Wednesday, September 7, 2011
My Husband’s Reintegration
In this post, Sheri Hall answers questions about how she supported her family while her husband, Army Maj. Jeff Hall, struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder after his second tour in Iraq, and shares how she encouraged him to seek help through the Deployment Health Clinical Center’s specialized care program. The center is part of the Defense Centers of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, and offers care for those experiencing PTSD and reintegration concerns.
Q. What was your reaction when your husband returned home?
A. I noticed he had a deep, dark, hollow look in his eyes. I asked him if he needed to talk to someone. I let him know that I was supportive but he wasn’t receptive at the time. I think he felt he needed to be the “macho” soldier.
Q. What was the impact of his post-combat stress on you?
A. I was never fearful for Jeff’s life while he was in combat, since I knew that he trained himself well. When Jeff returned and was having suicidal thoughts, I couldn’t sleep. I was so worried I would sit in bed and watch him. I feared he would just leave. I lost 15 pounds in two weeks. When I’d take the kids to school, I would race home to make sure Jeff was where I last saw him.
By elaine.wilson
http://afps.dodlive.mil/2011/08/29/my-husband%E2%80%99s-reintegration/
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
How to save a life
It would have been so easy.
All Staff Sgt. Tiffany Skelton had to do was take a few extra pills--she was on Zoloft, Paxil and three others--and she would drift off into a peaceful, permanent sleep. Or she could nick her wrists with one of the swords she had collected in Iraq, and let her lifeblood drain away, taking with it all of the worries and pain she had carried for so long.
Skelton had it all planned, down to who would pick up her son. He would probably be better off anyway, she reasoned. How many nights had 18-month-old Kenyen taken care of her as she lay on the couch, too depressed and overwhelmed to move? He covered her with a blanket, and brought her dinner from whatever he could reach in the refrigerator. Then his day care teacher called: Did Skelton know that he no longer smiled or wanted to play? That he was biting?
"I just couldn't take it anymore," Skelton said. "I had made my decision. I was going to die the next day."
Skelton's road to suicide started long before that June day in 2009, when she was an emotionally abused little girl in Georgia. She wanted to serve, but more than that, she wanted to escape her mother's death, and relatives who only cared if Skelton was around to cook for drunken uncles in the middle of the night. An automated logistics specialist, Skelton was excited to escape all the way to Iraq in 2003, until, that is, she realized a new nightmare awaited her.
Skelton's Reserve unit was assigned to the middle of the Sunni Triangle (between Baghdad, Ramadi and Tikrit), otherwise known as the "Triangle of Death." They were soon in the cross hairs of the fast-growing insurgency, facing multiple mortar and rocket attacks a day.
BY: Elizabeth M. Collins
http://www.army.mil/article/64291/How_to_save_a_life/
All Staff Sgt. Tiffany Skelton had to do was take a few extra pills--she was on Zoloft, Paxil and three others--and she would drift off into a peaceful, permanent sleep. Or she could nick her wrists with one of the swords she had collected in Iraq, and let her lifeblood drain away, taking with it all of the worries and pain she had carried for so long.
Skelton had it all planned, down to who would pick up her son. He would probably be better off anyway, she reasoned. How many nights had 18-month-old Kenyen taken care of her as she lay on the couch, too depressed and overwhelmed to move? He covered her with a blanket, and brought her dinner from whatever he could reach in the refrigerator. Then his day care teacher called: Did Skelton know that he no longer smiled or wanted to play? That he was biting?
"I just couldn't take it anymore," Skelton said. "I had made my decision. I was going to die the next day."
Skelton's road to suicide started long before that June day in 2009, when she was an emotionally abused little girl in Georgia. She wanted to serve, but more than that, she wanted to escape her mother's death, and relatives who only cared if Skelton was around to cook for drunken uncles in the middle of the night. An automated logistics specialist, Skelton was excited to escape all the way to Iraq in 2003, until, that is, she realized a new nightmare awaited her.
Skelton's Reserve unit was assigned to the middle of the Sunni Triangle (between Baghdad, Ramadi and Tikrit), otherwise known as the "Triangle of Death." They were soon in the cross hairs of the fast-growing insurgency, facing multiple mortar and rocket attacks a day.
BY: Elizabeth M. Collins
http://www.army.mil/article/64291/How_to_save_a_life/
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