Page 454 - Total War on PTSD

While I was there, I had an incident in the barracks that resulted in a hardship discharge (disability related to Military Sexual Trauma (MST). Back in civilian life, I struggled to find work and went into truck driving, which I then did on and off for 30 years. During that time, I was still experiencing health issues that started in the military. And I continued to have difficulties with relationships throughout my working life. After a series of issues — the deaths of my parents, moving, and continued health problems — depression derailed me.
I started to recognize that I had an issue with PTSD. Initially, I wrote it off to the type of jobs and lifestyle I was leading. Lots of dominos fell and I couldn’t get my act together. I went into the VA and was getting counseling concentrated on the issues I was having at work. By then, I had blown out my ACL which made driving difficult. Finally, I was diagnosed with PTSD as a result of the MST. I had always felt that you just “pick up and keep going on.” But all of this came to a head and I knew I had to do something different.
The VA wanted to medicate me, but that didn’t get at the source of the problems. I had no alcohol or drug issues, however I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, depression, TMJ and hormone imbalance. Following a car accident, I also suffered from concussion syndrome, which is similar to Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).
Josh’s photography classes came at a time when I was transitioning out of the job market. “I’ve always worked and it was so scary to me not to have anything there.” My key idea of retirement was to see the sights and enjoy the outdoors, so the classes were “a
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