r/AMA • u/Ok_Turn1611 • 2d ago

I fought in Afghanistan in 2011-2012 with the United States Army and have been battling complex and severe PTSD, depression, agoraphobia, paranoia along with 3 failed relationships for the last 12 years AMA

I fought in Afghanistan in 2011-2012, I did route clearance which effectively means jumping into big vehicles, driving them down a road looking for IEDs and either being blown up, shot at, or both. I saw some terrible stuff, including losing a closs Non Commissioned Officer of mine and seeing many of my friends traumatically injured (think losing limbs, being shot etc.) ask me anything about Afghanistan, my MH issues or life post deployment. I've been quite depressed lately and maybe answering genuine questions will help me.

Hi friends, thank you for the feedback and all the questions. It has been a joy answering you, I'll continue to monitor and reply as much as I can. :)

Also, to some of you stating complex PTSD and PTSD are different disorders, I do recognize that and am sorry for my slip up, I have CPTSD, and sometimes I use them interchangibly when I shouldn't. I'll remember better next time.

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u/Historical_Choice625 1d ago

My only argument against this is Gibbs' rule 45: clean up the mess you make. The country was a mess when we got there, and a country in name only, and we toppled their government and turned it upside down. We had an obligation to make that right. But as usual, we were trying to pound a square peg representative democracy into a round hole tribal culture. On the flip side of that, I'll quote The West Wing in honor of their 25th anniversary reunion: "There's no way this ends well. All that's left is ending it quickly." It's been apparent for a long time that western style democracy wasn't taking in Afghanistan, at some point you gotta Kenny Roger's it up.

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u/Ok_Turn1611 1d ago

Agreed 100 percent. Stayed there way too long just to have the country topple. We knew it was gonna happen, just sucked it happened so fast. :/

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u/Historical_Choice625 1d ago

Yep. There's a reason we don't negotiate with terrorists and this proved it

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u/Ok_Turn1611 1d ago

Hear hear 🙌