U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Office of Mental Health and Suicide Prevention Veterans’ Voices Article January 10, 2024 [Headline suggestion] The Healing Power of Sharing Your Story There are many ways for veterans to share stories of their time in service, the challenges they may have faced during and after, and the feelings these experiences engender. For Sarge, this sharing has taken the form of poetry and music; for Mike, it has meant putting paintbrush to canvas; and for La Wanda, it has involved mentoring veterans experiencing challenges with substance misuse. In sharing their stories — first personally in therapy, then more broadly through artistic expression or mentoring — they have promoted their own healing and inspired other veterans to do the same. Sarge finished his service in the U.S. Army after three tours from 1966 to 1968 in Vietnam, where he served mainly as an infantry squad leader. In his Make the Connection interview, he recounts how his feelings about his experiences manifested themselves in survivor guilt, memory loss, night sweats, hypervigilance, reckless behavior, angry outbursts, and more. Seeking help from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Sarge was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and began treatment. But Sarge struggled to disclose his experiences and feelings in detail, so he found a new way to open up and make therapy more effective. “I found that writing things down that I couldn’t really talk about made it easier on me,” Sarge recalls. Sarge kept writing — expanding the scope to include more topics — and “was kind of shocked to find out that it all came out rhyming.” Over time, he had filled a book with thoughts like these: Sometimes he’s a monster and out of control. She knows it’s really not him. It’s a part of his mind that can never come home From the jungle he carries within. Sarge turned some of the poetry into blues songs. He released CDs, performed in front of more than 30,000 people, and heard his music used in documentaries on PTSD. He continues to share his words with veterans who understand and appreciate them through blues shows that incorporate his poetry, war stories, and songs. Sarge — whose survivor guilt had once led him to believe he “should’ve died in Vietnam”— says this has given him a new sense of purpose. “It’s the most beautiful medicine that I ever got for PTSD,” Sarge says. “It’s just so healing.” Mike, a U.S. Army veteran, found a different artistic and therapeutic outlet. Mike joined the Army in 2004, first serving in Iraq, and was on duty in Afghanistan about a decade later when a rocket attack sprayed shrapnel into his leg and jaw. After physically recovering from surgery, he came home in 2015 a changed person mentally — easily agitated, more detached, his senses often overwhelmed by sight, sound, and light. After reaching out for mental health support, Mike was diagnosed with traumatic brain injury and PTSD. He tried therapies that have worked for other veterans, but he found it difficult to vocalize what he was going through. VA worked with Mike on finding the right approach for him. That’s how he discovered art therapy. “I had done talk therapy before,” Mike says. “I didn’t like it. I was supposed to go into this place and talk to this strange person and I can tell them my deepest, darkest things. But in art therapy, I didn’t have to talk. If something was bothering me, I just had to figure out how to say it in paint.” “People think that it’s painting your feelings and playing with arts and crafts, but it’s deeper than that,” Mike explains. “You’re addressing repressed memories, you’re addressing pain and trauma visually instead of verbally.” His therapists — behavioral health professionals — were trained to see and read what a patient puts on canvas, enhancing the interactions and understandings between them. Putting all of this on canvas also furthered his healing in a tangible way. “I'm able to face this issue in my life, on my own time, with my hands, with my eyes,” Mike says. “I can take it out of me and I can set this thing on the shelf. It doesn’t have to control me anymore.” Mike continues to paint — in shared activities with his wife and children, and in paintings done on commission, such as artwork that strives to relay emotions and feelings that are attached to military service. “A lot of people interact with that, they can relate to that,” he says. La Wanda, a U.S. Navy veteran, represents a different way of sharing her experiences and feelings — not through artistic expression, but through direct and personal discussion. When she sits down to help other veterans as a volunteer mentor in a drug treatment court program, she likes to start by telling her story. “I will fully disclose anything and everything about me when it comes to helping another veteran,” says La Wanda, who served from 1985 to 1997. La Wanda shares her journey — the one that’s taken her from partying to substance misuse, an other-than-honorable discharge, and finally confronting addiction and anger. She finds that it helps to break the ice and chip away at any walls that someone else might be putting up. “Sometimes, it’s almost like you could see their demeanor change, and they’re like: ‘Wow. Why would a total stranger tell me that?’” The answer: She needs the truth from them in return. That’s how she can really help, as a mentor, as someone working with veterans as part of a drug court team. La Wanda opens up to help other veterans find their voice. The drug treatment court programs are for veterans and others who are facing legal trouble because of substance abuse and other mental health issues. These programs provide an alternative to jail time, offering support systems instead. La Wanda gives program participants hope by telling her whole story — not only the challenges but also how she overcame them. How she finally sought help when a friend finally told her, “You are no longer welcome in my home until you can do something about this.” How the 12-step fellowship program worked for her, why veterans who misuse substances should connect to services at VA, and why they should believe they can find a path to healing. “All veterans that suffer from a disease — that think they’re alone — I need them to know they’re not alone,” she says. “We let them know, ‘Hey, I did it. You can do it too.’ It’s probably one of the most gratifying, fulfilling things I’ve ever done.” On MakeTheConnection.net, these three veterans, and hundreds more, share stories about their mental health challenges and how they overcame them with mental health support.