Getting clean with help from the VA Maryland Health Care System

After failing to complete a semester at a community college, he felt aimless and enlisted in the US Army in 2010 at age 18.

“I felt that in the Army, I’d be able to get my life together and have a better future,” he said. “My father was a Green Beret, and I looked up to him, even though he passed away from an overdose when I was three.”

 After completing bootcamp at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, he was then assigned to the 4th Battalion, First Artillery Regiment Unit of the First Armored Division at Fort Bliss, Texas, a unit headed to Afghanistan just two months after he arrived. Eight months after enlisting, Jeffery found himself in Afghanistan in a combat zone where he spent a little under a year.  Despite completing training as a 13B Cannon Crewmember, a combat arms Military Occupational Specialty designated for those trained to operate howitzer cannons that fire large artillery rounds, Jeffery was assigned to a Route Clearance Package once arriving to his combat outpost in Afghanistan. While on Route Clearance, a team responsible for patrolling roads to clear them of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), he participated in dozens of Route Clearance Patrols through the heart of Taliban strongholds, assisting in the discovery of over 30 IEDs, and ensuring that routes were cleared for the Task Force Bulldog units.

“His gallant efforts resulted in the capture of three detainees with possible Taliban ties,” according to Army documents. While he did not sustain any injuries from combat, he did injure his back during these patrol missions from falling out of a mine-resistant, ambush-protected vehicle, which is specially designed to withstand an IED blast. 

“I was lucky –never being in a truck that was hit, but I was Med-a-vac-ed to Bagram Airfield where they put me in a bay for wounded soldiers and gave me Oxycontin for my back injury,” he said. 

After being treated for his back injury, he returned to duty with his unit, which had then been moved from the small combat out-post to a larger forward-operating base before returning to the US. Jeffery immediately began experiencing difficulties transitioning to routine Army life in Fort Bliss, a mere 13 miles from El Paso, which is identified by federal authorities as a “transportation hub” for drugs like methamphetamine and heroin. Due to his struggles adjusting to routine Army life after a tough deployment, Jeffery began relying on alcohol to cope with his mental health struggles, and during one drunken night in the barracks, he gravitated toward a few soldiers who also binged regularly. They introduced him to black tar heroin. That’s when his life took an unexpected turn that changed the trajectory of his miliary career and personal life. 

Once I started doing heroin after my deployment, it quickly got to a point where I couldn’t keep a needle of out my arm to save my life, even though I desperately wanted to stop using,” he said.

When two friends confronted him after noticing his deteriorating mental and physical health, Jeffery confessed that he’d been injecting heroin daily for two months. Supported by his friends, he flushed the remainder of his heroin stash and agreed to voluntarily admit himself into the William Beaumont Army Medical Center the following day. 

After several days of heroin withdrawal in the psychiatric unit of the Army hospital, he was discharged and referred to the Army Substance Abuse Program. Because he entered treatment voluntarily for his substance abuse problem, Army policy allowed him to have a one-time reprieve from any disciplinary action. However, that reprieve was contingent on his enrollment and completion of the Army Substance Abuse Program, a low-intensity outpatient program consisting of a weekly hour-long individual counseling session as well as weekly attendance to a support group. 

Although compliant with his treatment plan for two months, he strongly felt that it was not sufficient to abstain from heroin use and repeatedly requested for the Army to admit him into a more intensive treatment facility. Unsuccessful in his attempts to receive more intensive treatment, Jeffery eventually relapsed on heroin and abruptly fell back into a pattern of daily use. At 20 years old, he was addicted to heroin, unable to perform his duties as a soldier, frustrated by unrelenting misery from the seemingly inescapable cycle of heroin dependence and withdrawal, and hopeless. During his final months at Fort Bliss, in a last resort attempt to end his battle with heroin addiction, Jeffery attempted suicide by injecting himself with a lethal overdose of heroin. His suicide attempt was unsuccessful.

After nearly two and half years as an active-duty soldier, Jeffery received a general discharge under honorable conditions. After his discharge, Jeffery was admitted into a civilian rehab inpatient center, but failed to stay clean and ended up being terminated from the program.  Once back in Maryland, he had purposefully avoided the VA health care system because during the military discharge process, he had been advised to avoid VA health care. However, after his multiple unsuccessful attempts at abstaining from heroin use, he had reached a place of desperation.

“My aunt, a Veteran who receives her health care at the VA, took me by the hand and walked me into the Baltimore VA Medical Center to get me enrolled and to get help,” Jeffery said. 

Treatment at the VA Maryland Health Care System brought about another turn, this time shifting him onto a healthier path. He was admitted into the acute mental health care unit at the Baltimore VA Medical Center where he stayed as an inpatient until he was transferred to a residential treatment program at the Perry Point VA Medical Center. 

“I have PTSD, and that was driving the addiction. Until the VA treated the underlying cause, I wasn’t able to succeed in my recovery,” Jeffery said.

The VA Maryland Health Care System is among a handful of VA health care facilities equipped to treat dual diagnosis such as substance abuse and PTSD. “What we know about traumatic experiences is that in the aftermath of a trauma, many who are unable to move past the trauma often turn to drugs and alcohol to numb themselves from the original situation. It's like covering up a wound with more and more bandages instead of treating it and airing it out,” said Dr. Minu Aghevli, the harm reduction program coordinator at the VA Maryland Health Care System. “Many people have been told that they needed to completely stop using and establish sobriety before they can start working on their trauma symptoms, and this keeps them from being able to move forward,” she said. 

 She emphasizes that there are plenty of ways for patients who aren’t ready or able to stop using or drinking to start addressing their trauma situation and building coping skills so that life feels more manageable. “At a most basic level, since a central issue for many individuals with trauma is trust, even just reaching out for help can be a huge step in your recovery,” she said.  “The tough thing about drug and alcohol use is that they can numb you so that you don’t go through the healing process.”

Aghevli also stresses people can numb themselves from trauma in a variety of ways with substances being one of them. “People can and do use other ways to numb themselves, including gambling, sex, and food, among others.” 

For Veterans still actively using substances, there are harm reduction options such as a sterile syringe program and drug-checking test strips to test for fentanyl or xylazine. Naloxone, the overdose reversal medication, is also widely available to veterans enrolled in the VA health care system free of charge without a prescription from the VA pharmacy.

To treat the trauma, VA relies on evidence-based approaches, including cognitive processing therapy, prolonged exposure therapy, and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing, which involve individual psychotherapy sessions that help veterans process and confront traumatic experiences, combined with medication management and group therapy options for veterans with similar experiences to share and support each other. 

For Jeffery, this treatment approach provided the keys that allowed him to heal. Now after more than six years clean, he’s married and works as a peer recovery specialist in Baltimore at an in-patient treatment center where he helps others struggling with addiction. He recently passed his exam, earning his certification as a peer recovery specialist and is planning to start a family of his own soon—things he could have never imagined for himself when he was in the midst of active addiction. “I can achieve goals now,” he said. “I want to help others.”

If you are veteran and struggling with issues like PTSD, depression, grief, anger, addiction, you are encouraged to seek help at the VA Maryland Health Care System. We offer counseling and same-day help at all our facilities. Call our Veterans Crisis Line at 988 and press 1 for free, private help anytime 24/7. Our local suicide prevention coordinators can also connect you with ongoing counseling and services. For a listing of all VA Maryland Health Care System facilities and phone number, please visit Health Services | VA Maryland Health Care | Veterans Affairs.