they give you tools to work with it. You have to use what skills they give you. You have to put them into practice. Communication is probably the most important. Learning to listen to others before I would interrupt them and speak. Now it's more, "Hey, I need to listen what that person's saying."
I've been journaling for now close to five and a half years. And I love journaling because I'm able to see anything that I'm procrastinating on, what I need to get better at.
Being able to have a tool that I can apply to day-to-day life when I'm experiencing, whether it's a PTSD flashback or a similar kind of a stressor or experience, CBT can be very helpful in those day-to-day things.
When you are experiencing those moments, you have those tools to access. I know now how to find the help I need. I like who I am now. I really do, and I think that a lot of it has to do with, because I reach out for help when I don't feel right.
You gotta keep your mind open and you're gonna say it's going to be better in the long run and it really is gonna be better in the long run.
And I felt like I had hope for a future again.
It's so important to really understand that you're not alone and there's others there that are willing to help you and do whatever they can to get you in a place where you belong.
