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My name is Daryl.
I was in the United States Army.
I served over in Baumholder from June '79 to June '80.
My mother passed when I was five, and my father wasn't
able to handle that, so he was an alcoholic.
Through the years, most of my family were all drug abusers
or alcoholics and things.
So I wanted a different way of life, so I
went into the military.
Our job was to invade Czechoslovakia if we ever had
to go, so we used to have alerts that we'd go one mile
from Czechoslovakia and be fully combat-loaded.
But I was not prepared to be in a combat situation, because
while I was being trained I never hit nothing with the
.45, my sidearm, and the M16 I couldn't shoot.
And like I say, if I stood in front of a barn with a tank, I
couldn't hit it.
And I got the reputation as a coward.
And so that affected me.
I just felt ostracized.
I felt that they were out to get me.
I got fear for my life.
I actually started getting paranoid.
I dealt with my issues with my staff sergeant, with my
things, through drugs and alcohol.
My bipolar and obsessive-compulsive had
kicked in, and they wasn't examining that.
They weren't looking at that, because I had already got a
reputation as being a coward, and so I never got
help with that part.
And that stuff came home with me.
I brought back an extremely large habit that the drug
scene can do.
So I had done more and more and more to do it, because I
had a *** habit.
Through that, crime came in.
Did five prison bits at home once I got out of the Service.
I've been to prison five times, gave over
15 years of my life.
I was a drug addict, and what goes along with drugs
is jails and death.
Just by God's crazy mercy, I didn't die, but I went through
that living hell, and my family went through it.
And I made my decision right there, is that
I am sick and tired.
I do not want to go through this no more.
When I got out of prison, that was the first thing I done.
I went to a NA meeting.
Because by being into jails and going into treatment so
many different times, they would tell me, Daryl, this is
going to be all right.
After you do these 10 years, when you come out just go to a
meeting and tell them your name is Daryl, and you don't
know how to stay sober on the street.
And that's what I done.
So I got up, and I went to a shelter and I got connected
with the VA.
By me being a Vet, you've got to go get your physical and
all that stuff.
So I got into an addiction treatment program, and that's
when I seen the psychiatrist.
And [SNAPS FINGERS]
first visit, he diagnosed me with the bipolar, the
obsessive-compulsive, and depression, and all that.
And I suffered a lot in things I had, but I say to him, when
I was in the military, it just enhanced it.
I went to treatment meetings, had one-on-one therapy with my
psychiatrist, one-on-one talks with my team lead and stuff.
Then we had group meetings.
Going through this, you see yourself growing.
It ain't going to grow like this, but it's going to be
step by step, inch by inch.
When you feel like opening up, or when you feel like you have
something, then you've got so many different people that you
can talk to, so many different specialists, not
just me or some Joe.
You've got all these specialists that specialize in
these fields.
I eventually learned to just start sharing that stuff,
because the one thing is, your pain that's
shared is pain lessened.
I'm still connected to the program.
I'm still in there.
And they supply that with you.
Some go on about their business, but I'm staying
there, because that's my support network.
And it's there as long as you want the help.
If you're a Veteran, you're coming home from the service
or you're just a Veteran just living on the street, you
don't have to be.
All you've got to do is show up at the hospital, tell them
you want to be assessed for a drug treatment program, and
they'll take care of you from there.
Because I know there's a lot of us out there that need it,
and we don't have to be like that no more.