Happiness is a choice? Then why am I not happy?

I'd hear the saying "happiness is choice"…

And feel worse.

What was wrong with me that I wasn't able to be happy? 

Indeed…

There had to be something "wrong" with me. 

I mean seriously wrong with me.

I was angry.

I was sometimes mean.

I was oftentimes driven to be busy, busy, busy.

But I was not "happy".

So - when I sought help - it was confirmed that something was wrong - terribly wrong with me. 

My brain was indeed broken.

I had a "disease" - like *diabetes! 

I had an "illness" that affected my ability to be "happy".

Aha! That explained it!

A "diagnosis" made it all make sense.

Yet - the prescribed "treatments" that were supposed to make me "feel" better - never worked. 

I settled into a life of "less than" "for the rest of my life".

And stayed there.

UNTIL I met someone who had traveled this path before me and discovered their own truth and shared it with me…

That there was nothing "wrong" with me other than I did not know how to access the power that lives in each of us to see myself as the creator of my own "best life". 

Tip: if happiness has eluded you….set a goal for yourself and each day take steps toward that goal.

Maybe its a goal to move to a new home, get a new job or go back to school.

Maybe its a goal to learn how to become more self sufficient; to learn how to be less "reactive" and more "responsive". Or maybe to learn the difference between "boundaries" and "walls".

Whether your goal is to be-come your best self through personal development learning strategies or to do or have something that you have longed for…

The best remedy for chronic sadness is to focus on what makes us happy and find our own empowering solutions when we aren't'.

True stuff.

Susan :)


*Diabetes - the whole paradigm built on the idea that "mental illness" is a disease like diabetes is more true than we know. First we must differentiate between type 1 and type 2 diabetes. In type 1 - there is a real physical issue that cannot be fixed. One is born with this. It is diagnosable through medical tests. In type 2 - this diabetes is brought on by overconsumption of refined sugar and can be reversed with diet and exercise. In considering the issues of "mental illness" in this context we must remember that there is NO diagnostic test for this - therefore these issues are not the same as type 1 diabetes which can be diagnosed and treated. In the context of type 2 diabetes - the issues of so called "mental illness" are also brought on by life experiences albeit more complex than just consuming enormous amounts of refunded sugar although refined sugar has been proven to cause issues that can be labeled "mental illness". For more on this I can recommend visiting Beyond Meds articles on gut health, this article at Mercola on sugar and mental illness, this article on gluten and schizophrenia, and there are numerous studies revealing the impact of childhood trauma to what is labeled "mental illness". In addition, very often the "medicine" we are given becomes the cause of the "illness" as I experienced. All this as food for thought and to point out - these issues do not have to be "for life" and the "mental illness" model is 1. not an effective life model and 2. it is not the only model, or paradigm, about the human condition, the life we live or the struggles we face - although it is the only one we hear about when we ask for "help". 

Be informed to be empowered. 

For more on these issues please visit www.beyondmeds.com 

Resources

Visit the archives to the Empowering Solutions podcast here for real life solutions to real life and relationship issues.

Follow the Empowering Solutions community page here for daily tips on learning to live beyond the drama and trauma of our past…

And the Empowering Solutions blog is here for articles and essays on life and life issues. 

Please subscribe at the top for blog updates and join our mailing list.




 Seek Knowledge, find Wisdom, live your Truth!™
 Thanks for following, reading and sharing!

War, Warriors and Pharma: PTSD is NOT a disease

Every now and then I get the old soapbox out, give a rant, shake my fist, bow my head and cry...

Our warriors are out there fighting a war, sacrificing their lives, families and now their futures as the best thing the VA and the Mental Health system have to offer them is a chemical lobotomy. 

I have nothing else to say....except....

How can America being doing this to their soldiers?

Big Pharma killing more soldiers than enemy combatants?

Anthony Mena is just one of a fast-rising number of U.S. soldiers who are being drugged to death by psychiatrists and physicians who dish out painkillers and psychotropic drugs with virtually no regard to their chemical interactions.

Those interactions are never tested in clinical trials (yes, never!). The position of the FDA and Big Pharma seems to be that the more drugs a person takes, the better they'll get, and doctors are trained in med schools to keep prescribing pills with virtually no concern about the extreme toxicity of various pharmaceutical combinations. Their motto is, "For every ill, there's another pill."

