Nettles’ Watershed Point When attempting to decide which milestone in my life I would consider my watershed point, I explored many highlights and low periods in my life. These ranged from graduating college, to getting married, to the death of my father, or the birth of our first child. I kept thinking that the military has to play a part of my watershed point, and even when I made this determination it was difficult to decide if it was receiving the Expert Field Medical Badge, becoming a NCO, being deployed overseas for the first time, or being selected to attend the Sergeants’ Major Academy. When I weighed the impact on all of the above milestones, I felt that none of these impacted me greater than being promoted to Sergeant First …show more content…
According to Bridges (2004) “dis-identification is usually the inner side of the disengagement process” (p. 116). It involves the process of losing who or what you were and accepting that you can no longer be what or who you were. For me personally I think I reached this stage quickly but more so because of the external pressures that I was receiving from my First Sergeant at the time. We were facing a lot of new demands as it pertained to our upcoming combat deployment and the entire brigade were all in fact engaged in a period of transition.
Disenchantment “is the signal that the time has come to look below the surface of what has been thought to be so” (Bridges, 2004 p. 120). It is a period where one is separated from who they used to be and what they must strive to become. When I was at this stage of transition I think I was searching for what type of leader I wanted to be or believed that I could become. I looked within the battalion for others to borrow ideas from. As Bridges (2004) points out disenchantment “is a recurrent experience throughout the lifetime of anyone who has the courage and trust to believe in the first place” (p. 119).
Disorientation is the time during transition when we lose our purpose or goals and are unable to find anything to take their place. This is the time when feel as though we have lost our bearings and are hopelessly adrift with no sense of direction. My disorientation stage kicked in about two or three months
I was once the big fish in a small pond, but now I find myself as a worm on a hook in an ocean of big fish. Starting this journey, I can say that I was overcome with all types of emotions all at once: anxiety, fear, excitement, inadequateness, and at the end of it all I was finally calm. Knowing that I had just accomplished something that not even six months ago wasn’t even in my life plans. As a platoon, we performed feats that as individuals or a group you would never attempt let alone think about have accomplished. The slogans during that time of my career were “be all you can be in the Army” or “we do more before 9 am than most people do all day.” Within my first four years I got to travel the world and see places that most people would only dream about from Antarctica to Panama, and even to the pyramids in Egypt, I got to see it all. The military had such a powerful and profound hold on me I couldn’t think of anywhere else I would rather be. I was once told by my 1SG after a very long and trying day he said “Private Williams, where else can grown men and women have this much fun and still get paid. “I thought and pondered on what he had said, and even today 26 years later I still ask myself the same question, and it always goes back to the same answer, wearing the uniform serving my country side by side with my brothers and sisters in
The Disenchantment phase comes after the Honeymoon phase. It is the phase when excitement wears off. The person realizes they have to struggle to assimilate to the new environment. In this phase frustration or anxiety can result in feelings such as mood swings. After a person experiences disenchantment, the next phase, the Beginning Resolution phase sets in. According to Brink and Saunders, “This phase seems to be characterized by the reestablishment of a sense of humor. Social errors are no longer devastating to the ego” (333). The individual begins to accept the attitudes of the new culture. Lastly, the person adapts to the surroundings (and can possibly become bicultural). This is known as The Effective Function phase.
In The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (5th ed.; DSM-5; American Psychiatric Association [APA], 2013) dissociative identity disorder is diagnosed when a person displays at least two personalities of a differing, cohesive, and definitive nature. The disorder is marked by thoughts that repeatedly intrude on a person during their waking life, affecting their “sense of self” (APA, 2013, p.292). DID involves a marked change in one’s own body being one’s own, as well as changes in perception including “derealization and depersonalization” (APA, 2013, p.292). All of these criteria seem to be met as the narrator describes the shift in his life away from a single identity, to one where he comes to realization that he has been actually displaying two distinct and different personalities. But, what of
Mark henan: We have any military veterans in the audience today? At ease all that “rucus”, what do you think this is? college? Greetings to chairman Davis. President Jackson. Members of the board and trustees. Family ,friends, and my fellow graduates. May I share, may I share, my story in an essay format. After high school I went to college for one term and quit. Joined the army and 20 years later I found myself in the final stages to deploy to Iraq. Unfortunately, I was injured. My team with whom I had a bond forged in steel went to Iraq without me, but not everyone retuned. They sacrificed their dream so that we could dream big. And today I speak for those who no longer have a voice. As the story goes my injuries left me immobile and I couldn’t
Basic and advanced individual training pushed me to give my all in everything I do. The ability to serve my country and travel made me proud. When I was direct commission as a physician assistant in the National Guard it thrust me into a leadership role that I was not trained for, but my life experiences to this point helped me on this path. Training soldiers and maintaining battalion medical readiness was the core of my duties. Amongst the most valuable attributes I developed while serving was time management, extensive preparation and
The phenomenal ability of humans is that we are able to change aspects of our personality by role-playing. Personality shifting is common and something we do everyday from having to go to work and be the boss to coming home and being part of the family. This is one reason why skeptics doubt Dissociative Identity Disorder as a real psychological disorder. Another reason for the skepticism is due to its short history which date back to 1791. The first official report of Dissociative Identity
In May of 2005 I finally accomplished something that really meant a lot not only to me and my family, but to the people of the United States of America. Even while being in Iraq from April 2007 to November 2007 and losing a brother in arms while I was there I still felt honor. After finding out I will be a dad in June 2008 I became a Non Commissioned officer July 1st and a married man by July 2nd. Once August 2008 came I found myself saying yes to four more years. Once August 2012 came I was a well-established family man who became a marine vet who is instilled with nothing but honor, courage, and
A major turning point in my life would be going through the Paramedic School. I say this because you must successfully complete the program to become a certified paramedic, and that was the only way to further my career as a first responder. Being a paramedic comes with immense responsibility, and the training to become one, is very hard and stressful. However, my Cardiology class; clinicals; and the National Registry Exam all taught me something about myself. Each of these has its own struggles, as well as its own significance, both to my career and me personally.
