Surviving Traumatic Depression

"I have never wanted to be anything else other than a soldier. It is the only real job I've ever had. It's part of my life."
Master Cpl. Kristian Wolowidnyk

THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout    Master Cpl. Kristian Wolowidnyk is shown in this 2010 handout photo in the in Panjwaii District, Kandahar Province, Afghanistan.

 

"When the government signs on for a war, like the war in Afghanistan, they know there are reasonable foreseeable consequences of what's going to happen as a result of this war."
"People are going to die. People are going to be injured and part of deciding as a country what we're going to do is that the government is going to have to accept that it'll have to take responsibility for the injuries our soldiers have suffered."
Michele Wolowidnyk

Master Cpl. Wolowidnyk envisioned himself forever a soldier. It was all he knew, all he aspired to continue doing. A husband and father of a two-year old, he wanted and anticipated that he would be able to remain in the Canadian military. He was prepared to re-qualify for another military trade. He was trained as a combat engineer, serving in Kandahar province, Afghanistan in 2009 and 2010. And he, like so many other members of the Canadian military was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

The Canadian military, like that of the United States, is facing an epidemic of military suicides, following hard on the heels of an unprecedented number of PTS-disorder diagnoses among their members. Veterans advocates claim that the four suicides that have taken place in a matter of days among members of the Canadian military and which have shaken the military structure and society in general may represent a tip of the iceberg of suicides.

Master Cpl. Wolowidnyk was informed that his psychological state which included anxiety and serious depression, left him unqualified to remain in the military's program of prolonged release for injured soldiers. He was one and a half years short of the ten years required to qualify for a military pension. That alone would not have been his goal, his family will be well cared for, his wife is an Edmonton lawyer. He simply wished to continue in some capacity with the military.

He is far from being unique in that way. There are many Canadian military personnel, some of whom have suffered grievous physical injuries, losing limbs, learning how to cope with prosthetics and undergoing therapy that allows them finally to see themselves and their futures in a positive vision of hope. Among them are numbers devoted to military life, who cannot see anything else for themselves and who are anxious to continue in some military role.

Master Cpl. Wolowidnyk was informed his condition did not allow him to meet the universality-of-service rule in the military. That rule requires all members to be sufficiently fit to deploy at a moment's notice. It is the nation's military, after all. But perhaps the military is being, as his wife Michele claims, overzealous in its bureaucratic clinging to hardfast rules.

It is a dreadfully vexing problem. Canadians join the military because they are drawn to the life within it, with all that that may entail. They are trained in a military profession, they take pleasure in performing their duties, they are prepared to deploy where they are sent on missions at home or abroad, whether it is to aid in civilian endeavours resulting from responses to natural or man-made disasters, or to join their peers in foreign war situations.

Defence Minister Rob Nicholson pleads with those in the military who find themselves struggling, to reach out for help. "My thoughts and prayers continue to be with those who have been affected by these recent suicides", he stated. He has also assured that government has put millions of additional funds into trying to solve the mental health of soldiers. The Canadian Forces ombudsman, Pierre Daigle, noted that National Defence has a 15-to-20% shortage of mental health professionals to cope with the growing influx of those in need.

Master Cpl. Wolowidnyk has attempted suicide just recently, but he survived the attempt.