When Laura Colbert returned to the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2004 after serving as a combat veteran in Kuwait and Iraq, she found herself struggling to relate to the other students on campus.
“They were worried about what to wear at the next party, and I had just gotten shot at for the last 16 months,” Colbert told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.”
“How could I bridge that gap? How could I reintegrate into society?” she said.
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After a few months of trying to manage on her own, Colbert said she hit a breaking point. She called her older brother, who is also a veteran, and asked him to take her to the Department of Veterans Affairs hospital. There, she met with a therapist who helped her manage her post-traumatic stress disorder and “get back on track.”
“I tell you, she saved my life,” Colbert said.
Laura Colbert served as a military police officer in the Iraq War from 2003 to 2004. Photo courtesy of Laura Colbert
Laura Colbert, right, stands with her older brother, who served as a medic in the Army, along the Tigris River in Baghdad. Colbert says her brother was instrumental in helping her get mental health support after she returned home. Photo courtesy of Laura Colbert
Now, Colbert will be sharing her story as part of a live event put on by “The Middle with Jeremy Hobson,” a national call-in show that airs on nearly 500 public radio stations, including Wisconsin Public Radio. “The Battle at Home: Addressing Veteran Mental Health” will be held at the Pritzker Military Museum and Library in Kenosha on May 12.
“It’s such a shocking thing that the No. 1 cause of death for active duty military is suicide, and the second-highest cause of death for veterans under the age of 45 is also suicide,” host Jeremy Hobson told “Wisconsin Today.” “So we decided we wanted to do a show where we could hear from people about what’s going on and what needs to be done.”
Anxiety and depression are on the rise throughout the country — and military veterans face higher risks of developing a mental health disorder. About 1 in 6 United States service members deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq have been affected by depression or PTSD.
Combat veteran Robert Curry, who served in Vietnam and Laos, will also be speaking at the Kenosha event. He is the founder of Dryhootch, a nonprofit organization that provides peer support and other services for veterans, with online programming and in-person locations in Milwaukee and Madison.
The goal of the live taping is to bring people together to talk about solutions that can bridge partisan politics — a mainstay of the show’s philosophy, Hobson said.
“There are some things that when people actually start to talk and think about it, they realize they have a lot more in common than what divides them,” he said. “So we’re going to find out how people think about this and whether there is a political divide about what should be done about mental health among veterans and among active-duty military personnel.”
“The Middle with Jeremy Hobson” airs on the WPR News network Thursdays at 8 p.m. Image courtesy of Jeremy Hobson
Colbert now lives in Waupaca, where she said the community is very supportive of veterans. For her, it’s “therapeutic” to share her story with others and help them understand the veteran experience better.
“I like to say that every day that passes, I get that much closer to being my whole self,” she said.
The public is encouraged to join the live taping of “The Middle” in Kenosha on May 12 and participate in the conversation. Tickets and information are available at my.pritzkermilitary.org/themiddle.
“We’re going to be bringing these voices of people in Wisconsin to the rest of the country,” Hobson said. “Part of the reason we do this show is you don’t often hear from people in the middle of the country on these big, important issues.”