V.A. suicide questions

[mustang200]

Sounds like a Catch 22.

It is. Now matter how you answer, they think that you are either lying or crazy.

 

[Balladeer08]

It is. Now matter how you answer, they think that you are either lying or crazy.

BINGO!!!

 

[JohnnySavage]

They take those questions seriously. Last August I spent 30 days as a guest of the VA and now have to "go talk about my feelings" once a month.

 

[Balladeer08]

They take those questions seriously. Last August I spent 30 days as a guest of the VA and now have to "go talk about my feelings" once a month.

Wait a minute. You mean if I give the right answer, I can get free room and board for 30 days?

How was the food?

 

[JohnnySavage]

Wait a minute. You mean if I give the right answer, I can get free room and board for 30 days?

How was the food?

The food was ok. The plastic sporks were a pain though.

 

[Balladeer08]

The food was ok. The plastic sporks were a pain though.

What did you say to them, if I might ask? And was this an involuntary vacation?

 

[Squibbs]

I wish some of lit's vets would follow suit.

Purge the world of their ignorance.

 

[BotanyBoy]

They take those questions seriously. Last August I spent 30 days as a guest of the VA and now have to "go talk about my feelings" once a month.

LOL did you go popping off at the mouth with some smart ass remark???

B/c that's exactly what I got for being a smart ass....couple years ago but still.

The drugs weren't bad....just a little excessive....VA really loves pills.

 

[GorgeousGeekGirl]

Best answer I can give is to compare it to this crazy doctor I saw in my military trade school.

i went in to get seen for a flu, because you have to have a note from the doctor to get a day of bed rest when your sick. So I'm there for the sniffles, and next thing I know this crazy broad is interrogating me about my sex life and is rabidly lecturing me like my fundamentalist parents while loading me up with condoms, pamphlets, and a prescription for birth control pills, and a threat of being written up for disobeying an officer if I left the clinic without them. I thought she was seriously bat shit crazy, for a year. When I saw the numbers of young unmarried female service members getting pregnant, her crazy made sense. She was reacting to a common disturbing trend.

It's the same way with VA and suicide questions. On one of my appointments to the VA, I overheard a longtime employee talking to a new one, and was talking about how well over half of the inpatients were there due to drug and alcohol abuse. There were a few other comments, but it all boiled down to the same thing: these men who had once been young patriotic idealists and someone's baby boy, were now damaged souls who were slowly killing themselves with chemicals to get rid of the pain... And now and then one would expedite the process by swallowing a bullet.

Please, when asked this question, don't piss off the counselors with a degree of snarkiness that will make them derelict to ask the guy who really does need help. A simple NO and moving on will suffice, and be grateful for your good disposition. When I was leaving the building, even though my car was parked several blocks away, I refused a shuttle ride because I was grateful I had legs to use, unlike so many I had seen that day.

 

[Balladeer08]

Please, when asked this question, don't piss off the counselors with a degree of snarkiness that will make them derelict to ask the guy who really does need help. A simple NO and moving on will suffice, and be grateful for your good disposition.

Part of the reason I am blowing off steam here is so I don't go off on them. A simple no has NOT sufficed, which really annoys me. Getting asked 20 times in one day is unreasonable.

And if you think I have a good disposition, wow, are you used to some warped people. 8)

 

[muycurioso]

I tell them yes

but I am not gonna do it. I have to raise my kids. If I didn't have them, well then things might be different. I told them that too.