Chasing the next healing

He served four years in the U.S. Air Force, endured dozens of surgeries, and weathered the pain of a fractured family. 

For a time, his spirit broke under the weight of it all. But today, he’s still standing, still fighting and slowly learning how to live again, discovering, perhaps for the first time, that he deserves to.

Since his teenage years, smoking and drinking was his choice. He says, “As I got older it was all too easy.”

Substances crept even more into his hands as he returned from service with an honorable discharge and an injured back. He spiraled into drugs, into deeper depression, into survival mode.

Despite his longing for a clean way forward, he continued to be absorbed into darkness throughout finding his way home after service, always chasing the next high.

Today, James is clear-eyed and candid, sitting in the safety of the VA Medical Center. “If it weren’t for this place,” he says, “I’d be dead. No question.”

From 1995 to 2023, James was misdiagnosed, mis prescribed, misunderstood. It was not until 2024 that he received a proper mental health diagnosis: bipolar disorder.

With the right treatment, everything changed. “It was like a miracle,” he says, eyes shining. “Suddenly, the impulses weren’t winning anymore. For the first time in decades, I had control.”

James had cycled through shelters, psychiatric hospitals, and temporary programs for years. But nothing stuck, until a social worker at the Fort Pierce VA Clinic asked a simple question: “Are you a Veteran?”

That moment triggered a chain of events that led James to the West Palm Beach VA Domiciliary Care for Homeless Veterans program. 

It was not easy for him, the Domiciliary is a place of structure, healing, and accountability. But James knew what was at stake.

“If it were not for my sister and a social worker at the VA, I wouldn't have gotten the help I really needed. I thought I was coming here to lose my freedom, but what I really lost were my chains.”

Looking towards the completion of his Domiciliary program, he shares with relief, “I know what it’s like to live for the next high. Now, I want to live for the next healing.”

From being surrounded by drugs and regrets to now protecting his peace, take it from the U.S. Air Force Veteran – there is always a chance to turn things around.

“For anyone reading this, if you are a Veteran and you are in the darkness, I want you to know: the VA saved my life,” he says with a smile. “There is an SOS being sent out. But only you can choose to answer it. If you want to grab that life vest, just once more, the VA is there. But you must take the first step.”

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The DOM was established in the late 1860's and now serves as an active clinical treatment and rehabilitation program for male and female Veterans. Learn more: https://www.va.gov/homeless/dchv.asp