Veterans, active duty military members, and also many first responders have to deal with PTSD (post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and it can be really challenging to deal with. The holidays tend to make things worse for some folks suffering from PTSD (not to mention depression and anxiety). Given this, I did some research and found a good blog on VA.Gov/VAntage. This post was written by L. Tammy Duckworth who is VA’s Assistant Secretary for Public and Intergovernmental Affairs. She served in Iraq as a Blackhawk pilot and is currently a member of the Illinois Army National Guard.
Here is a link to the blog which contains resources: www.blogs.va.gov/VAntage
If you would like to see a mental health professional in person, the Soldiers Project has a good number of locations. I am about to give you that link. If they do not have an office where you live, I suggest you contact them anyway concerning available resources. The help service members face these challenges by providing free, individualized psychological treatment to those men and women who have served in the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts as well as their support systems: spouses, parents, children, grandparents, boyfriends, girlfriends, friends, and colleagues. Here is the link to The Soldiers Project thesoldiersproject.org
I also located some good information about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and the Holidays on the El Paso VA Health Care system pages. That post notes that "Social situations or large crowds can be stressful for someone with PTSD. Find out ahead of time who will be there and how many people are going. The more information you have the less unpredictable the situation will be" See more at elpaso.va.gov/features/Coping_with_Holiday_Stress
In doing my research, I noted that there is lots of help available for veterans. Last and certainly not least, Here's information on the Veteran's Crisis Line. Their phone number is (800) 273-8255
Here's the link to their website veteranscrisisline.net
And The Soldier's Project offers
This link shows the locations of their offices. They include Sacramento which I am noting because some of my readers are here in the area.
