Our military is called on to defend and fight for this country and they always respond without fail. Now it is time for us to step up and start helping them.
Many would think that our soldiers would almost be immune to the disease of addiction. With the stress of the wars over the last 15 years and multiple deployments, our veterans are coming home and falling into the trap of using drugs and alcohol to cope with the horrible side effects that war always produces. PTSD, TBI (traumatic brain injuries), exposure to combat, and physical injuries all contribute to the rise in addiction.
With a zero tolerance policy, members of our armed forces are sometimes too afraid to ask for help in fear of what punishment they may face. Pride also plays a role in the mind of our military. They have been through some of the toughest situations any human being would or should have to be in. To ask for help almost seems like a foreign concept.
Suicide rates are going up and in almost 50% of them substance abuse played a role. Many of our soldiers have been injured in combat. Many of them have been prescribed opiate pain medications to manage that. Opiate pain medications are some of the most widely abused drugs out there and our military is not exempt from that. Prescriptions for these medications from doctors to our members of the armed forces have quadrupled in the last 10 years.
We are free because our military has fought for that over the past 200 years. It would be wrong for us, as American citizens, to just sit and watch as the members and veterans of our Armed Forces battle addiction and not do something about it. Now they need the help and here at Clearbrook we will stand up and fight for them.
