Reply #132: Dear Ga Democrat, the truth shall set you free. Your last paragraph [View All]

tells me you are a great soldier, you pride yourself on going above and beyond what your country asks of you. Am I right in guessing you tend to be a perfectionist? Now everything that you've witnessed in Iraq has taken that soldier and changed you inside and out, you can't live through all that you did over there and not change. It doesn't make you any less of a soldier, you are still an asset to us. Let the truth about what you're going through come out and you'll give your troops something else to learn from. Someone who is not talking about the changes in himself, someone who is still allowing himself to think things are OK or perfect is someone who could snap around his family or his troops and do something he'd never mean to do in a million years. You're already talking about things, that's the first big step on the road to recovery.

I was very close to a World War II Veteran and I always asked myself "how did he survive all that he went through and not lose it over the years?" We found out after he died that he kept a journal. He was a no-nonsense kind of person so I never would have thought of him as a journal writer, I believe to this day it was a big part of his survival methods. This could be the start of your journal, start writing down as much as you can remember from the beginning. I know it won't take away all of your demons but it could be a start in cleansing your brain, it can only be better than bottling it inside and letting the demons control you.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all you've done, for all the sacrifices you've made for our country.

:patriot: