LANSING, Mich. (WLNS) — Suicide amongst veterans is a big concern, and vets gathered in Eaton Rapids Tuesday to handle the issue.
The Grunt Fashion Basis hosted the Michigan Veterans Hurt Discount Summit in Eaton Rapids, exploring the connection between prescribed drugs and veteran suicide. Tim Jensen, the president of the Grunt Fashion Basis, stated the remedy he was placed on after serving made him really feel like a zombie and led to a downhill spiral.
Joshua Parish is the Co-founder of VETLIFE, a charity group aimed toward serving to veterans stay a “safer, healthier, and prosperous civilian lifestyle.” He’s a veteran who suffered to the purpose of almost dying by suicide whereas on prescribed drugs after his time within the service, and says the transition from army to civilian life might be powerful.
“In the military, they teach you to rub dirt on it, uh drive on, don’t ask for help… but then when you’re out of the military and you go back to civilian life, they want you to ask for help, so when you ask for that help, and if you don’t get that help, you just kind of stop asking” Parish stated.
Based on Parish, veterans should lean on one another to defeat these points.
“I hear veterans all the time say, ‘I got out of the military 10 years ago, and I never even tried to find other veterans in the community’, and then when they come to our events, they leave with smiling faces, and then they’ve connected with other veterans,” Parish said. “And they say ‘man I wish I would have done this 10 years ago when I got out of the military.’”
Parish thought of suicide a number of instances, however he is aware of his battle was price combating as a result of now he is there for his household.
“Knowing at some point in my life, that I almost wasn’t going to be here again…” said Parish “I have four children, my youngest is 3 years old, and he looks at Dad as if I’m like his Superman”
To those that discover themselves struggling now as he used to, he says there may be hope within the large image.
“A day is 24 hours, a year is 365 days, you’re on this earth for 70 plus years,” says Parish. “If you have a bad day, a bad week, a bad year, it’s not a bad life.”
