What Can A Vet Do?

1. Accept that you will have down days. When I exited the Navy on an early, but honorable discharge, I was concerned enough about my mental stability that I went to the college shrink the first semester. He told me I was a normal neurotic who would become psychotic if I worried about my neurotic moments. He told me to prepare two "bucket lists", one for when I am down and one when I up.
2. Accept that you will have down days. For me, I schedule downdays on Wednesday and Sunday. The other days I take stimulants (coffee, tea, West Virginia meth (Mountain Dew) and an anti-narcoleptic. It you take simulants every day they will become less effective with you eventually destroying your guts and body.
3. Accept that you will have down days. Keep a diary to record and marinate your thoughts and fears.
4. Accept that you will have down days. Keep a diary to flip your fears into funny self-depracating jokes which fellow vets will enjoy most of all.
5. Accept that you will have down days. Learn a musical instrument even if you cannot carry a musical note in dump truck.
6. Accept that you will have down days. Learn to laugh when you sense a problem, fear or frustration. Problems will not grow and last if you first laugh at them. The word "problem" is Latin for "better dancing" (pro ballet/ballein). Every problem is an opportunity to package the solution to sell or give to others. You have only one life, treat each problem as an opportunity to dance better on that one stage which is your life.
7. Accept that you will have down days. Everyone has down days. Maybe vets have worse days than the average American (I think so). But vets do not have it as bad as the average human being alive today. Remember to compare yourself only to yourself. Are you going forward? Are you more creative and self-sufficient today than yesterday but less than tomorrow? Remember the Indian saying of "I cried because I had no moccassins until I saw the man who got no feet." Or, as I like to day, "I cried because I had no pants until I saw the man who got no ass."
8. Accept that you will have down days. Make the most of them. The richest people in life are those who overcome the greatest obstacles. (The richest people are not the Wall Stealers who have decapitalized America for money from greed.)
9. Accept that no one will help you in end with your mental challenges but you alone which requires useful, creative values. Remember, morality without practicality is immoral. Choose your faith and religion wisely if you want to build a house of lasting happiness instead of a house of deepening depression.
10. Define and set one or two down days a week. Know you are not alone. Know you are in good company. Abraham Lincoln ... Winston Churchill.
11. When available, shape your experiences into short stories, poems, songs or encouragement for the PTSD brainbee.

Don't kill yourself for yourself. Die for a good cause, at least.