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| Photo Credit: AP. |
WASHINGTON (AP) — After finishing a tour in Afghanistan in 2013, Dionne Williamson felt emotionally numb. More warning signs appeared during several years of subsequent overseas postings.
“It’s like I
lost me somewhere,” said Williamson, a Navy lieutenant commander who
experienced disorientation, depression, memory loss and chronic exhaustion. “I
went to my captain and said, ‘Sir, I need help. Something’s wrong.’”
As the
Pentagon seeks to confront spiraling suicide rates in the military ranks,
Williamson’s experiences shine a light on the realities for service members
seeking mental health help. For most, simply acknowledging their difficulties
can be intimidating. And what comes next can be frustrating and dispiriting.
Williamson,
46, eventually found stability through a monthlong hospitalization and a
therapeutic program that incorporates horseback riding. But she had to fight
for years to get the help she needed. “It’s a wonder how I made it through,”
she said.
In March,
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced the creation of an independent
committee to review the military’s mental health and suicide prevention programs.
According to
Defense Department data, suicides among active-duty service members increased
by more than 40% between 2015 and 2020. The numbers jumped by 15% in 2020
alone. In longtime suicide hotspot postings such as Alaska – service members
and their families contend with extreme isolation and a harsh climate – the
rate has doubled.
A 2021 study
by the Cost of War Project concluded that since 9/11, four times as many
service members and veterans have died by suicide as have perished in combat.
The study detailed stress factors particular to military life: “high exposure
to trauma — mental, physical, moral, and sexual — stress and burnout, the
influence of the military’s hegemonic masculine culture, continued access to
guns, and the difficulty of reintegrating into civilian life.”
The Pentagon
did not respond to repeated requests for comment. But Austin has publicly
acknowledged that the Pentagon’s current mental health offerings — including a
Defense Suicide Prevention Office established in 2011 — have proven
insufficient.
“It is
imperative that we take care of all our teammates and continue to reinforce
that mental health and suicide prevention remain a key priority,” Austin wrote
in March. “Clearly we have more work to do.”
Last year
the Army issued fresh guidelines to its commanders on how to handle mental
health issues in the ranks, complete with briefing slides and a script. But
daunting long-term challenges remain. Many soldiers fear the stigma of
admitting to mental health issues within the internal military culture of
self-sufficiency. And those who seek help often find that stigma is not only
real, but compounded by bureaucratic obstacles.
Much like
the issue of food insecurity in military families, a network of military-adjacent
charitable organizations has tried to fill the gaps with a variety of programs
and outreach efforts.
Some are
purely recreational, such as an annual fishing tournament in Alaska designed to
provide fresh air and socialization for service members. Others are more
focused on self-care, like an Armed Services YMCA program that offers free
childcare so that military parents can attend therapy sessions.
The
situation in Alaska is particularly dire. In January, after a string of suicides,
Command Sgt. Maj. Phil Blaisdell addressed his soldiers in an emotional
Instagram post. “When did suicide become the answer,” he asked. “Please send me
a DM if you need something. Please …”
U.S. Sen.
Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, said that while posting to Alaska can be a dream for
some service members, it’s a solitary nightmare for others that needs to be
addressed.
“You’ve got
to be paying attention to this when you see the statistics jump as they are,”
Murkowski said. “Right now, you’ve got everybody. You’ve got the Joint Chiefs
looking at Alaska and saying, ‘Holy smokes, what’s going on up there?’”
The stresses
of an Alaska posting are compounded by a shortage of on-the-ground therapists.
During a visit to Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska earlier this year,
Army Secretary Christine Wormuth heard from base health care workers who say
they are understaffed, burned out and can’t see patients on a timely basis. If
a soldier seeks help, they often have to wait weeks for an appointment.
“We have
people who need our services and we can’t get to them,” one longtime counselor
told Wormuth during a meeting. “We need staff and until we get them, we will continue
to have soldiers die.”
The annual
Combat Fishing Tournament in Seward, Alaska, was formed to “get the kids out of
the barracks, get them off the base for the day and get them out of their
heads,” said co-founder Keith Manternach.
The
tournament, which was begun in 2007 and now involves more than 300 service
members, includes a day of deep-water fishing followed by a celebratory banquet
with prizes for the largest catch, smallest catch and the person who gets the
sickest.
“I think
there’s a huge element of mental health to it,” Manternach said.
It’s not
just in Alaska.
Sgt. Antonio
Rivera, an 18-year veteran who completed three tours in Iraq and a year at
Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, freely acknowledges that he has serious PTSD.
“I know that
I need help. There’s signs and I’ve waited long enough,” said Rivera, 48, who
is assigned to Fort Hood in Texas. “I don’t want my children to suffer because
of me not going to get help.”
He’s doing
yoga, but says he needs more. He’s reluctant to seek help inside the military.
“Personally I’d feel more comfortable being
able to talk to someone outside,” he said. “It would allow me to open up a lot
more without having to be worried about how it’s going to affect my career.”
Others who
speak up say it’s a struggle to get assistance.
Despite the
on-base presence of “tons of briefings and brochures on suicide and PTSD,”
Williamson said she found herself fighting for years to get time off and
therapy.
Eventually,
she entered a monthlong in-patient program in Arizona. When she returned, a
therapist recommended equine-assisted therapy, which proved to be a
breakthrough.
Now
Williamson is a regular at the Cloverleaf Equine Center in Clifton, Virginia,
where riding sessions can be combined with a variety of therapeutic practices
and exercises. Working with horses has long been used as a form for therapy for
people with physical or mental disabilities and children diagnosed with autism.
But in recent years, it has been embraced for helping service members with
anxiety and PTSD.
“In order to
be able to work with horses, you need to be able to regulate your emotions.
They communicate through body language and energy,” said Shelby Morrison,
Cloverleaf’s communications director. “They respond to energies around them.
They respond to negativity, positivity, anxiety, excitement.”
Military
clients, Morrison said, come with “a lot of anxiety, depression, PTSD. … We use
the horse to get them out of their triggers.”
For
Williamson, the regular riding sessions have helped stabilize her. She still
struggles, and she said her long campaign for treatment has damaged her
relationship with multiple superior officers. She’s currently on limited duty
and isn’t sure if she’ll retire when she hits her 20-year anniversary in March.
Nevertheless,
she says, the equine therapy has helped her feel optimistic for the first time
in recent memory.
“Now even if
I can’t get out of bed, I make sure to come here,” she said. “If I didn’t come
here, I don’t know where I would even be.”
Associated
Press writer Lolita C. Baldor contributed to this report.
The national
suicide and crisis lifeline is available by calling or texting 988. There is
also an online chat at 988lifeline.org.