Now the body count is rising. Today,one-third of the U.S. Army is on at least one prescription medication, and many of those are psychiatric medsused to treat PTSD.


Read the entire article here: http://www.naturalnews.com/031379_soldiers_psychiatric_drugs.html#ixzz1Q7spVWt7

From the archives here at A Journey:

USA Today: Hundreds of Soldiers Given Diagnosis of Personality Disorder

Pray for the wounded, the weak, the ones whose voices have been silenced but most of all...

Pray for our country.

 Seek Knowledge, find Wisdom, live your Truth!
 

Did you miss the show this month? Here's the link!

Last week Darlene Ouimet of the popular recovery blog Emerging From Broken and I had a chat on the Empowering Solutions page at Blog Talk Radio.

If you missed the live show, you can listen or download the archived program here: where Darlene and I discuss how we were both given numerous diagnosis and in the end we both found freedom when we looked not at our symptoms and labels that told us we were sick but at the lies that told us we were unworthy and powerless. 

We both experienced the deeply ingrained sense of hopelessness that drove our depressions, addictions and other learned coping skills that had served us well in our dysfunctional upbringings. And we both experienced what some would call a near miraculous turnaround in that we both no longer suffer from these "diagnosis" or live only to manage the symptoms that kept us in chronic distress.

I'd like to invite you to drop by the Empowering Solutions Blog Talk Radio page and listen in on the archived show by clicking here. 

(Don't forget to click "share" to post to your Facebook page when you're done listening:))

During this broadcast Darlene shares freely about the differences and difficulties she faced as she faced a variety of mental health diagnosis including that of PTSD in her healing journey and - how she became empowered when she began to battle a broken belief system that finally allowed her to emerge from broken!

While you're there, you can register for automatic notifications of new shows, download to your media player or share the link. 

Listen in now by clicking here.

Don't forget to mark your calendars and catch ES! every 1st and 3rd Thursday at 2pm EST! (USA)

And if you happen to miss the live show...you can always grab the link and listen or share the archived program!

Here's the schedule!

1st Thursday: Each month we'll have a Special Guest to share a personal challenge and how they found their own Empowering Solutions in their own healing journey

3rd Thursday: Susan and Darlene will focus on the unique and intricate issues of learning to recognize and challenge the beliefs that keep us from creating and living our best life as we learn to recognize and claim our rightful place in this world. 

You can read Darlene's follow up post here on her Blog Emerging From Broken.

I am honored and excited that we as a World Wide Community are able to connect and share the hope that comes with believing that healing is not just possible - but probable. 

For all of us:)

~

 Seek Knowledge, find Wisdom, live your Truth ! 

This Month on Empowering Solutions!

Tune in this Thursday June 2, 2011 at 6pm EST/5pm CST/3pm Pacific time (USA) to hear Darlene Ouimet of the popular recovery blog www.emergingfrombroken.com talk about the differences and difficulties she faced as she faced a variety of mental health diagnosis including that of PTSD in her healing journey and - how she became empowered when she began to battle a broken belief system that finally allowed her to emerge from broken!


You can find us here this Thursday June 2nd at 6pm EST (USA): 
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/empoweringsolutions/2011/06/02/darlene-ouimet-on-dealing-with-diagnosis


 Seek Knowledge, find Wisdom, live your Truth!

Why Do I Have an Interest in This Survey?

Last week it was  brought to my attention that there is an unofficial survey going on and I thought it interesting enough to share with you. This appears to be an essay format where you can write as much - or as little - as you are comfortable with. 


You can view and respond here if you are interested in participating.



Why do I have an interest in this particular survey?

Because I was a victim to the misnomer that child abuse is a disease - or at least the effects of it are.

I've read and followed the work of Colin Ross and Sidran in my journey out of the traditional mental health system that deemed me to be "disordered" and "ill" as well as others work around trauma.

But ultimately it was when I found my own power to heal myself that I found freedom from the lies that told me I was defective, less than and somehow different and unworthy of being considered a whole and capable human being. *

If you'd like to read more of my personal journey into, through and out of America's mental health system you can go here or here to listen to how I began to find my way OUT of the despair that plagued me from first the original abuse and trauma of my childhood then the second trauma where my life was forever changed by being labeled with a "mental illness" that stole my hope instead of being heard as a survivor and allowed to - or even being guided to - heal from the inside out.

I'm thankful the mental health system is starting to look at "symptoms" as learned coping mechanisms instead of a genetic illness. Check out the trauma center that is the brainchild of Dr. Bessel Van der Kolk.

