Marching Home

A recent edition of ABC's Good Morning Show focused on a study indicating that as many as 60% of military men and women are coming home with more than the usual duffel bag full of uniforms, soap and medals. They are bringing home memories of horror, and the drug addictions that they use to blot it out.

These are the future homeless of America.

Already, one in four homeless adults is a veteran of war. By contrast, the percentage of veterans in the general population is only 11%. Last January, the Okaloosa Walton Homeless Continuum of Care/ Opportunity, Inc. undertook a survey of homeless people in our area, and counted 327 veterans, or 22% of our adult homeless population. This January, we expect to find more, in keeping with who we are serving in our meal and cold night shelter programs.

Our veterans are not fighting substance abuse and homelessness because they lack strength and discipline. They have that in abundance, as they proved every day they were overseas. In almost all cases, they did a terrific job for their country.

But while they were doing this terrific work, many of them were experiencing severe trauma routinely. Every time a bomb went off, or a sniper shot whistled down the street, they suffered overwhelming terror. Often they lost the ability to differentiate between friend and foe, and began regarding everyone around them as the possible agent of their death.

Each time a soldier tensed in fear and anticipation, he or she was manufacturing adrenalin for survival. Adrenalin is a terrific bodily defense, in that in heightens awareness, increases reaction time, and provides extra strength and energy for what needs to be done. It is also the TNT of human hormones, designed to be used very rarely. The side effects of large doses of adrenalin are so toxic that adrenalin would be banned by the FDA if it were the product of a commercial lab. And our soldiers' brains are bathed in this stuff over and over again.

The result is that the brains of a significant number of those soldiers become permanently altered. The clinical term is "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder," and the symptoms are frightening. Flashbacks take the soldier back to the worst moments, over and over. Nightmares keep him or her awake. Soldiers startle wildly and easily. They suffer from depression, anxiety, and a host of other destroyers of mental health.

If this wasn't bad enough, the Veterans Administration has just announced results of a study measuring the outcomes of the most common PTSD treatment, and discovered that none of them are effective.

Alcohol and illicit substances don't cure PTSD either, but they can block out the pain for a while. They can dull you to the triggers that might set off flashbacks, or quiet the screams you hear in nightmares.

Of course, alcohol abuse and heavy drug use bring a lot more than transitory bliss. They bring an inability to make personal connections, keep a job, a spouse, or a house. Eventually, they can bring life on the streets, and total despair.

This is not news to the Veterans Administration, which is set to open a local clinic in March, staffed with six social workers to address mental health and substance abuse issues.

This is a wonderful beginning, but if we are to support our troops, we need to do more. We need veterans store front clinics, where veterans can get drop in help or on-going therapy, referral to community resources, PTSD support groups, and other services.

And we need a shelter, where veterans can have access to hygiene, meals, transportation, job training and support while they work through mental health and substance abuse issues. All too often we use our jail as a shelter, which is ineffective, costly, and creates barriers to employment and assistance.

It's a great thing to wave our troops good-bye, and send them letters and cookies from home, supporting them while they are in the field. Supporting the troops when they come home, often damaged in ways we cannot begin to imagine, is much harder. Still, we owe it to some of the finest men and women of their generation.

Commemorate Pearl Harbor Day (Dec. 7) by attending the Opportunity, Inc. auction at the Breakers on Okaloosa Island at 6 p.m. Proceeds will be used to help veterans, families, and others needing assistance to get off the streets and back into life.