Episode 55 - SOLDIER MENTAL HEALTH: Signs, Solutions & Support

On this episode of the Roger Sarnt Podcast, join me, Sarnt Cruz, as I confront the stark realities of mental health issues within the military, a topic that's alarmingly urgent yet often shrouded in silence. Starting with a somber reflection on a holiday weekend, we unravel the distressing statistics from 2023, where nearly a third of our troops were hospitalized for mental health issues, and 523 tragically lost their lives to suicide. Our discussion is not just about numbers but the real struggles of young enlisted men facing depression, anxiety, and substance abuse, and how these challenges demand immediate and proactive engagement from all of us.

We take a hard look at the pervasive stigma surrounding mental health in the military, especially when it comes to seeking help. Personal stories of heavy drinking and the journey to sobriety highlight the cultural barriers that deter troops from embracing behavioral health services. This isn’t about pointing fingers but understanding that reaching out is a profound act of courage, not a weakness, and that it doesn’t compromise military readiness. Leadership plays an indispensable role here, and we emphasize the importance of creating an environment where prioritizing mental health is not only encouraged but supported without fear of judgment.

Navigating the mental health care system can be daunting, but it is a journey worth the patience and effort. Much like investing in our futures, finding the right mental health professional requires time and an open mind. Through this episode, we explore the power of addressing feelings, peeling back layers, and gaining insights into personal behaviors. As we wrap up, I extend my heartfelt gratitude to our listeners and invite you to continue this important conversation. Remember, with the right tools and support, mental health challenges don’t have to be so overwhelming.

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:01

Welcome back to the Roger Sarn Podcast, where we talk all things Army and I'm your host, sarn Cruz, and today we're talking mental health. So stay tuned, roger Sarn. Alright, so before we get started, do me a favor download and leave a review on the podcast. Okay, so this weekend that just passed was Valentine's Day weekend and it was President's Day all in one weekend, so a lot going on. We had four days off, and Thursday I went to sleep, woke up, friday was Valentine's Day.

Speaker 1 0:45

I said you know what, let's take this show on the road. So I went out, I went, drove down to Stockyard right, for those of you who don't know, I'm stationed in Fort Cavazos and I'm in, I live in the Killeen area and drove down to what is that called? Or up to Stockyards. And drove down to what is that called? Or up to Stockyards, and because I have this brand new DJ Osmo Pocket 3 gimbal thing, whatever it is, I said, well, let's record an episode while we're out here, right? Well, that was the intent to record some stuff, but I turned it into recording an episode. So I sat down over there by the Stock Exchange they got some rocking chairs and stuff like that. I set up my camera on my tripod, pulled out my what is it? My iPad, wrote and brainstormed some notes and said hey, let's freaking send it, because if you are like I am, you like being around people, and if you don't like being around people, you can still probably relate to what I'm about to say. So, valentine's Day a lot of times, what we'll do is, if we don't have a Valentine, we'll we'll hermit up in the room, in the house, wherever it is, and then we'll go ahead and we'll we'll play video games all weekend. We'll drink, we'll probably text our peoples, whatever it is, intermittently, and we'll drink some more. We'll stay up late break night, go to sleep, wake up hungover, do it again, do it again, do it again, right, but all while you're just in your own thoughts, or some people just stay in their thoughts, right, but that's the point. So I was like you know what I'm not going to do, that you know I got divorced in the end of 2023, been single for over a year, doing my thing, whatever it is. So I was like let's go down there, recorded the episode. I thought it was good, go ahead and it drops today, well, today, today. Well, tomorrow, wednesday, which is today, at the time of this airing and just go ahead and watch it on YouTube. I thought it was dope. To be honest with you and let me know if you guys like that type of vibe because I'll start doing it more.

Speaker 1 2:57

All right, let's move into the story and into the main topic. So, before we get into the topic, I want to drop some stats. Okay, I want to drop some stats on why mental health is so important in taking care of your mental health. In 2023, 31% of troops were hospitalized. Right, mainly it it the. The article says 31% of men. Within that 31%, there were some females, but predominantly men. The average stay for this hospitalization ranged from five to 34 days Okay, five to 34 days. And, obviously, when you're in there well, I wouldn't say obviously, but when you're in there, they're probably being treated for some type of anxiety, depression, substance abuse or just yeah, those are the main ones.