For more info on overcoming what many of us learned to accept as "genetic" or "ingrained" and permanent check out Darlene Ouimets blog Emerging From Broken where Darlene shares how she believed and lived in chronic depression and disociation - until she discovered she could break through the lies that kept her bound to the past. EFB is about recognizing and breaking through ALL forms of oppression and abuse and recognizing the lies that kept us in that place of broken.

If your background is sexual abuse, men and women around the world are finding Christina Enevoldsen & Bethany Ruck's blog Overcoming Sexual Abuse a vibrant and safe community.

Anyway - the archives here at A Journey contains bits and pieces of my journey and the abuse I escaped when I escaped "diagnosis" so you are invited to poke around there as well as visit the Resources page to begin to map out your own journey.

Ok, well then - back to the survey. :)

You can view and respond here if you are interested in participating.

The focus of this survey is described as follows:

This is an unscientific, information gathering survey about Comorbidity in mental health treatment and services.

I am a therapeutic practitioner who is interested in your experience with comorbidity. Please share your thoughts with me, if you wish.

Definitions for comorbidity include:

• A condition in which a patient meets the criteria for more than one DSM-IV Axis I disorder.
• The presence of one or more disorders (diseases) in addition to a primary disease or disorder

My disclaimer: Please use your own best judgement in participating in any online survey.

And remember...

Breaking through the fog and pain of the past begins with believing it is even possible to do so. 

The purpose of this blog then...

Click here to look at the survey.

*I do not advocate against mental health providers or therapy. I DO advocate to learn and understand what mental health abuse looks like. While my experience in the mental health system was far from helpful I do realize there are helpful, empathic and nurturing therapists and counselors out there and god bless you if you were fortunate enough to have found one. I did too - but only after 15 years of experiencing the crippling effects of poly pharmacy and the weekly company of therapists who enjoyed Medicaids residual income stream who sat silently while I ruminated over the sad state of my life. 


It should no longer be considered "normal" to have to seek for years for helpful therapy and experience the abuse of mental health service providers who are working out their own life issues through their clients. The imbalance of power and control in these dysfunctional relationships make abuse survivors a prime target to be manipulated and blamed for ineffective "therapies" and "treatments".

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Seek Knowledge, Find Wisdom, Live Your Truth!

Today on Empowering Solutions!

This month on we’ll be chatting with Victoria DiNatale; a survivor of severe bullying at her middle school, then again in her high school that resulted in a diagnosis of PTSD. Today Victoria shares how she made that shift from victim to victor as she takes her story and shares her PTSD experience and a message of hope and help!

Tune today in at 6pm EST! Click here!

 Seek Knowledge, find Wisdom, live your Truth!


Photo Credit

It is Never Too Late...

Here's something I wonder about...


We know and have acknowledged that emotional and mental distress is a normal response to abnormal life circumstances. 

Research shows the correlation of distressful environments and trauma to mental health diagnosis. 

Yet - those who suffer are labeled as "ill", "sick", "diseased" and "disordered"....while those who are the cause and source of the trauma, oppression, abuse and neglect are often not and if they are - they often use this as an excuse to continue to perpetrate this dysfunction in their families instead of as a reason for their own pain and to find a path to wholeness and healing.

Then as we enter the healing journey we are perhaps classified or identify ourselves as victims. 

and this is true - I was a victim

but I am no more.

We have learned to survive...

but often not how to live beyond that.

Diagnosis is used as an end all; a reason for

"this is why I'm messed up"

instead of the beginning of a map to take us beyond "messed up".

We are taught coping skills and avoidance tactics to manage symptoms of these diagnosis that are said to be ingrained, inbred and unchangeable.

How do I know this?

Because I've BTDT. :))

Thats been there, done that :) 

I resided in the mental health system that for nearly 2 decades told me that I was my problem; that my brain was broken.

I was also told that I was the problem why "therapy" and the drugs never worked.

I was "resistant"

"difficult, diseased, disordered and finally - dysthymic"...meaning I would never be "better". 


That forever I would have this heavy cloud and fog overshadowing every moment 


of every day. 


And because I did not know any different 

I accepted this as my "truth".

It was my "normal" to allow others to define me and direct my life and how I viewed my reality.

Today though?

I no longer accept or identify with the idea that I am sick

or ill

or diseased, defective or disordered.

