KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Soldiers risk their lives for our country. They often come home to serious struggles in their personal lives. On Saturday, more than 100 area veterans learned about a way to help them heal.
A lot of programs help Veterans and dealing with things like depression thoughts of suicide, family and careers. But some Veterans say an event like Saturday’s helped them address something they lack, something crucial yet difficult for a soldier to talk about.
Jason Desmarteau served three years fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. The last three he’s been back home filled with extreme depression and thoughts of suicide.
“High rates of seclusion, not wanting to talk to people, the whole ‘You weren’t there and don’t know what I went through, you wouldn’t understand,” said Jason Desmarteau.
A non-profit organization The at Ease Project provided a form for mason and over 100 other Veterans to learn about more “touchy/feely” subjects to help with healing. The event included some authors of books about find your passion and purpose in life and true happiness.
“What we were sharing is a simple powerful tool called ‘Passion Test’ to identify what are the five things that matter most in your life, and then how do you connect your life to those so that life is meaningful,” said Chris Atwood
For Jason and other soldiers and Veterans, it’s also about learning strategies to deal with an overwhelming amount of negative thoughts running through their mind.
“It gave you different perspectives on how to cope with your life, how to gain and move forward,” said Bruce Pacot.
The Vietnam Veteran says the healing tools help across all types of Veterans as well as active military and even their family who may have been struggling. For Jason, he says the road ahead is much brighter.
“Find what you lost that’s not there anymore, what you had that you thought was gone with the hope of getting that back,” he said.
The Ease Project sites says because the number of military suicides has increased over the last decade they are using that as a motivation to help. It’s planning another event in Kansas City in the coming year.