A big factor in the clinical depression I struggled with beginning in 2015 was leaving a job and career path that family and friends had supported me with in big ways, and going to a higher paying, comfortable, and yet socially disconnected job in it's place. On paper, I was making a better move, but everything about it felt wrong. While it's not the same as veteran's PTSD, I feel that moral injury is an accurate description of what occured with me. I believe American society is full of perverse incentives that create moral injury for anyone just trying to survive.

Thanks for sharing - it's a concept I'm familiar with but lacked the words to describe.

My personal moral injury occurred when I had spent my best decade in the military, had an issue with depression, then my entire chain of command and ask of my friends in the service stopped talking to me and transferred me to another command where they shoved me in a room alone with no windows to suffer and eventually do what I had to to quit, aka trying to kill myself, because they wouldn't let me leave to do something other than sit in that room. I had always thought they were my family and that military folks always took care of each other, but I found out quickly I was just a warm body. It destroyed my sense of community and I still have problems making close friends.

Love the VA big brain article about this when they are a part of the system that absolutely FUCKS it's own people. Luckily now, I'm starting to feel more like myself before they screwed me, it only took a decade after I stopped seeing the VA quack.

My experience was a bit different but this post resonates with me on many levels. The tired trope of "join the military, make friends for life!" is laughable. The most dangerous people to me in Afghanistan weren't Taliban, they also wore MCUs. Hang in there--glad you've managed to find your way out of the pit.