mental health

Post Traumatic Stress continues to plague our warriors. But as the military and medicine search for a path forward, many are left behind.

Linda, an Army veteran, went into the bathroom late one night to shoot herself in the head. Her family and the world would be better off without her, she thought to herself. Plus, she wanted to finally put an end to the bad dreams. Her convoy was struck by a roadside bomb in 2010 taking […]

President Trump and the U.S Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced on Wednesday the release of the President’s Roadmap to Empower Veterans and End a National Tragedy of Suicide (PREVENTS). This is a nationwide plan aimed at raising public awareness about mental health, connecting Veterans and others at risk of suicide to federal and local […]

“The final weapon is the brain; all else is supplemental.” SOF Assessment and Selection (A&S) courses are designed to bring the suck, in a number of different ways, to everyone privileged enough to receive an invitation to be a SOF candidate. Despite the suck, there’s a total beauty to a struggle that methodically breaks down […]

The impact of the COVID-19 on Individuals and Communities has taken its toll. The COVID-19 (coronavirus) outbreak has the potential to increase stress and anxiety, both because of the fear of catching the virus and because of uncertainty about how the outbreak will affect all us socially and economically.  The pandemic is presenting every level […]

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) doesn’t discriminate. Special Operations warfighters are as likely to deal with some sort of combat-related stress as their conventional brethren. And despite the prevalence of the disorder, servicemen are notoriously slow in seeking assistance. One of the more common reasons for not seeking help is the desire to not seem weak […]

A troubling new report released by the Department of Veterans Affairs showed that at least 60,000 veterans killed themselves between 2008 and 2017, with suicide rates among veterans continuing to climb.  According to the report, 2017’s 6,100 veteran suicides represented a 2% increase over the previous year and a 6% increase since 2008. However, despite […]

When I first moved to Georgia from the Boston area, one of the things I kept in mind was my proximity to a VA Medical Center, and according to my trusty GPS, my new home was only about an hour from the Atlanta VA hospital in Decatur. The VA Hospital I’d grown accustomed to in […]

It’s no secret that heart disease is the number one killer in the United States, by quite a significant margin. According to the CDC, Heart disease killed 633,842 people in 2015, and cancer came in second at 595,930 deaths. The next was a significant drop — 155,041 deaths due to chronic lower respiratory diseases. That’s […]

An unidentified man, said to be a 58-year-old Air Force veteran, set himself on fire on the grounds of the Georgia State Capitol on Tuesday. According to local reports, the man did so to protest his treatment by the Department of Veterans Affairs. According to statements provided by the Georgia State Patrol, the unidentified man […]

The CDC came out with a report recently, citing troubling results in regards to suicide. They said that, between the years of 1999 and 2016, suicides continuously rose in just about every state — “Suicide rates went up more than 30% in half of states since 1999.” They also made a clarification: “More than half […]

A study was recently conducted by various veteran, psychiatry and other health organizations out of San Francisco, regarding the correlation between TBIs (particularly mild ones), and the likelihood they have on the onset of dementia. Their conclusion reads as such: In this cohort study of more than 350 000 veterans, even mild TBI without LOC was […]