JaceJarak

In US not Canada but: what is the best way to help suicidal vets who refuse to talk to the VA because they are too afraid of getting a PTSD label or any paper trail what so ever (could affect job etc)? I am a vet and it hurts incredibly much not knowing how to help other vets who refuse to get help because of this. I know a few who have lost their battles after they came home and it puts me in tears far more often than I would like to admit...

Ok. But how do I even convince others of that... especially those with an unhealthy level of paranoia?

I honestly don't know much about how the VA works and try to go to them as little as humanly possible. It was eventually possible to get on of my best friends brother to go there after he admitted he had a problem (his family died here while he was deployed) but there are others I'm almost impossibly unable to get through their depression much less convince them they need help...

Also how would they answer questions at hiring that specifically ask about history of mental illness and not be in trouble later for lying about it should they be found out? I think that's the fear thing having already answered that sort of thing before

Mostly government related work including need for security clearances and mental health evaluations on regular intervals. One of my closest friends is living across the country right now waiting for his clearance to kick back in so he can get back to his previous job. In the meantime doing security work. I can't do much other than talk to him from here. It's been over a year since clearance lapsed and I don t really know what's going on with it. I don't tend to press him much for details of things like that. I dont even know half of what he's been through but some of it I know is horrible :(

Usually it's not the PTSD alone that is the problem. I see my friends coping okay for a few years. What happens is some other aspect of life has a big downturn, and then it spirals down from there with PTSD making it all worse and eventually they break and give up :( usually the life event is unfixable from my end, because jobs or deaths or whatever are not in my worldly control. But it's the tipping point where PTSD becomes unmanageable and the downward spiral begins.