I don't think I'm chronically depressed, and I will not go get an official diagnosis, but if I haven't been depressed out here, it's been awfully close.

And yeah, the medical care sucks, but hey, it's free, right? Right?

Just dropping in to say that I am suddenly swamped out work and in my personal life.

I'll update when I have a chance.

And until the military changes its stance on mental health issues pretty dramatically, that is absolutely the right course of action. You're better off with a private therapist (if you can find one).

Pretty much. I'm hoping that the way I feel is just a reaction to having to leave my son after only 2 months with him, but yeah, the military isn't great with that, policy wise or privacy wise. Don't know how, but every single time someone from my unit goes to BH, I always end up finding out, though I'm not even wanting to know. That rumour mill must be up and running again.

Sorry, but what does BH stand for? Is that a military acronym?

In German it stands for Büstenhalter.
I'll let you figure that one out for yourself.

Behavioral health. It's milspeak. Basically, if you talk to anybody about anything involving mental health issues, record of that goes into your personnel folder and follows you around forever. As maelstrom5292 said, there's also a tendency for *everybody* to know about it. Best method I've heard of keeping a lid on things is for couples to go in for marriage counseling and conceal the individual treatment that way.

Holy crap. No wonder there's such a big stigma about mental health issues in the military. I know that this sounds like I am naive, but I really wasn't aware of that part of military culture. So not only can it damage someone's career to go seek for help, but it exacerbates the potential negative issues for all because no one's willing to talk about getting help. Geez. That is some serious BS, right there. Sorry to hear.

Thanks for the update gfish.

Hope life sorts out for you.

There are no secrets in the military. I'm an Air Force brat and my parents were always talking about somebody's dirt. Not even close friends or anything, just rumor mill stuff. It's best to tune it out if you can, but in such tight quarters I'm guessing it's extra difficult.

Yeah, out here, it's not like you can exactly go anywhere to just get away. Sorry to bother you guys with my issues, but besides Skyping with my family and the occasional Magic game, the Realms is my only release. Less than a month left, and hopefully everything goes back to normal.

Play EDH.

That is actually my favourite format, which is played once a week out here, but yesterday instead of doing that, I was conscripted to play basketball with my co-workers, after which I was berated for being "out of practice". I was never good at it to begin with...

We bother each other with our issues, it's kind of why we all like it here. That and the ongoing nerdiness with a side of weird.

I knew there was another reason I keep coming back here!