I was born and raised right here in Jacksonville. Like a lot of young men from this city, I joined the Army after high school, wanting to serve something bigger than myself. In 2012, I deployed to Afghanistan with Operation Enduring Freedom. I came home a year later with a bullet wound to my hand and nightmares that wouldn’t end.
While I was still on active duty, I was placed in the Warrior Transition Battalion, a program that helps soldiers recover from injuries and cope with PTSD. During that time, I was prescribed pain medication for my hand injury and at first, I trusted those prescriptions.
I later transferred to the National Guard, and when I was finally able to get an appointment with the Department of Veterans Affairs, they prescribed me Xanax, not realizing I was already addicted to the pain medication I’d been given while on active duty. Before long, I was dependent on both. After I tested positive for opiates, the VA took away my Xanax prescription, too…