Target 24: Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
By: Chelsea Pompeani
Updated: November 8, 2012
The numbers are chilling... A recent study shows that 30,000 people in the armed forces take their own lives each year due to post traumatic stress disorder.
Veterans Day is this Sunday.
Venus Azevedo tells us the story of her brother Phillip... Who was a sailor in the Navy.
She says so many times Phillip didn't think he was going to make it out alive, and even though PTSD ended up taking his life, Venus is using his story as a stepping stone so others families don't have to go through the same pain.
Venus Azevedo's biggest fear when her brother Phillip went to war... Wasn't the fact that he might not come back alive...
But the fact that he'd come back a different person.
And eventually...after coming to terms with having post traumatic stress disorder...Phillip changed.
Venus explains this wasn't Phillip's first attempt at suicide...and the day he actually went through with it, Venus knew something was wrong.
And that was the last time she spoke to him.
The gruesome sites of losing friends right before your eyes overseas was something bigger than Phillip.
PTSD had ruined his life.
Now, almost eight months later... Venus wants to be a non-military liaison, to be there when the husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters come home... Someone who preps the family on PTSD and to help prevent suicides.
After going through all that she has endured... Venus is still strong enough to tell this story.
She has even brought Phillip's story to the pentagon in hopes of making a change.
Phillip's sister has and will continue to fight for him and others like him.
