Veteran Finds Renewed Joy After Treatment for Depression and PTSD
My lemon pepper linguini is one of my new pasta flavors. I know that this is something that I enjoy. It helps me with my PTSD, it helps me with my depression. It makes other people happy as well.
Hello, I'm Tiffany, I served in the Army from 2001 to 2012 and I was a 89 Bravo ammunition specialist. I injured my neck in Operation Iraqi Freedom, made another female soldier who was picking up a half a pallet of 40 Mike-Mikes which are small missiles. And someone made a joke and she laughed and she dropped her end of the pallet. And when she dropped her end of the pallet, my neck like swung back like that. And the next day I woke up in my tent and I could not move.
My transition experience out of the army was a little tumultuous 'cause I had my first cervical spine surgery. Terrified about how I'm going to adapt to the civilian world with having my medical issues, the mental health symptoms I experienced once I got out was severe depression. PTSD was there, but I think with my cervical spine surgery, being in pain every single day had a more of a stronghold on me and the pain was unbearable.
What led me to seek mental health treatment was my son. I did not want him to have this example of me being in the bed all day every day, not having a quality of life. So I had to fix myself so I could make sure I could be a great example for him in the future.
I did really like telehealth because it was more one-on-one, it was personal, and I really felt heard and seen doing therapy. Finding the right therapist is very important because someone who sees you and hears you can definitely understand what you're saying. Some of the tools I learned through therapy and treatment was that mindset is indeed everything. If you change your mind, you can definitely change yourself. I have a lot of friends who are now getting out the military and they come to me for advice now. So it's like I can help them with their transition better because I've already been there.
Therapy has definitely benefited my relationships, family, friends, and the relationship with myself because I am not my PTSD, I'm not my depression. I'm not my cervical spine surgery, and I am indeed stronger than I was 15 years ago.
My hobbies that have definitely helped benefit my mental health is cooking. It makes me feel better. It makes me feel great that I'm feeding life into people and I'm loving on people. It's a labor of love that I can do every day. It means the world to me that my friends come out and support me. They come to my events. They hire me to cook their family's meals and to take care of the catering for their different specialty events, birthday parties, anniversaries.
Just knowing that my family and my loved ones and my friends support me, that's the energy I need to keep going. And they always give me great words of advice to make sure I do not get into that slump.
Advices I have for women Veterans. Sis, you know you are so powerful, you are so strong and I need you to keep going. That's what I need you to do. I need you to keep going because the world needs you.
My life has changed since I got mental health treatment. I was able to get back to me. It's time for you to go talk to somebody. You know, it's time for you to take care of you. It's time for you to get back to you, and as long as you take the steps every day, it'll get better.
