Workshops assist veterans struggling to cope

by Astrid Galvan – Jan. 11, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic – original article

It took a year for Mike Ergo to get help after he realized he had post-traumatic stress syndrome.

The 25-year-old former U.S. Marine and two-tour Iraq war vet was too embarrassed and prideful to seek assistance.

“It’s counterintuitive to what I was taught (as a Marine),” he said.

Soon, a neighbor who was a Vietnam War vet, along with the fear of losing his family and girlfriend, convinced Ergo to pay a visit to his local veteran center in Northern California.

That led him to Vets4Vets, a non-profit, non-partisan organization dedicated to helping Afghanistan and Iraq war veterans though peer support groups.

Ergo has attended six Vets4Vets workshops that have helped him overcome PTSD symptoms like anxiety, which he said led to excessive drinking amongst other things.

After a lifetime of being a social person, Ergo couldn’t understand why he suddenly became physically anxious, sometimes unable to get himself to school and staying at home all day.

On Saturday, Ergo was one of about 30 war vets who gathered at Tempe’s Fiesta Resort, on Priest Drive and Broadway Road, for a weekend conference hosted by the Tucson-based organization.

The vets engaged a series of support groups where they shared their experiences and issues resulting from their time serving the military.

Abel Moreno, director of community development and media relations for Vets4Vets and an Iraq and Afghanistan veteran himself, said men and women came from all over the country to participate in the organization’s 37th weekend workshop.

More than 1,000 vets have come through the workshops since the organization was founded about two years ago.

“We make sure they can come and feel at home,” he said.

Some dressed in bright pink polos, others in black T-shirts with skulls, they all have one thing in common: They lived traumatic experiences while serving their country.

And they’re not embarrassed to let their guard down, hug each other, even cry.

During one intense session, a group of six young men listened intently to their peers as they shared stories of flying rockets, dead bodies and the consequences of living such experiences.

One vet said he was culture shocked upon return to the U.S.; another said he would get angry at seeing smiling faces when he’d witnessed so much turmoil.

However different their experience might have been, the vets shared a common knowledge that adjusting to life after war, especially when inflicted by PTSD, required help and support.

For Matt Randle, outreach director for Vets4Vets and an Iraq war veteran, the organization is a step in getting them that help.

He said the organization, which has about nine groups across the country that meet regularly, hopes to expand so that every community has a local group that vets can go to.

“We do the best we can in situations that are put in front of us,” Randle said of fighting in a war. “We need a place to be OK processing that.”

For more information: www.vets4vets.us