[Svaz]

Originally Posted by choof

in one breath it's really nice to not be yelled at constantly for being a fuck up with mental health issues, and there's much less of a mental health stigma outside of the military, but in another breath not a single day goes by in which i regret not sucking it up and deploying. I left a few months before my unit deployed, two people ended up dying overseas and I've lost a few friends to suicide since then, it feels like I let them die and considering how frustratingly sideways my career has been up until last year I feel like I really should have been the one to die overseas

edit: i'll post more when i'm not at work

I guess I should spoiler my response too idk

one thing that really fucks me up re: the military & mental health that they have all of those bullshit "seeking help is a sign of strength" campaigns and it's an e8 saying so, which I guess is supposed to tell you "wow it even affects successful people" but realistically they won't let someone go with a storied career. it's a different story when you're e4 mafia or something and easily disposable. not to mention inpatient psych admission is an immediate barrier to tight shit like SF or Ranger etc, takes away clearances, things that can limit or eliminate any career path in the military so I don't get why they make campaigns like that when the policies in place directly contradict the statement

I can't speak to a real deployment because I only ever "deployed" to somewhere safe and I didn't even interact with the local forces, just aussies and brits, but I saw more than one other medic get really fucked up after having some people die on him after his. it's really nobody's fault other than the people that send you there. even attached to "safer" MOSes I've had people I know die in the b's and after from suicide. no matter how many you hear of, that news never gets easier. someone from my last active duty squad killed himself last year and left behind his wife and toddler, it's heartbreaking to think about