Veterans Resource was founded in March of 2006 in response to the need for more specialized mental health services for returning combat veterans.
PTSD
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
PTSD is a very real diagnosis for some people who have experienced life threatening or perceived life threatening situations. You can't seem to shake the memories, the sounds, sights and feelings. You try not to think about it. You try to push the thoughts out, but they just keep coming back. Sometimes you have recurring dreams in which the event is replayed. Sometimes you just "check out" for a few seconds, maybe hours, and even days. Sometimes you feel like you are reliving the situation. One of the hardest parts to deal with is that you may have felt fine when you came home, or right after, and then after some time passes, you start noticing these symptoms. It can be 6 months later sometimes, and so you ask yourself; "What is going on? I was fine!" and you don't necessarily make the connection that it's PTSD, or that it's related to where you've been.
PTSD is a normal and common reaction to life threatening or potentially life threatening situations. If you have served in the military, you have been trained how to respond to highly stressful, life threatening events. You needed that mindset for you to do your job effectively. Now that you are back, you don't need to be in that mindset anymore. And since you were trained very well, switching back can be challenging.
What happens along with this is that you might feel alone, apart from others, like no one understands, and you don't enjoy doing the things you used to do. Not much, if anything, makes you feel happy. Sometimes you can't get to sleep, or you can't stay asleep, you feel irritable, you can't concentrate, you have outbursts of anger and then feel really upset about what you did or said. Some people hurt the ones they love. They feel depressed. Many people start drinking too much or using drugs to try to get away from the feelings. And some people start doing risky behavior, for example driving too fast, and putting themselves in dangerous situations so that they can feel the rush of (hopefully) surviving. Sometimes you forget where you are, and behave as though you are back where the initial experience may have happened.
These are some of the things that people feel when they have PTSD. You may be feeling other things, too. Usually, people don't start noticing how bad they feel for months. Then they ask themselves; "What is wrong with me?", "Why now?". That is how PTSD works. A lot of times, it creeps up on you. You think you are handling, and then you realize that you're not. It's real, it's serious, it takes control of your life. The good news is, THERE'S HELP! It takes a lot of courage to get help. You've been trained that help is for the weak. You have to ask yourself: Can I keep going like this? There's no reason that you have to. That's what Veterans Resource is all about.