And I am most definitely not

"dysthymic". :))

Instead

I've chosen a different path

one that leaves me feeling empowered and enabled.

A path that has brought me to my "best life"....

The one I choose for myself and create

every day. 

So today...

I no longer wish for a miracle

because I am one. :))

My passion is to share a message of hope, healing and self discovery that it is completely possible to learn to live far beyond that place of broken and 


that it is never too late to learn to create 


and live 


our best life. 

Every day. 

Check the archives...

To Thine Own Self Be True (links to this 3 part series is in this post as well:))

I Am Not a Can of Soup (talking about labels:))

I've Got a Feeling! (this post talks about the language we use that defines our reality:))

Def:empower-empou-r-verb (this post discusses what it means to "empower" ourselves:))

And my wish for you.....I Hope you Dance... :))

The purpose of this blog....

Photo Credit

Seek Knowledge, find Wisdom, live your Truth!

Urgent: Call for support for Alison Hymes

I don't often veer far from the core purpose of this blog but situations as what I describe in this post justifies an exception....


Please consider going to this web site to read the complete petition for Allison, sign it then share it amongst your own network and communities. 

Friends of Alison Hymes Demand Investigation

Alison Hymes trusted her psychiatrist and followed their directions for years. She also suffered kidney failure because of this treatment protocol. In 2008 Alison had a kidney transplant due to this iatrogenic induced kidney failure. Alison was prescribed steroid in connection to this transplant. And - in spite of living free of psychiatric issues for many years and being a valuable and contributing member of her community, in 2009 she was forced back into the mental health system.

As anyone who has taken steroids knows, they can cause some nasty side effects and as often happens with those who have been labeled with psychiatric diagnosis, these drug induced side effects are often overlooked and attributed to this label.

Following is an excerpt from this online petition:

Alison Hymes of Charlottesville, Virginia, suffered from iatrogenic kidney disease due to psychiatric malpractice and misdiagnosis more than a decade ago. Alison underwent a kidney transplant in October 2008 to save her life from the iatrogenic kidney failure. As a former therapist and a user of psychiatry, Alison dedicated her time and her life to mental health advocacy and the rights of users and survivors of psychiatry and the mental health system. She served as President of the Mental Health Planning Council in her area for several years, remaining an active advocate even while dealing with such very critical personal health issues. 

Alison was thrown back into the psych system at UVA hospital by commitment in 2009 when she had a reaction to the steroids prescribed for the kidney transplant. This reaction was also due to a pattern of neglect by her outpatient psychiatrist who did not adequately follow up with the transplant team when Alison began to report negative psychological effects from the steroid drugs. She eventually went into a steroid-induced crisis. 

Instead of addressing her mental status as a steroid reaction, it was inappropriately diagnosed and treated as a "bipolar episode", and she was committed to UVA hospital and prescribed psychiatric drugs that nearly caused the loss of her transplanted kidney and underwent a procedure that almost destroyed her bladder. She was totally re-traumatized, and has been threatened with commitments and coerced into taking psychiatric drugs that are severely impacting her functioning and health in numerous ways.


There is nothing that any person can do that can justify forced psychiatric interventions - especially when there are other alternatives available.


Regardless of your personal stance on psychiatry or psychotropic drugs, Allison deserves to have her human rights protected and her civil right to choose and direct her own health care honored. 


Until you have been subject to this kind of treatment you cannot understand how traumatizing this can be. Please consider signing then sharing this petition by following this link.

Read more on Steroid Induced Psychosis or just google it yourself.

For more information on Iatrogenic PTSD and links to the full article by Dr. Charles Whitfield see this article: Psychiatric Drugs as Agents of Trauma


Seek Knowledge, find Wisdom, live your Truth!

"Un-diagnosed" from "Bi Polar disorder"

Freedom

Photo Credit

To be what we are and to become what we are capable of becoming

is the only end in life. ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

A friend sent me a link to this story of a young woman who had been diagnosed as "Bi Polar" and now lives free of the drugs, the mental health system...and the "diagnosis". 

Here's an excerpt from this celebratory post of her finding freedom from "diagnosis"....


"Dr. R: Wow. That's really interesting. So this bipolar diagnosis we have on here really isn't relevant any more. I'm going to take it off your records."


You can read the rest of this post by clicking here....


