-Okay.
Hello, and welcome to Vet Resources Check-In.
My name is Aaron Rayburn.
I'm the Director at the Huntington Vet Center
here in West Virginia.
I served in the Marine Corps in the late '90s
and with the US Army
19th Special Forces Group in Afghanistan in 2009.
The purpose of the check-in today
is to share on anxiety and fear
and how it relates to some associated emotions
with the recent changes in our role in Afghanistan.
In Afghanistan, I served as an all-source intelligence analyst,
and we worked and lived closely with the Afghan people
during the entire deployment.
Our mission served in multiple areas
during Operation Enduring Freedom,
and a lot of those were humanitarian aid,
so we were able to work closely with the population
and serve them in a positive manner.
The recent withdrawal and the media images
in Afghanistan have... seem to be out of the norm,
especially over the last 10 years or so with Afghanistan.
It hasn't been a topic of media coverage,
and all of a sudden out of nowhere,
we see 24-7 coverage of the war in Afghanistan
or the withdrawal.
It's been difficult for many and for myself
to see the way that those events turned out.
It's been tragic for a lot of people.
Personally, anxiety and fear was a part of that
but mostly anger and sadness for the folks that we worked
and served with in Afghanistan and of course for the troops
that were a part of that withdrawal
and the tragic loss there.
The purpose of today is to talk about anxiety and fear
and how those relate to veterans and service members
and just to kind of get an idea of how we can handle those
and recognize those and then seek help in dealing with those.
Anxiety can be described as a state of being,
an overwhelming feeling of nervousness, restlessness,
sometimes panic and even into fear.
It produces a lot of different emotions
of thinking and behaving and feeling,
and it can sometimes encompass most of your day
and in your life and becomes problematic.
Anxiety as an emotion as normal can be placed
in a healthy way in our living.
Going to war or training for war,
entering a war zone, anxiety is a good emotion
and a feeling to have, even sometimes fear.
It can be beneficial in a lot of ways that will allow you
to react to certain situations, external factors,
fear associated with the common terms
of fight or flight during a situation
where an external event or a traumatic event
would require you to act and behave
and think in ways that would be beneficial
and life-saving for yourself or others.
Anxiety would be kind of... resemble, like, the climate.
It's stable over a period of time,
and then a severe weather event
that would be related to fear would be out of the norm
and create some reactions in veterans
and nonveterans as well.
Major shifts in our role in Afghanistan recently
has created some thinking and feeling and behaving in veterans
that maybe they thought that they were handling the war
in Afghanistan, the aftereffects of their war,
a little bit better than they were.
The pull out of Afghanistan, the media coverage,
those two areas caused a lot of anxiety and fear in veterans.
The emotional things and reactions
are sometimes confusing and ambiguous,
and they trigger a vast array of different
psychological and physiological responses,
and a lot of times, I see in our veterans
and in myself the questions we ask ourselves is,
"Why am I feeling this way? Why am I reacting this way?
Why is this happening? Should I do anything about it?
Should I feel anxious,
and should I have some emotions that resemble fear?
Should I care? Is it my problem anymore?"
So these thoughts and emotions and feelings
can sometimes be unexpected and confusing,
and that's why we're here.
That's why the Vet Center exists is to bring people into the fold
and let them have a safe place to express their emotions
that are sometimes unexpected, confusing and troubling.
Recently and then forever we've seen reactions of anger
and sadness,
conflicts in values and moral injury.
These are uncomfortable and troublesome,
but the Vet Center is a place that can help you
make sense of those in a lot of different ways.
One of the most important key factors
in trying to understand your emotions
related to anxiety, fear, anger and sadness
is to tell your story,
to be able to talk about your experiences in combat
but also the way that combat has affected you
and the way that you now view the world,
and with these issues and concerns of anxiety
and fear and PTSD, how do we make sense of it?
How do we tell our story, and who's going to hear our story?
I encourage all veterans to see a counselor,
clergy, a fellow veteran, a friend, a family member,
someone that can listen and hear your story.
Feelings of anxiety and fear, sometimes panic, anger
and sadness are quite a burden to carry,
and if those aren't expressed in a safe place,
in a safe manner,
they will impact your life significantly.
I encourage folks to seek education and information
on anxiety and PTSD.
What's it like to return from war,
and how can I change my perspective on war
and how its affected me?
It's very important to do that with other people
that have shared that experience or other people that have worked
with people over many years in a professional manner.
Being connected with other people is very important.
You're able your share your universal response to war
and to the effects of war with other people
and learn how other people cope in a healthy manner.
Camaraderie is very important,
being able to connect with a tribe
or a family of individuals that have experienced war,
that have experienced the aftereffects of war.
The Vet Center is a good place to normalize your experience
and your thoughts and reactions to war and PTSD,
fear and anxiety.
And you'll find that in a Vet Center
and in the VA Medical Centers
that you'll find a way to genuinely share
on your experiences with the professional and peers
and find a way to grow and recover.
It's been a difficult few weeks for a lot of veterans.
We've seen an increase in symptoms
related to war service and war fighting,
and we encourage all veterans
from all eras to find a Vet Center or VA
to seek assistance and help with anxiety and fear
and all other related emotions that go along with war
fighting and PTSD and readjustment and recovery.
And to our Vietnam veterans that have been triggered
by the recent events in Afghanistan,
increase in anxiety and fear, anger and sadness have shown
and presented to Vet Centers in that era,
the Vietnam War veteran.
I encourage those men and women to seek a Vet Center
and to talk about the recent events
that have triggered their war in Vietnam
and the 1975 pull out of Saigon.
I appreciate the time, and I appreciate the opportunity
to speak on behalf of all veterans
and Afghanistan veterans and Vet Centers
providing services throughout the entire country
and VA Medical Centers that provide great services
throughout the country as well.