Veteran ready to help others

This is the story of a Veteran who had a rough time, but is now ready to help others.

As a high school student, John Jeffery did his fair share of partying and experimenting with various drugs. After failing to complete a semester at community college, he felt aimless and enlisted in the Army at 18.

“I felt that in the Army, I’d be able to get my life together and have a better future. My father was a Green Beret and I looked up to him even though he passed away from an overdose when I was three,” Jeffery shared.

While he did not sustain any injuries from combat, Jeffery did injure his back during patrol missions from falling out of a mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle that is specially designed to withstand an IED blast.

“I was lucky never being in a truck that was hit, but I was medevaced to Bagram Airfield where they put me in a bay for wounded soldiers and gave me Oxycontin for my back injury,” he said.

After being treated for his back injury, he returned to duty with his unit, which had been moved from a small combat outpost before returning to the US. Jeffery began experiencing difficulties transitioning to routine Army life.

Due to his struggles adjusting to routine Army life after a tough deployment, he began relying on alcohol to cope with his mental health struggles.

Friends were there to help

When two friends confronted him after noticing his deteriorating mental and physical health, Jeffery confessed that he’d been injecting heroin daily for two months. Supported by his friends, he agreed to voluntarily admit himself into the William Beaumont Army Medical Center.

After several days of heroin withdrawal in the psychiatric unit of the Army hospital, he was discharged and referred to the Army Substance Abuse Program.

Unsuccessful in his attempts to receive more intensive treatment, Jeffery eventually relapsed on heroin and abruptly fell back into a pattern of daily use. At 20 years old he was addicted to heroin, unable to perform his duties as a soldier, and frustrated by unrelenting misery from the seemingly inescapable cycle of heroin dependence.

“My aunt, a Veteran who receives her health care at VA, took me by the hand and walked me into Baltimore VA to get me enrolled. I have PTSD and that was driving the addiction. Until VA treated the underlying cause, I wasn’t able to succeed in my recovery,” he said.

Maryland VA is among the VA health care facilities equipped to treat dual diagnoses, such as substance abuse and PTSD.

“What we know about traumatic experiences is that in the aftermath of a trauma, many who are unable to move past the trauma often turn to drugs and alcohol to numb themselves from the original situation. It’s like covering up a wound with more and more bandages instead of treating it and airing it out,” said Dr. Minu Aghevli, harm reduction program coordinator at Maryland VA. “Many people have been told that they needed to completely stop using and establish sobriety before they can start working on their trauma symptoms, and this keeps them from being able to move forward. At a most basic level, since a central issue for many individuals with trauma is trust, even just reaching out for help can be a huge step in your recovery. The tough thing about drug and alcohol use is that they can numb you so you don’t go through the healing process.”

Psychotherapy sessions help process traumatic experiences

Aghevli also stressed that people numb themselves from trauma in a variety of ways, with substances being one of them. “People can and do use other ways to numb themselves, including gambling, sex and food, among others,” he added.

To treat the trauma, VA relies on cognitive processing therapy, prolonged exposure therapy, and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing. This involves individual psychotherapy sessions that help Veterans process and confront traumatic experiences combined with medication management and group therapy options for Veterans with similar experiences to share and support each other.

For Jeffery, this treatment approach provided the keys that allowed him to heal. Now after more than six years clean, he’s married and works as a peer recovery specialist in Baltimore at an in-patient treatment center where he helps others struggling with addiction.

He recently passed his exam, earning his certification as a peer recovery specialist and is planning to start a family of his own soon—things he could have never imagined for himself when he was in the midst of active addiction.

“I can achieve goals now. I want to help others,” he added.