Speaker 1 3:54

In 2023, 523 troops died by suicide. 223 troops died by suicide. I want you guys to really let that sink in, because I would imagine that, unfortunately, that some of us, many of us, have heard of the instance of someone committing suicide. Right, I'm on cabasos and it's 2025, and we've already had a few, okay, so it's not uncommon. And the closer it is within your footprint, the more it makes you realize that mental health is important, the more it makes you realize that being a leader, being a battle bro, is not easy. As a leader, you're supposed to catch on to these things, right, but at the same time, you're not a professional nor an expert. And these trainings that you receive once a year, whenever they remember, aren't? They just don't suffice? There aren't enough. They just don't suffice. There aren't enough, okay. So in 2023, also, the suicide rate was 9% higher than 2022. It's getting progressively worse, okay, and amongst this population of individuals or troops that committed that actually successfully committed suicide, they were majority. I can't even say like I got the mums were young enlisted men Okay, young enlisted men. And the predominant method of suicide was by firearm. Okay.

Speaker 1 5:50

So how we're going to discuss this today? We're going to break this down into four segments, so stick with me. Okay, we're going to talk about the types of issues, typical types of issues you see in the military mental health related. We're going to talk about the stigma that you could perceive or that's out there. We're going to talk about how to overcome it, or at least I'm going to suggest ways that you can overcome it. And then we're going to talk about the process of getting to getting better right or getting enrolled or getting into or getting the help that you need. So let's start off with the types of issues. The types of issues are a few. First one, I would say, is depression.

Speaker 1 6:36

You have young Joe and Jeanette that come in the military 17 and a waiver, 18 and up. If you're like me, you came in when you were 27. Oh, cheese and rice, right. So you have these young individuals who've never been away from home. Suddenly they're decentralized, they're take well, they go. They're not taken because it's volunteer. They remove themselves from what they're familiar with to go through a shocking process which is called basic training, and then a building process, which is still basic training, and then a educational process, which is AIT, and then they get to their real unit. And typically, when you get to your unit, it ain't that bad. It ain't as bad as basic training AIT. It ain't that bad, it ain't as bad as basic training AIT, it ain't all that.

Speaker 1 7:26

But now you're faced with the trials and tribulations of trying to fit in, trying to do the right thing. If you got a family, you're trying to be two places at once, be two people at once. It's difficult. So some people get depressed because they're away from their family. If they don't have nobody right, they just feel secluded. So some people get depressed because they're away from their family. If they don't have nobody right, they just feel secluded. So that's how depression kicks in. There are other ways, but as of right now, these are the ways I can think of.

Speaker 1 7:54

Then you would move into anxiety. Right, many troops are anxious. Right, you're in a new place. You don't know how it operates, you don't know if you're doing the right thing. You're trying to make the right impression. You're trying to do the right thing, you're trying to learn some things and all of this. Your brain is just rattling off and firing off and firing off. And you still got to go home to your spouse, or you got to go home to your, to your empty room, and then you got to go to work and then you got to have your own time. Right, it's so much that troops just get anxious because you're expected to learn everything when it's taught to you and if you mess up, it's like oh, my God, it's the, it's the end of the world type deal.

Speaker 1 8:37

And then you have PTSD post-traumatic stress disorder and one thing that I've learned about being in the military is that other soldiers do not appreciate that you may have PTSD. They don't care, or it's like well, I had it, I have. I've been deployed five times and there's always like a measuring contest. I've been deployed four times and whatever's always like a measuring contest. I've been deployed four times and whatever. Blah, blah, blah, right. So because of that, it's kind of like the old crusty sergeant that when that, when it's time to go to the board, you're like hey, I need some help, or why aren't you helping your soldiers, um, do study halls or whatever. And they're like well, when I was coming up, I studied on my own, ain't nobody helped me? Blah, blah, blah. I laugh because I've heard it so much.

Speaker 1 9:28

But yeah, and I digress, we just don't appreciate the fact that post-traumatic stress is exactly what it is. It's trauma, it's stress induced from a traumatic event. That traumatic event could have happened to me when I was 18, could happen to me when I was nine, and I'm just following that and entering the army and now I'm you. I'm still trying to be a regular person, but I'm still shocked from back then, I'm still stressed and post-traumatically stressed from back then and I'm just trying to learn something new. And boom, it just kicks in and no one knows why. You're all messed up or you feel some type of way because you are, you haven't deployed.