You can read about Will Halls approach to safely coming off psychotropic medications from a harm reduction approach. Here's a brief excerpt and description about this guide:


"A 'harm reduction' approach means not being pro- or anti-medication, but supporting people to make their own decisions balancing the risks and benefits involved. Written by Will Hall, with a 14-member health professional Advisory Board providing research assistance and 24 other collaborators involved in developing and editing. The guide has photographs and art throughout, and a beautiful original cover painting by Ashley McNamara."


You can download and read Will's guide here.


You can read my disclaimer about psychotropic drugs  here.

Alternatives 2010 Censures Will Halls Message of Choice

I don't typically get on my soapbox here at "A Journey" but in this case, I am making an exception...

As a mental health advocate/activist and survivor of psychotropic prescription drug use my position around the issues of mental health care is that each person seeking mental health services or support be given enough professional information that a true, informed consent for services be made.

I do not advocate for or against "medication". 

I do advocate for transparency and truth. 

A last minute decision has been made by the National Empowerment Center to Censure the content of a presentation by Will Hall who was originally approved to present at Alternatives 2010 this next week. 

Hall was scheduled to speak on the subject of a pro-treatment choice, harm-reduction philosophy. Hall was to share information about continuing, reducing, or coming off psychotropic medications from the perspective of both Therapist and Psychiatric Survivor. 

After the uproar from the "consumers" of mental health services, when Robert Whitaker was first scheduled then abruptly cancelled and then was reinstated as a key note speaker for this years Alternatives conference - this comes as a last minute surprise and clearly political manipulation IMHO.

The theme for this years conference is Promoting Wellness Through Social Justice. Yet after the effort to cancel Robert Whitaker (Anatomy of an Epidemic) and now this final hour censuring of a workshop that has been approved for the past nearly 4 months I am beginning to wonder just how valid this theme is. 

"Social Justice" would seem to include the right for those seeking assistance for mental health issues to be given all possible available options - including how to safely withdraw from these drugs that are connected to a lifespan cut short by 25 years over the average person. 

By waiting until the last minute, the NEP/Powers-that-be has effectively minimized any possible reconsideration of this decision by eliminating any opportunity for the constituency to be heard. 

 Perhaps this was actually a last minute decision rather than a political ploy but this last minute censure is looking strangely like an effort at implementing some damage control by keeping this quiet until 3 days before the conference is scheduled to start.  

The message is clear - maintain the status quo of dependence on these drugs that are often as effective as placebo's (STAR*D Scandal), that often lead to an early death and the favorable research proven to be skewed in favor of the entities that benefit from this industry vs empowering the people to have a clear choice and options in their health care. 

If the powers-that-be didn't feel that this was a valid message to begin with - why was Hall's workshop approved in the first place? And why did they wait until the week of the conference to let this cat out of the bag?

So with this new information my excitement to be a part of this national organization as an advocate is dampened - but my determination to be a voice and a force for change is multiplied a hundred-fold. 

Below is the Press Release distributed by Will Hall. You can visit his website here.

PRESS RELEASE:

MENTAL HEALTH CONFERENCE CENSORSHIP

Coming Off Medications Workshop Censored at 'Alternatives 2010' Mental Health Conference

Alternatives, the mental health consumer/survivor conference with more than 1,000 participants annually, has withdrawn its previous approval for a workshop on coming off psychiatric medications.

The workshop, based in a pro-treatment choice, harm-reduction philosophy, was to share information about continuing, reducing, or coming off medications. After approving the workshop in June, the National Empowerment Center, which organizes the conference to be held in Anaheim California, made a last-minute decision to change the title and description to remove any reference to coming off medications.

Will Hall, an internationally-recognized schizophrenia survivor and radio host who was set to lead the workshop, decided that he could not go along with the decision and will not be attending the conference. "Coming off medications is a topic vital to wellness and recovery, and should not be censored," he said.

The controversial move by the National Empowerment Center comes in the wake of a recent similar decision to bar Robert Whitaker, a Pulitzer finalist investigative journalist whose work spotlights medication dangers and growing evidence that non-drug alternatives work better for some patients. Whitaker was restored as a conference keynote speaker only after mental health advocates mobilized quickly on the internet to challenge the decision.

The annual Alternatives conference is organized by consumer/survivor groups and federally funded. With workshops ranging from wellness, youth, housing, employment, advocacy and diversity issues, Alternatives is the country's most prominent gathering for mental health consumers, who attend from all US states and as far away as Guam. Medication issues, however, have consistently been excluded from the program.

