idk who else to ask bc this is really the only mental illness/health blog i follow but... my family has been trying to get me to join the military (US) for cheap college but i hardly even know what the military has to offer? i have avpd and a plethora of many other severe issues so would they even accept me? what would someone so mentally ill be even good for? what would i do? (1)
(2) in my current state of living i feel like the military is the only way to go, or am i too… worthless, even for a last-resort route? i dont assume you to have answers but maybe someone else might?
Hey there. I am Australian and don’t know a lot about the US military, but I have an American friend who has a lot of family members in the military, and so I asked her for some input. This is what she had to say:
Okay, so they do do a health screen before you can enlist for both health and mental illnesses. I am not sure what passes and what doesn’t. My first piece of advice though is to figure out for sure why you would be joining. Are you doing it just because it seems like a last option and your family are pressuring you into it?
If so, do you actually want to go into the military? True, there are a lot of benefits, such as schooling and pay, and it’s also a great stepping stone for getting into a lot of great careers. But there’s a lot of crap too. Sometimes it’s a struggle to get the schooling that you want because of budget cuts or other stupid reasons, and you have to take classes you don’t like, because they’re the only ones that fall into the list of accepted courses.
You can pursue your career, but you can’t always take the classes that you might want to. I had siblings on both ends of the spectrum and it can get pretty ugly sometimes. It’s a two sided coin just like any other job.
Second piece of advice, you should talk with your doctor/therapist/whoever you see for your illnesses and have them go through whether they think that it would be a viable career option for you.
Third, before you get into any of it, take some time to find other viable career options so that you know going in that the military isn’t the only thing you have left, and so if you can’t enlist you are already prepared with some other options.
Fourth, what branch do you want to get into? Different branches may have different requirements to meet. The lifestyle will be different and future benefits will also be just a little bit different.
Fifth, last, and probably most important, only look into the military if it is something you genuinely wants to do. Not because it’s a last option, not because your family is pressuring you. Do it only if you really want to do it. If that’s the case, then look into it and see what you can do, and if you can do it.
And don’t get me wrong, there are some really great benefits. There’s good pay and school benefits, career experience and training. There’s a whole plethora of things that goes into it. I’ve got two brothers who have turned it into their career of choice and they are very happy. I have two others who didn’t mind being in the military but are happy to be done with it. It really depends on the person.
Also there are the after-effects of being on active duty that you have to think about, such as being away from family and friends for extended periods of time, as well as PTSD and other illnesses that happen in extreme situations, moving to active base assignments, officers positions, and the yearly testing/checkups to be considered acceptable for active duty.
So, the tl;dr version is: There are a lot of benefits and you can make a good career out of it, but it can also be really terrible. It’s going to depend on you as a person. But if it’s not something that you genuinely want to do, you’re probably going to have a bad time of it regardless. You also need to consider the impact that active duty would have on your mental health, and whether or not it is worth it.
There are other options. You can attend a community college, a trade school, a work experience programme. If you have a therapist, you can ask them to help you find other means of training and employment. You may also be able to find a programme that helps people with disabilities find education and employment. Have a look around for programmes that exist in your area.
You are not worthless. You are a person and you are living right now. That gives you worth. Your worth doesn’t reside in your ability to have a job or be “useful”. You are worthy because you are here now, you exist, and you are living despite all the things that make living hard. You have worth because you are a person.
Whatever you end up doing, know that it does not prove or negate your worth. Your worth already exists inside you.
- Liese