Speaker 1 10:13

Maybe, speaking of post-traumatic stress, I'm going to tell you something right now. Personally, I don't like cooking chicken breast. I hate it because, um, when I was, when I was in um, we were in the Nangarhar province, so we're at Torkham gate and um, afghanistan, and there was a mass cow we have I'm medical Uh, there was a mass cow that we had and it were. It was local population, it was like five, six, seven guys, um, and afghani guys, and then they, they I think it was a minefield, if I remember correctly.

Speaker 1 10:49

And one thing about when blood leaves your body, your, your, your skin and your tissues, they get cold quick. So I remember I was, I was taking care of this, this Afghani's calf, and his calf was so cold and it was. It was severed Right Like the meat. You can touch and squish it Like, just take your hand, act like you have your heart in your hand and just start pumping it. That's how it felt, but it was cold. So every time I took a touch of chicken breast. That's what I feel and that's a post-traumatic stress reaction, right? Because it automatically takes my brain there and does that show up every single day? No, do I tell everyone everything every single day about this? No, this is probably the first time I mentioned it, since I've mentioned it to my ex-wife back when we were back in the day, because we don't talk about stuff. So my point post-traumatic stress can come from anything, whether you're deployed, whether you went to Afghanistan, whether you went to Kuwait, whether you went to Poland, whether you just went to NTC or went to the field, who knows?

Overcoming Stigma and Seeking Help

Speaker 1 11:55

The next one that we have under types of issues is substance abuse disorder. Substance abuse Under types of issues Is substance abuse disorder. Substance abuse. We I laugh, but we have.

Speaker 1 12:07

I wouldn't say substance itself, I would just say alcohol. If you guys are doing substance Other substances Then you shouldn't, but alcohol is legal. So I'm going to stick with that. And we drink like shit. We drink like there's no tomorrow.

Speaker 1 12:24

Some people drink during the week and you can tell when they're at work. You know what I mean. I think that's. I don't want to say stop. But I haven't drank in a few weeks. And yeah, I mean I feel good, you know what I mean. But shit, I was, I was just buying alcohol every weekend, especially when I was an instructor. Shit, I think I went like many years just drinking every single weekend, every single weekend, every single weekend. Then it just one day just like, eh, I don't feel like doing it and so far I haven't done it. But that's a big deal, right there? Right, troops get into trouble, troops get pulled over, troops get into a fight, domestic, whatever it is, and if they got alcohol now they're submitted into, they're admitted into the program or they just recognize it and say, hey, I need some help, right? So those are the four types of issues. There are more, but for the sake of the podcast length, we'll cut it down to four. I think I did four few bullets on each one.

Speaker 1 13:31

Let's move into stigma, because I know for a fact that nine out of 10 of you I probably put my hand on fire that 10 out of 10 of you, but nothing's 100%, not even a DNA test, right, 99.9999. But I know you guys think that going to behavior, health is a negative stigma. We know that. We know that most of you won't go to behavior health because you're trying to put your warrant packet in Despite the fact that there's no actual clear-cut evidence that you would get denied Okay.

Speaker 1 14:08

So, that being said, you're not weak because you go to Behavioral Health. You're not weak because of that. You're not weak because you seek help. No, you recognize a problem and you're addressing it. What's so hard about that? What's so weak about that? Tell me, I'd like to know. Right, and for those who say, well, I don't want to go because I don't want my leadership to think I'm trying to get out of work, oh well, you know, they say perception is reality, but reality is reality at the end of the day, because I mean, at least for me as a leader, I prefer you go there than end up as the 523. Right, and I know I can say that here and in theory it sounds good.

Speaker 1 15:00

But as soon as you make that appointment, you're in the motor pool and you say, hey, sarge, I got to go to the, to my appointment. They will just reschedule it. And those are things that us, as leaders, we got to do better. We got to freaking, do better at that. It ain't that deep Like being in the motor pool ain't that deep? Vehicles ain't going to get fixed regardless for months. Right, I was, uh, when I was in 3-8 and third brigade we had those 113s. Never worked. Shoot one burned down on us. You think I'm a knowing the these facts that I'm not gonna get a code 18 on my esr? Code 18 means that your orders here or whatever part, right, I'm not going to get that for months. Who cares? Who cares? Who cares about the motor pool? Man, motor pools every day. Almost. People send troops to the motor pool almost every day. So Motor Pool Monday is just a formality. It's more for the mechanics, so they can be in the bays for the rest of the week, but troops are definitely at the motor pool and the coughs sitting around.

