A Beginning

I struggled with PTSD for 14 years before I received help for it. My experience with the Veteran's Administration (VA) bureaucracy discouraged me from getting the help that I needed. I attempted to get help 7 times within the VA system. The VA requires that you receive a diagnosis before treatment can begin. But they have you talk about the trauma that gave you the problems without the aid to help you through the triggered responses. It always sent me into a tail spin with no way around it, until I landed in a drug and alcohol treatment center after 14 years of insanity.

I started reading about PTSD to find out why I felt the way that I felt and did the things that i did. I started college along this time and started to have a catharsis, life started coming together in a way that it never had before.

As things progress in a positive manner I began to see how my life could help others and that's when I decided to go to school and become a therapist and specialize in PTSD and trauma therapy. I'm going for a masters in social work, that being the quickest way to attain my goals. I want to work at the VA and try and do some changes on the inside to help other soldiers come to terms with their illness. Then I plan to have my own practice and treat combat trauma in a long term treatment center from a holistic perspective, working on the complete person.