You know, I felt like I didn't have a voice. I started remembering more and more of my experience, and it wasn't good experiences. And I covered it up and I tried to forget about it. It showed in my actions. I always felt like something was wrong, but I didn't know what was wrong.
Hello, my name is Courtney, I served in the U.S. Army from 2000 to 2010. I was a 92 Golf, which is a cook, I was a 35 Echo, which is an Electronic Maintenance Technician, and I was a 79 Tango, which is a recruiter. Prior to me getting out, I had, a beautiful house, I had a car, I had a steady paycheck. And right when I got out, everything stopped. At that point, I realized that I had joined the Army as such a young age. And so the transition was very hard for me. And it's still hard for me, years later. I was still waiting on a check. And I stopped paying bills, and next thing you know, I lost my house, I lost my car, my car got repo’d, and I was just out there with nothing. So my transition was very hard. I was a single mother with three children, and homeless. That's when I went to the VA hospital and said, “If you all do not help me today, I am going to lose my mind.”
So the VA helped me to get an apartment, they got me furniture, and a voucher to the thrift store so that I can get clothes for me and my children. Started getting counseling, started going through programs, and that is what saved me. I was, um, suicidal, and I just didn't want to be in this world anymore. And once I got evaluated, the questions that I was asked reminded me of some of the things that I experienced in the military. I was an MST victim. Believe it or not, I forgot that I was a victim. I didn't want to remember the experience. I had individual counseling, I had group therapy, and another treatment. that I did was the ketamine treatment. Basically, how they explained it was the ketamine treatment will be monitored by the doctor, it won't have any side effects. They start with smaller dosage and they work their way up according to how I'm feeling from one treatment to the next. I have a lot of chronic pain, so it helped me out with my chronic pain. It for some reason made me happier, and that was very helpful. It pretty much brought me out of a dark place. I started feeling better. I was happier, and I did that treatment for about six months. I used to try things on my own, like meditating. It was hard to relax. When I started doing karaoke, That's when I started feeling better. Wasn't holding anything in. After doing karaoke for so long, I got better and better and better. “Thank you again, everybody.”
My relationship with people have improved tremendously after my mental health treatment, and I'm so much closer to my friends and my family and my kids than I'd been prior to my mental health treatment. I do a lot of volunteer work. My slogan is ‘Connecting the Community to Veterans.’ As the CEO slash executive director of One Vet, One Voice, I have fundraisers, I get corporate partnerships, and I utilize those funds for wraparound services for Veterans. Throughout all the things that I've done in-between the time I've gotten out to now, I’m my most happiest helping Veterans. And I will be helping Veterans and their families for the rest of my life. I encourage all Veterans to seek mental health treatment because it will help you be a better citizen, a better family member, a better mother, a better father. And that treatment will open up doors and bring in resources you never thought you’d have.