Speaker 1 16:06

Another thing that you might think is like, well, it's gonna affect readiness, I'm not gonna be able to deploy, or it's gonna, or it'll give me a red on my readiness, and when I go and put in pass or leave, they'll deny it. Blah, say blah, I'm not gonna lie to you. A red on my readiness, and when I go and put in pass or leave, they'll deny it, blah, blah, uh, I'm not going to lie to you. It doesn't affect your readiness. You going to EBH does not affect your readiness. I go to EBH and I'm deployable, 100% deployable. I go to EBH on post and say and, and I, and sometimes but I mainly go off posts, and you know what I mean. So readiness, uh, miss me with that, you don't, don't worry about that.

Speaker 1 16:56

And another thing is some of us and and I'm gonna, I'm gonna put this on on on on my side too, because some of us are just culturally just don't go to the doctor. My ex-wife didn't like going to the doctor. She hated like flu shots, she didn't care about that. Me personally, I don't like to the doctor. My ex-wife didn't like going to the doctor. She hated like flu shots, she didn't care about that. Me personally, I don't like taking meds per se.

Speaker 1 17:16

If it's like some type of like topical ointments, I'll work with it, but if it's pills, I try and stray away from it. I'll tell the doc, give me a different way. And if he or she be like well, give me a different way. And if you, if he or she be like well, you got to take this med, or at least take the med with you, just in case. Yeah, I'll take it, but I'll try and do a more natural way.

Speaker 1 17:39

My grandma was the same way. She didn't um, she didn't start going to the doc until her knees start going out when she was older, you know until everything started kicking in, and by then you know until everything started kicking in, and by then you know it's crazy. Too late Sometimes too late, though, but yeah, like you got to think about it, like a lot of us grew up in that culture, you know that they just, I ain't going to go see no doc, I don't need no doc, I can Google it. And now it Googles out there. All right, so let's move into how to overcome, like ways that you can get out of this rut. Right, because you're depressed, you have anxiety, you have all the types of issues, right? And then you know the stigma that's out there and you decide I'm going to get help, but I'm also going to couple it with some other things, right, which is a good idea, right?

Speaker 1 18:35

For instance, the first thing that I started doing when I realized because I was depressed I didn't even know I was depressed, I didn't know my body had to tell me I was depressed I went from 171 pounds, no 170 pounds to 179. No 184. I was 184. Boom in like a month. I was like how the hell did I get so fat in a month? And some change 14 pounds. Because I was just eating. I was eating anything right, and typically in my house I don't buy like Doritos or nothing like that, but I was buying it at the time.

Speaker 1 19:11

So my point is, when you're depressed, a lot of times you can just exercise, right. I got a little home gym in my garage. I get my PT in the morning. I try not to dodge it, right, because at the end of the day you can dodge one or two days, maybe four days a month, but you still got the other 15 days, so you might as well take full advantage of them, right? So, yeah, I do exercise. And if I'm not like if, if, if it's a day that I don't really feel like it like on a Sunday, that's that's the Lord's Day I'll still do some pushups or something. Do I fall off on it? Hell, yeah, I fall off on it Sometimes. Shoot, I just don't want to. But I do it because it's a distractor and it makes you feel better Every time you knock out an exercise. At least for me. I feel like I accomplished something, like, yeah, I knocked that out and that didn't even take that long, it only took an hour. It only took an hour and 10 minutes, sometimes 40-something minutes. Right, it all depends on the on the exercise that day, like, if it's a leg day, I'm blowing through that, I'm getting, I'm getting in and out the gym because it's there's always an excuse to miss leg day and if you don't agree, you're diabolical. But but yeah, so exercise is a good way to overcome um, your, your, your rut when you're feeling down and depressed therapy, seek therapy. I mentioned it already, but seek therapy it's nothing.

