All veterans are worthy

For 24 years, I have carried mental and physical baggage because I felt unworthy. Even though I wrote a confidence-building, self-worth-generating book called “Loving Myself First,” I realized my belief of worth didn’t include being a veteran.

When I safely returned home from Desert Storm (1991), I felt the Veterans Administration was for veterans more worthy: ones with extensive injuries, or ones who’d experienced direct combat. Those were the veterans who deserved to be helped, not me. I believed I just needed to move on. I never let myself process what I’d experienced.

Those unresolved thoughts and feelings don’t go away. They hang around. I know because I’m having leakages of emotions.

I couldn’t take it any longer, and contacted the Spokane VA hospital. They gave me hope and helped me feel worthy of care. Then, I wondered how many more veterans are limping through life because they feel unworthy.

I tell you: You are worthy and deserving. Contact the eligibility specialist at the VA. Let them help you. Don’t be like me and wait 25 years.

Lorraine Scott, SFC (Retired)

Loon Lake