Like many global war on terror veterans, I have personal experience with post-traumatic stress. Having joined the Marine Corps right out of high school, I served six years, including a 2011 deployment to Afghanistan’s Helmand Province. At the Bastion Trauma Center, I saw more battlefield damage than I care to remember.
When I got home, I took a post-deployment health assessment that indicated a need to seek treatment for PTS. I went through talk therapy. It didn’t help. Then came the prescription medications — the same medications that have been used for decades — and they only exacerbated my symptoms. One night, I was less than a pound of trigger pull from becoming a suicide statistic. If another Marine hadn’t stepped in, I wouldn’t be here.