Speaker 1 20:42

One thing about a lot of people that I know is that they don't like talking to people because they don't like putting their business out, right. So who do you end up talking to then? Who do you end up talking to? You're not trying to burden your mom or your dad with your issues, because you probably did it already and you're like oh yeah, I don't want to keep doing it. You're not going to tell your cousin too many times. Friends from and I'm talking about people from back home, you and if you don't like telling people your business, you definitely not going to tell your people at work because you don't want people to look at you different. So if that's your issue, then who are you talking to? You just bottling that shit up? No, not. Go talk to a therapist Right and I'll tell you it's a totally different world. Once you let everything out, they sit there and they listen and they will talk about it. But, yeah, it's a totally different world and it feels better.

Speaker 1 21:39

You get that monkey off your neck. Get a hobby. Another thing is get a hobby Like my hobby right now what I do, the podcasting, I do the YouTube, I play golf, I read a book. Now that I got this pocket three Osmo, I'll start going places, more recording stuff, like I got multiple hobbies and that keeps me, keeps my brain going right.

Speaker 1 22:04

If, like, if I'm not doing something and I'm feeling kind of weird, I'll put that thought into like a brainstorm, like, okay, so what's my next um, what's my next subject going to be? And I just pull out my iPad and just start brainstorming, just start hitting it, pow, pow, pow. You know what I mean, because at the end of the day, like idle hands are the devil's playground. I'm pretty sure you guys heard that and that's true, because if you got things going on, if you got things going on and um, and you just sitting around just flicking through your phone, it your brain cause after a while you just get tired of just that dopamine hit because you, you done scrolled through all the, all the thing you keep trying to refresh. So now your brain starts going into drama, whatever it is that's going on, and boom you, boom, you're right back to square one, right?

Speaker 1 22:52

And another good thing is, like I said, talk to your family, that you feel comfortable with what I used to do. I used to take turns Like I would mess with. I'd talk to my brother, talk to my mom, I'd talk to my cousin, and then I just kind of like bounce every now and again when I had something that I felt like I needed to talk to and that was before I started therapy, right, and because at the end of the day, I like I don't be wanting to talk to them about all my stuff because they they like my little brother looks up to me, man, you know what I'm saying, what I look like kind of like telling him. I mean, obviously I want to be relatable, like I go through through things too. But I ain't trying to put pressure on him. He got a whole family. Now I'm going to worry him with my bullshit, nah, so that's why I just went and got a therapist.

Speaker 1 23:39

So get out the house, get out your room, just like I did Friday, and I do it typically. I go to Austin, I go to Georgetown and stuff. I just don't record it because I'm just out, I'm just outside, right. But now I'm going to be more mindful of it because now it gives me a whole another project and it gives me a whole another scenery to record a YouTube video like the podcast, but instead of it being in my room, my office room, I can do it outside. And if you guys who also watch the channel like it and be like, yeah, you should continue to do it, I'll definitely keep doing it. You know what I mean, because trick a lot of kids All right.

Speaker 1 24:19

Last but not least is the process, the process of getting help. Step freaking. One is going to your local B-A-H-E Did I say B-A-H? Yo, I'm wild To your local E-B-H, embedded Behavior Health. That's a little building and they're going to have all your behavior health techs in there, all your behavior healths in there, all your behavior health. Um, what are those called therapists, psychiatrists and psychologists? All right, and you're going to start the intake process and that process is going to make you want to pull your hair out of your nose, like it's going to make you want to pop the little pimple that you got around the edge of your lip, the one that really hurt, that no one ever touches because it's so extensive it's.

Navigating Mental Health Care Journey

Speaker 1 25:10

They took me about two hours and I thought about it like three or four times. I'm man, it ain't even that deep, but I stuck with it because you're going to get to your behavior. At least this is my experience. You get to your behavioral health. They're going to tell you before you get there. I'm like, yeah, it's a two hour process, so they prep you. It's not like you don't know, but you don't know, know, until you get there and you sit in there, right, and and and and, so, yeah, so you go there, you're going to sit there and they're going to give you the sheet here. Well, first you're going to check in, blah, blah, blah. They're going to give you the sheet. They're going to tell you fill it out. I'm like, all right, cool, fill it out. You fill it out and then you're going to give it back and then they're going to say, okay, so go to that computer back there and do the survey and you're going to notice.