I was tasked with menial assignments and was dissatisfied with my professional standing. Once again, the thoughts of Dive School crept into my mind again and I thought I was being punished for my failure. At a pivotal moment, I decided that rather than accept my current cirumcstance as an inevitability, I opted to strive for greatness and work my way to greater opportunities. I volunteered for the jobs that no one else wanted and excelled at them to the point that I was recognized for my contributions and awarded the Army Achievement Medal within a few weeks. This enabled me to pursue a reassignment to a infantry brigade that had a CBRN Recon Platoon Position. A platoon position for a CBRN officer is few and far to come by. With 8 CBRN officers for every 1 CBRN unit leadership position, often a CBRN officer will progress throughout their career without being assigned a leadership role, spending their entire career on staff. Through my hard work and tenacity, I was selected to be one of these few lucky
The applicant requests an upgrade of his general (under honorable conditions) discharge to honorable. The applicant seeks relief, contending, in effect, that he was separated after unknowingly taking Adderall, amphetamine, and tested positive in a urinalysis on 3 January 2013. The applicant states this was his first and only offense of any kind during his enlistment. The applicant contends that he proved he was still able to do his job as a line medic after this offense (the offense occurred in December 2011, he deployed with his unit in February 2012, earned the Combat Medical Badge during an attack on 1 March 2012, and he was not informed of the urinalysis results until May 2012). The applicant was told if he completed his Article 15 punishment honorably, which he did, he would not be
SGM Peek planned, coordinated, and executed the III Corps and Fort Hood FY15 Expert Field Medical Badge (EFMB). He successfully synchronized the efforts of 260 Soldiers from 10 Major Commands by providing testing guidance and standards to all cadre members as the Test Board Committee member. His unequaled guidance to over 240 candidates was invaluable to the 50 Soldiers who earned the highly coveted EFMB. During his tenure he subsequently recognized for medical excellence and distinguished service by the senior leadership of the US Army Medical Department (USAMEDD) and was inducted into the Order of Military Medical Merit organization which inducts only the 1% of USAMEDD
Dissociative fugue is a very rare dissociative disorder that is “characterized by amnesia coupled with sudden unexpected travel away from ones home or place of work” (Coons, 1999). A person suffering from dissociative fugue can be experiencing uncertainty about their identity, either fully or moderately. Some of the symptoms of dissociative fugue consist of unexpected travel away from home, inability to remember major past events, and confusion about identity. According to Coons, some factors that can cause dissociative fugue consist of traumatic events: such as natural disasters or armed conflicts, childhood abuse, acute relationship or fiscal anguish, sexual transgressions, alcohol misuse, depression, and denying responsibility.
Dissociative Identity Disorder is a severe form of dissociation which is a mental process that produces a lack of connection in thoughts, memories, feelings, actions, or sense of identity. This disorder can occur after experiencing a traumatic experience such as rape or abuse, and this disorder can be described as a copying mechanism. Dissociative Identity Disorder is a "copying mechanism" due to the alters the person portrays, each alter can have its own name, age, sex, personality, and race. Every alter has its own posture, way of speaking, and gestures, though some alters are imaginary or animals. When these personalities reveal themselves, they control the individual's behavior and thoughts through switching. Switching is where an individual
My military service reshaped who I am. My training stripped away any sense of entitlement and I learned more about myself in four months than I’d ever known before. It not only gave me discipline and taught me to perform under pressure, but everything I did wasn’t just for me anymore. I was working hard for the marines next to me in my platoon. The time came when each of us hit a breaking point physically or mentally.
Dépaysement [dee-pays-mont]. This word derives from French and is defined as “a change of scenery” or “disorientation.” However, this particular word is much more complex than the simple definitions that have been given previously. The best definition I have come across is a disorientation or unsteadiness that one feels being in a new place and missing home, a form of homesickness. When I came across this word in a movie, I was a bit lost. Many people say that dépaysement is what one feels when they move to college for the first time, moving away from the comforts of home and into a new sphere of independence. What I found so confusing was that I couldn’t associate the feeling of dépaysement in my own life, I’ve experienced feeling of missing my parents or my room as a place of reprieve from the world. However, I never felt the sensation of disorientation of being away from home and wanting to go back to home. I feel like that it is because I never really established a “home.”