Veterans

Just wanted to start out saying that I hope everyone is having a good day. We are going to continue more in-depth today about an issue we touched on yesterday, so lets jump right into it.

We spoke briefly about how dark the mind can be. At times it can feel like you are drowning, and no one is there to pull you up. The thoughts that creep in when you are alone are hard to get away from, especially when you feel alone, which is quite often, even when you aren’t. You can be surrounded by people and still feel alone. As a Veteran, it is hard to relate to your civilian peers, because they will never understand you, your mind, the way you think, the way you see things, the things you have seen, the things you have done, decisions you have had to make in a split second. Once we leave the service, heck even while we are still in the service, those things tend to creep back into our minds, becoming a part of the dark. Guilt comes in, trying to make us feel guilty about some of those things, loneliness joins the party, the dark just has a way of taking over every aspect of our lives and grows until we think that suicide is a viable option of getting out of that, and in our minds we use the excuse “no one will even care if I’m not around any more,” “no one will miss me if I am gone,” or many other wide variety of excuses to make us accept that as an option of escape. What we need to remember, even in those dark times, but especially the ones where we are completely surrounded in our darkness, is that we are not alone, there are people out there in this big old world that will always be there for us, whether in our house, next door, a mile away, or 10,000 miles away.

Reach out to other Veterans or even active duty members. Every single Veteran, while having much different experiences during their time in service, is affected by that time in a different way, no 2 people are alike, that is the wonderful thing about our minds. While someone might not be able to fully grasp or understand your exact situation, because they did not live it, and even if they did it may affect them differently than you, they know the struggles and they will listen to you and talk with you, they will help you with anything you might need help with, and they can even assist you in finding resources you might need or are searching for.

All I am saying is the mind can be a very beautiful place, but it can be a very dark disturbing place as well. Push through your pride and put out your hand and ask for help, even if it is just a conversation to talk through it with someone. I will gladly go out for a drink of any kind with any Veteran out there and sit there and talk with you about anything you want to talk about for as long as you would like. Reach out to someone, be vulnerable for a moment, because your very life might depend on that. We do NOT want to lose any more of our brothers and sisters unnecessarily, we have lost more than enough, we want you in our lives, we need you, and we love you.

With that, I will end todays blog, I very much look forward to talking with you again tomorrow. As always, I love every one of y’all, especially my fellow Vets, if ANY of my fellow Vets need someone to talk to, please reach out to me, I am ALWAYS here for you.

IF YOU ARE A VETERAN WHO NEEDS HELP, YOU ARE NOT ALONE – YOU ARE LOVED – YOU ARE NEEDED!

CALL – 988 – OPTION 1

TEXT – 838255

CALL – 800-799-4889

CALL – 844-889-5610

GO TO – WWW.VETERANSCRISISLINE.NET

GO TO – WWW.STOPSOLDIERSUICIDE.ORG/GET-HELP