Sep 12 2008
Enough for Soldiers’ Mental Health?
Is the military doing enough to support the soldiers’ mentally? No, I definitely think not. My husband was in Iraq for 16 months. The entire time he was there, he was on a mental decline. Sometimes he would not talk to us for weeks at a time. He just did not want to talk to his family. After he finally gets back state side, he is sent for the little mental evaluation that every soldier has to go through upon getting home. I don’t know what was said to the counselor, but she runs out of the room and refused to go back. Apparently, it was enough to scare the living day lights out of her. Well, that should have been their first clue!
For five months, the entire family walked on egg shells never knowing when some mundane statement was going to have him blowing a gasket. During this time, I tried to get him to get more counseling. I talked to his Sargents as well. My concerns were completely brushed off. Some days he was just fine and on others he hated the world. On our daughter’s birthday, he decides that he no longer wants a wife and children or the responsibility or anyone waiting for him to come home. Not even a happy birthday for his two year old. It’s now been nine months and he still has not gotten help. He refuses to go and the military will not enforce it even though they know that he needs it.
Some people believe he is just fine. I do not. I knew my husband before he joined and ever went over seas. I know what came home to me may look like my husband but it’s not. It is just an empty shell walking around. A man that loves his wife and family doesn’t decide to not speak to them for over a week, wakes up one morning and throws it all away. Will they ever end this war and and start trying to put our soldiers lives back to as normal as they possibly can be again?
I have several family members in Iraq. I know what a toll it can take on the entire family. I too do not believe they do enough to take care of our soldiers once they get back home. I just can not imagine what these men and women go through while at war.
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They need all the help they can get and then some. After what they see and have to do over there I can understand why they come home different. I hate war and have you ever noticed it will be back to business as usual once the body count is over?
It will be back to usual for the politicians but not for the soldiers over there doing their dirtywork. I had 9 of my family members in Iraq and Afghanistan at one time. Thankfully they all came home physically in piece. Now its trying to heal the emotional and mental wounds as much as possible.
We are certainly trying. It has affected us a lot. More than just destroying a marriage. I just hate the fact the government is trying to brush everything under the rug. Also, I blame a lot of it on unprofessional people. If the girl couldn’t handle her job then they needed to get someone in there that could. *hugs*
To be honest being a military guy myself, the army doesn’t give us the help we need. The reason it was probably brushed off is bc he would seem normal to the guys to his left and right. But a different topic for you, some soldiers dont really have much here in the united states.. there for they love the war… if there was no war where would soldiers like myself be…