I am shocked, saddened, and mad. I never knew this until today, but apparently one of my high school classmates, who I used to talk to occasionally, committed suicide recently, after trying to cope with a rough tour with the marines. Let's just call him Bob.

Anyway, I randomly logged into Facebook and saw it. Bob's father wrote scathing messages about the local VA hospitals, about how they neglected him and never gave him any medication. Apparently all Bob wanted to do was sleep through the horrible flashbacks he would get at night, so he wanted something to help him sleep and/or something to help him cope with the depression in some way. Basically, all he wanted was SOMETHING and he got zero. Nada. Zip.

Bob's father said that Bob went to a bunch of different VA hospitals in the area begging for help, and that he was neglected every time. Bob never once got a prescription because the VA doctors were confident that he could "deal with it in therapy." How awful. He had anxiety and depression and got nothing prescribed for either one of them... Inexcusable. It's no wonder he turned to drinking copious amounts of alcohol.

Bob's father went on to say that Bob would lock himself in his room for extended periods of time. Bob felt helpless because the VA hospitals let him down. He would wait for a psychiatrist appt, go to the appt, and then the psychiatrist would say "no, go to therapy." Then he'd have to find another hospital to go to and wait to see another doctor, only to be told the same thing. And well, I guess one day he gave up trying.