How packed is your E-Bag?

No one comes home the same. Anyone who goes through an experience so foreign to the normal day to day grind is aware of this. Even with help from therapy, medication, peers, family, and even prayer, things never go back to the way they were before. We learn to manage and accept the change. Innocence lost is just that....lost. Honesty is not always forthcoming. How do you get a group of dependants together and telling them that you can expect a,b,c and 1,2,3 when the service member returns? Unless the system has greatly changed since my departure (and Lord I hope it has) we teach how to identify the red flags of PTS and get the individual help when things go bad. So many times, the anger, resentments, and misunderstandings are already in full effect and the family is torn to pieces. Getting help for the individual after the family disintegrates is like saying "the operation was a success.....but the patient died." Divorce and multiple deployments is almost the norm. For service members who measure self-worth from having a successful marriage, this is devestating. Get to really know your service members. Know what makes them define themselves as "successful." Most importantly, know when their self-worth is threatened as situations change. You don't need a PhD in psychology to refer someone to mental health and tell them that "this is a person who lived and died to serve his country and he is facing an MEB now" or "this person is a strong family woman and her husband just left her." That insight can be invaluable to a therapist. Just my .02.....

I always physically packed heavy - no one could ever accuse me of not having something when THEY needed it.

Emotionally - the seams on my duffle bag were/are always ready to burst. I am an emotional person to begin with, I wear them on my sleeve. Its never a surprise to anyone how I'm feeling. Throw in a long deployment, 2 of 3 children with special needs, my health issues, my wife's health issues, near death experiences, aging parents and you have a lot of baggage. I've been fortunate to have found some great counselors and have a supporting spouse all these years to help me "unpack" I think the toughest spells I went through were

1) Being in the hospital for 2 months after a misdiagnosed condition and surgery and the ensuing months of recovery. Took a long time to accept psychotropic drugs as part of the solution.

2) About 2 months after I came home from Iraq when everything kind of sunk in. My wife and I went through a few mounts of couples counseling to readjust and move forward

3) This past year with 2 of my 3 kids breaking limbs, my daughter contacting and still trying to shake the ITP virus and losing my job and all the surrounding turmoil.

LTC Jason Strickland , I think it is applicable to us all... that it is certainly loaded down. Some more than others. I personally deal with anxiety and occasional depression. The biggest issue I see with our E-Bags, is that we (most of us) feel like we can handle it; It is our burden; etc. I have slowly learned to turn it over to God. But, it hasn't been easy.