russell_brock's Blog

The state of treatment for our Soldiers, Sailors, Airman and Marines is quite deplorable, and the present administration gives a rat’s arse about their treatment. I spent 10 years serving our great country in the Army and was pushed under the proverbial rug when I was diagnosed as a problem. I tried in desperation to seek counseling and possible treatment. When I did this, I was labeled as weak and turned down for promotion. All I ever wanted to do as a kid was to join the Army and do great things for my country. The Rand study recently published a report stating that 1in 5 service members suffer from PTSD or some other mental illnesses. That roughly equates to 18.5 percent of our military. If you ask me, that’s rather depressing. We have the most modern military in the world, but they have the most archaic attitudes towards mental illness. Our Boys and Girls sacrifice so much in defense of our constitution and for liberty throughout the world. I personally feel that being in the Army exacerbated an illness that was already present in my brain. I don’t blame the Army for causing my illness, because it was already there. When a service member comes forward and admits that he/she has a problem, it is the leadership’s responsibility to help them, not just put them out of the military. I was lucky though, I completed my contract with an honorable discharge with full benefits. Others are not so lucky; they are just discounted as being defective. This is not a pity story, but a call for America to wake up and expect our government to take care of our service members. I suffer form Bipolar and anxiety disorder with a touch of obsessive compulsive disorder thrown in just to complicate things. When I was a law enforcement officer for the Federal Reserve, I had a breakdown and became very weak. I was fired and lost all of my benefits and I had to beg and plead with the Veterans Administration for benefits that were due to me. I finally won my case and was given treatment for a non-service connected disability. The funny thing is, is that there is a stigma surrounding these types of illnesses and it follows you wherever you go throughout the employment world.  The VA needs to provide better treatment for these illnesses and also provide rehabilitation and job training so that service members do not become statistics in a report. I emphatically say that I do not regret serving the cause of our great country and that our government needs to be accountable for their misgivings.