MARINE 2003-2011 — Cohen Veterans Network, first telehealth session

Two tours in Iraq, separated as a sergeant in 2011, never enrolled with the VA because I had heard the wait times were brutal and I could function. Functioning meant working a sales job, drinking every weekend, getting divorced, and not sleeping. My second wife found Cohen Veterans Network on a Sunday after a particularly bad Saturday. She filled out the intake form with my permission. The clinic called me at 0830 Monday. The clinician who screened me — herself an Air Force veteran — got me an appointment for telehealth the following week. First telehealth session. I was sitting in our spare bedroom in front of a laptop the size of a clipboard. I had told myself I would give it one session and then quit if it felt like therapy for civilians. It did not. The therapist was post-9/11. She used specific language about combat that I had not heard outside of a unit reunion in eight years. Forty-five minutes in I told her about a specific incident from Ramadi 2006 that I had never told anyone. She did not flinch. She did not redirect. She let me finish, then she said, 'Thank you. We have a lot to work with. I will see you next week.' I have seen her every week for two years. CVN is free. There is no diagnosis required up front. Your discharge does not have to be honorable. If you are post-9/11 and you have been telling yourself you are functioning, call them.