Hall, who works as a therapist, says he educates individuals, families, and health care providers to make more informed choices, and is not anti-medication and does not give medical advice. "People are caught between pro-drug marketing by pharmaceutical companies and the anti-drug message of some activists. We need honest and unbiased information about psychiatric medications, including assessing drug risks and discussing how to come off drugs safely when they aren't right for you. Many people find medications helpful, but there are huge dangers involved, and sometimes it's better to reduce medication or slowly go off." 

After several hospitalizations and a diagnosis of schizoaffective disorder schizophrenia, Hall has been medication-free for more than 17 years. He says a combination of holistic health, support groups, and spiritual practice nurtured his recovery from mental illness, but believes that "each person's path to recovery is different. My work fills a great need for information, and it's a shame this topic is censored at a national conference that claims to be dedicated to wellness and calls itself 'Alternatives.'"

Hall is the author of the Harm Reduction Guide to Coming Off Psychiatric Medications, published by mental health peer groups The Icarus Project and Freedom Center. The guide, available freely on the internet, has been distributed to more than 15,000 people and is available in Spanish and German translations. 

"Honorable Mentions"

"Tiger Lilly Bright"

Summer 2010

I always like to share the good stuff that comes along....this week "A Journey" was mentioned at Sarah Olson's blog "Third of a Lifetime" in her weekly column "Best Tweets for Trauma Survivors"....

My recent post on life lessons...

@zebraspolkadots A Journey…: Life Lessons and Zebra’s
[SEO: Always much food for thought here. What life lessons are you becoming aware of?]

And a tweet that I'd posted reminding us that knowledge really is the truth that sets us free....

@zebraspolkadots “The more we know about something — the less scary it is. Feeling anxious? Unsure? doubting yourself? Seek knowledge. Find wisdom.”

Best Tweets for Trauma Survivors (week ending 08/20/10)

I hope you'll take a minute to visit Sarah's Blog....and check out her book "Becoming One" about her journey through the diagnosis of D.I.D.

Thank you Sarah for all you do to support and encourage trauma survivors in finding and creating their own "best life"!

You can find Sarah on twitter: @SarahEOlson2009 and at her blog here.

You can find me on twitter: @zebraspolkadots

And at Facebook: here

I hope you'll visit the archives and dig around - theres lots of gems buried there:)

And if you haven't already - register for free email updates on the sidebar.

Thank you for reading and supporting "A Journey"....

I am honored that you would choose to walk beside me on my path today:)

Namaste.

I see the light in you!

USA Today: Hundreds of soldiers with PTSD given diagnosis of "personality disorder"

I am speechless at the way our warriors are treated.

Excerpt from USA Today: Hundreds of Soldiers with PTSD incorrectly dismissed

Unlike PTSD, which the Army regards as a treatable mental disability caused by the acute stresses of war, the military designation of a personality disorder can have devastating consequences for soldiers.

Defined as a "deeply ingrained maladaptive pattern of behavior," a personality disorder is considered a "pre-existing condition" that relieves the military of its duty to pay for the person's health care or combat-related disability pay.

According to figures provided by the Army, the service discharged about a 1,000 soldiers a year from 2005 to 2007 for having a personality disorder.

But after an article in The Nation magazine exposed the practice, the Defense Department changed its policy and began requiring a top-level review of each case to ensure post-traumatic stress or a brain injury wasn't the underlying cause.

After that, the annual number of personality disorder cases dropped by 75%. Only 260 soldiers were discharged on those grounds in 2009.

At the same time, the number of post-traumatic stress disorder cases has soared. By 2008, more than 14,000 soldiers had been diagnosed with PTSD — twice as many as two years before.

The article continues with one soldiers story...

Luther was seven months into his deployment as a reconnaissance scout in Iraq's violent Sunni Triangle in 2007 when he says a mortar shell slammed him to the ground. He later complained of stabbing eye pain and crippling migraines, but was told by a military doctor that he was faking his symptoms to avoid combat duty.

Luther says that he was confined for a month in a 6-by-8 foot room without treatment. At one point, Luther acknowledges, he snapped — biting a guard and spitting in the face of a military chaplain.

He "snapped".

After a month of confinement following being dismissed as "faking" his physical pain.

Go figure.

Read the entire article here: Hundreds of soldiers with PTSD incorrectly dismissed