Transcript
My son had just graduated from high school.
I was gonna transfer my post 9/11 GI Bill to him
and I attended a seminar for Veterans on how
to apply the GI Bill to his program.
And so that's what I was out doing.
I wasn't prepared for what was gonna happen that evening
but there was a VA liaison named Mr. Davis
and he took the opportunity knowing that he had an audience
of Veterans to just talk to them
about the VA program, the VA program.
And he listed on the board, if your life is heading down this,
he listed, you're about to get divorced, your finances are
in trouble, are you drinking too much.
He listed all these things on the board
and just sitting there I identified
with everything on the board.
And he's a Veteran, his son's a Veteran, he knows the issue
and he used a term that I use quite a bit
with my own soldiers talking
about the light being on and off.
If you look at pictures of my solders before they deployed,
there's a light on in their eyes and when I run
into them occasionally now that we're home, it's not there.
And this Veteran when he was talking about it,
he used that same term.
It reached me.
Just seeing it listed on the board a year ago,
all of the symptoms, not so much the symptoms but the things
that happened to your life if you go untreated,
you quantify it like that, I can't deny it.
It's in front of me and I can't say, yeah, I mean,
my husband had just filed for divorce
so I could check that one.
I was having a hard time getting along with people at work.
I couldn't count more than maybe two friends on one,
sitting there, pretty much alienated myself
from everyone except my children, thank goodness.
I couldn't deny it when it was in front of me on the board
and so that was my moment to go in and get treatment.
I'm so glad I did.
I wish I had done it five years sooner.