Speaker 1 26:01

If you paid attention to the sheet, it's literally almost the same. And that in itself is another annoying. It annoyed me because I'm like I just filled this out In the past. Such and such have you felt this too much, not enough. Blah, blah, blah.

Speaker 1 26:19

It's like sometimes all the time, sometimes never. Blah, blah, blah. And's like sometimes all the time, never. Blah, blah, blah, and it's repetitive and repetitive and repetitive. And then you see that little bar at the top that keeps filling up, but it doesn't fill up fast enough. So that's annoying, but you got to do it, right? You got to invest that time to get your help. Just think about it as investing, like when you invest money into your TSP, roth IRA, whatever it is that you do, in stocks, bonds, savings yields.

Speaker 1 26:47

However you choose to do it, you're putting that money in for later on, right? Same thing here. You're putting this time in for the betterment of your mental health and then you're going to be able. Once you do that, you're going to talk to a doctor. They're going to do like an initial assessment, because you can go back there, do the same thing. They're going to go over the questions and then they're going to tell you what's your best path, right? So you can either see the doc there or, if it's too packed like they say, for instance, they can't get you an appointment for like 30 days Then you can either say, hey, can I get a referral off post, like I did, or you could, what is it? Yeah, you could just. You can just wait and just see them, right? So, or you can use the MFLAC in the meantime for them 30 days.

Speaker 1 27:42

The MFLAC, they'll probably be at your ACS. If you can't find them in in net nested within your uh brigade element or footprint, you can talk to the MFLAC until you get there. You can call military, one source and you can talk to. You can set up a few uh, what are those called? A few sessions as well, like there are multiple ways to get to those 30 days that you can start talking to people and at the same time, you're practicing how to let yourself go, like how to talk to people, well, how to tell people about your feelings that you don't know, right, because one thing about getting mental health is that you're probably not going to like your first doc, you're probably not going to like the second one, you're probably going to like the third one.

Speaker 1 28:33

But you got to go through the process. So you got to be patient. Patience is part of the process. I'm telling you, like the very first behavior health that I ever went to, she wanted me to close my eyes and do some freaking breathing stuff and I was like I don't even know. You. Like, how are you asking me to close my eyes and put me in my most vulnerable state? And I'm sitting right across from you. What if you slit my throat? What if you? You know what I mean. Mean, I'm like, no, I'm not doing that, you know. So I didn't like it. So I swapped her out.

Speaker 1 29:09

But my point is you got to be patient. You might not like the first one, you might not like the second one, but there's going to be one that's going to click. You got to be open-minded. You got to understand that they're not there to sit here and agree with everything you're doing, because sometimes you just ain't right. You know what I'm saying.

Show Appreciation and Farewell

Speaker 1 29:26

So you got the perception and then you got the perspective. Your perception is what you see. The perspective is what other people see, and that's the world that you should be living in, because that's the world that you need to understand, because you're you, you're gonna see everything. You're gonna agree with everything you see, but how do others see things? And you're going to see everything, you're going to agree with everything you see, but how do others see things? And that's why it's you need to talk to someone so they can give you an outside perspective of what's going on, cause a lot of times, they're going to tell you they're wrong, but they're not going to say like that. They're going to walk you around it. They're going to walk you around it, they're going to walk you into it and you're going to, and they're going to lead you to there by by addressing what you're saying, by questioning, by making you understand that that, that, that question how did that make you feel is so freaking powerful. It's so cliche, but it's so powerful because that opens up the box. It peels the layer back, boom. Peels the layer back, boom. Another layer, another layer, and you're like, holy hell, I could have done things better. You know what I mean.

Speaker 1 30:26

All right, so that's it for today, if you're still listening and you found this useful, go ahead and leave a download. I mean download and leave a review. If you have any questions, comments, concerns for the show, you can email me at rogersarn at gmailcom. Go ahead and watch that YouTube episode as well. Show some love over there. I appreciate you guys. You guys got me over 700 and almost 750 subscribers this year, so I gained like 200 subscribers. So shout out to y'all to be honest with you and I appreciate y'all. And, at the end of the day, remember you don't have to embrace the suck if you got the right tools in your rug. I'm Sarn Cruz and I'm out. Peace, roger Sarn.