Jill's Journal:There is help for better mental health

As you likely read on page 1 of this week’s Brandon Valley Journal, the Valley Springs City Commission meeting – typically no more exciting than watching grass grow – packed quite a punch.

In my near 40 years of covering city and county government and school board meetings, I’ve seen tempers flare and heard voices raised. I’ve witnessed tears and fists pounded on podiums. But last week was a first when a Valley Springs man came to air his grievance. He fired off words of anger, words of threat. He made fists and positioned himself to be ready to take a swing.

What myself and the others in the room likely hadn’t anticipated is the level of anger this man was bringing to the meeting. 

His anger was immediate. His words came fast and furious, and at times, they made little sense.

I sat within a yard or two of where this gentleman stood before the city commission. At the time, I didn’t find myself scared or looking for the nearest exit. 

On my drive back to Brandon, it was then that I began processing what had just unfolded at the city commission meeting.

“What if he had been armed?” I asked myself.

As I learned the next day in talking with Deputy Tirrell, the man suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). His PTSD is likely related to his service to our country as a Vietnam veteran.. According to an Agent Orange Newsletter, PTSD is defined as having flashbacks, upsetting memories, and anxiety following a traumatic event. 

PTSD was officially recognized as a mental health condition in 1980, just five years after the end of the Vietnam War. 

For hundreds of years, these symptoms have been described under different names in soldiers from many wars. However, Vietnam veterans with these symptoms were the first to have the term ‘PTSD’ applied to them. Despite the passage of nearly 50 years since the war, for some Vietnam veterans, PTSD remains a chronic reality of everday life.

Mental health is an illness. It can encompass our emotional, psychological and social well-being, and affect how we think, feel and act.

Fortunately, there is help. 

There are counselors and pastors. There are agencies, in Minnehaha County like Southeastern Behavioral HealthCare, The Link Triage Center, and the VA.