PTSD from military service, and how to TAP in for help (Enable: The Disability Podcast)

By Geoff Herbert | gherbert@syracuse.comWhat kind of mental health challenges do veterans face after military service? Marc Migala, a board member at Veterans Outreach of Pennsylvania and director of veterans care services at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, speaks with “Enable: The Disability Podcast” co-hosts Geoff “DeafGeoff” Herbert and Kurt Hower about PTSD, depression, substance abuse and other struggles that can occur after leaving military service.“Diagnosing PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) requires a clinical diagnosis. You can suffer from it, you can have it. We will know you’ve got it. But until you truly seek help and drill down to what you really are struggling with, PTSD can come from normal things,” Migala explained. “And that can be any one singular traumatic incident that you went through... Now you compound that to a military-related service, whether it be incoming fire, whether it be mortar rounds, whether it be just something impactful, a car bomb, a vehicle-borne IED, all of these things create a response within ourselves that becomes a fight or flight. And it reverts us back to the very basic nature of, my gosh, I’m back in this instance. It’s creating that same anxiety inside of me. My response is the same. My heart rate is the same, cold panic, sweats, anger, anxiety, reluctance to engage.””PTSD (in the most non-clinical person nutshell) is the response to traumatic events that we carry with us that unfortunately, in many instances, we have not been dealing with properly," he continued. “And there are resources that we have that we can use and tap into as veterans when we leave the military that are truly impactful for us and our family members.”Migala also shared information on how to TAP in for help -- as in the U.S. Army Transition Assistance Program (TAP) -- plus additional resources to help vets:va.gov (U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs)maketheconnection.net (Make the Connection)mentalhealth.va.gov (Mental Health Services at the VA)veteransoutreachofpa.org (Veterans Outreach of PA)hiringourheroes.org (Hiring Our Heroes)skillbridge.mil (Skillbridge)orhusa.org (Operation Restore Hope)“Enable: The Disability Podcast,” which highlights amazing people with disabilities and different abilities, releases new episodes weekly on YouTube and all major audio podcast platforms, including Spotify, Apple, Amazon and iHeart.Follow facebook.com/enablepodcast or @enablepodcast on Instagram and TikTok for more.About the hostsGeoff Herbert, who was born with a profound binaural hearing loss, is a reporter and content supervisor for Advance Local. Despite being mostly deaf in both ears, he’s also worked as a DJ for 25 years, including in radio (as “DeafGeoff”) and as a wedding DJ in Upstate New York, and was inducted into the WJPZ Radio Hall of Fame. He learned how to communicate orally with hearing aids, lipreading and speech therapy, and embraces assistive technology like visual waveforms in music programs, closed captioning/subtitles, and video calls.Kurt Hower, who has worked at Advance Local for over 35 years, is a leader both in the media industry and in the community. He has been actively involved in leading change as the print industry has continued to rapidly evolve, while also serving on a variety of boards including the Central PA Chapter Arthritis Foundation Board of Directors where he was Chairman of Board Development and a member of the Public Policy and Advocacy Committee. Hower has ankylosing spondylitis, a rare disease that causes arthritis of the spine, and encourages others to focus on what they can contribute to society rather than their challenges.Note: Views expressed in this podcast do not necessarily reflect the views of Advance Local.Geoff "DeafGeoff" Herbert is a Reporter and Content Supervisor for Advance Local. He covers a wide range of topics including entertainment, national news and trending topics, plus specializes in search engine...