Allow me to elaborate. Back in 2002, when I was 21 years old, I was serving in the US Army. Although stressful at first, I was handling everything just fine until things started to fall apart back home. Obviously, with several traumatic events occurring back home, I started to fall apart, since I was still very young, and stationed far away from home. Like anyone else, I spoke with the post psychologist for advice. I kept seeing him and telling him how I felt, until I was finally given an Honorable discharge after 16 months of service. He was straight forward, and said that he didn’t think the Army life was right for me, because of my acute depression at the time (I never had a history of depression). I agreed and was discharged honorably. The problem is that I was discharged under AR 635-200, Para 5-13, where the narrative on the DD 214 is “Personality Disorder”. To make a long story short, I despise this narrative because not only is it grossly inaccurate, but completely false as well. Just because someone is suffering from depression and can’t cope with the rigid Army lifestyle as well, doesn’t mean there’s something wrong with them. These types of narratives cause people to prejudge you, because the first thing that comes to people’s minds when they hear “personality disorder” is crazy. I’m completely sane, and always have been. I don’t have a shred of depression or disciplinary problems, especially in the civilian world.
