When I found myself at that point again while I was in the Navy, I didn’t think twice about asking my chain of command for advice. I know that mental health issues in the military are often swept to the side or dismissed as making service members weak, but I was lucky and had a chain of command that did not play around when a Sailor was reaching out for help, no matter if it was mental health or substance abuse problems.
They cared about us and were willing to keep problems discreet if the service member asked for that. I was referred to the Fleet and Family Service center on base. There I was able to touch base with a therapist that understood my prior history and worked with me to refresh the skills I had forgotten in all the years between sessions. A few weeks in and I was back to my normal, perky self.
Amazingly enough that “normal” lasted through the big un-geobacheloring that happened this year. It survived through both my husband and I separating from the military. I even nearly completed my masters degree with a strong sense of balance before the spinning started again.
Something happened last year to shake my sense of security and when I found out my husband would be switching to night shift for the first time I couldn’t shake my anxiety over being alone. Silly since I lived alone for a couple years while we did the whole geo-bachelor thing. But I just could not seem to get on solid ground.
It took me snapping at a co-worker to realize just how bad I was getting and I picked up the phone to call the VA Hospital near me, admitting it was time to get help. And this time I knew I needed more than just a touch up of talk therapy. This time I needed to be open to the idea of medication.
