This morning a friend emailed me a link to a particularly disturbing story. It is a very well written blog post in the New York Times that provides an unusually unvarnished look into the dark pit that is PTSD.
There are plenty of articles and blog posts about PTSD bouncing around the internet, but this one is compelling in a way that so many others are not. In this post the author candidly and openly describes how he attempted to end his own life because the lingering effects of his wartime experiences on his psyche. He takes the reader with him as he writes the note that his wife will find with his cold and lifeless body and as he swallows an entire bottle of pills.
I won’t give the whole article away because it is too well written and too insightful for my humble efforts to recount it. You can read it here. I will say that it is an articulate indictment of how this Marine was treated by his supposed leaders when he reached out for help; if his treatment is indicative of how others are treated when they try to overcome PTSD while still in uniform then a lot of so called “leaders” need to look long and hard in the mirror.
They are not leaders. They are anything but, and are a wretched example of what some implacable and soulless men and women in positions of responsibility can do to those that they have been entrusted to lead.
Sad.
Orders to Nowhere... 
Thanks Mike. That was very well written and sobering. I was hoping that the time-frame of the Marines experience would have been ten years ago and not just last year – the Marine Corps (and Army) has but a lot of effort into trying to get rid of the “stigma” of asking for help but I’m not sure you can teach compassion.
I think we have a generation of warriors that will be dealing with post combat issues for the rest of their lives and a nation that is ill equipped for the enduring commitment that will be required to meet their needs.
Thanks for doing your part.
Greg,
Thanks for reading and for your comments. You are right about teaching compassion; it is something that is learned but almost impossible to teach.
Mike
Mike, it’s hard to say “thank you for sharing this” because it’s just so wrong and so disappointing to hear how callously he was treated by so many “leaders.” But it’s important to know the truth. To know what our men and women who serve are really going through. So thank you for sharing this young man’s story and giving him even more of a voice. I wonder how many like him simply suffer in silence.
Thanks for reading and your comments. It is disappointing to be sure- and there are a lot of people suffering because of the stigma…
Reblogged this on VETERANS THERAPEUTIC ART CENTER.