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Jason is a loving father, but the trauma he suffered as a soldier during two tours in Afghanistan left him ill prepared, even two years after returning to Indiana, to care properly for his four-month-old son.

Because of “what he had to do and see in active service,” Jason shows severe trauma symptoms. He also self-medicated and abused drugs to cope with the trauma-induced memories and hardships. He’s proud of his service and the chance to do his duty, but now he wants to be the father his son needs, so he’s getting help from therapists at Family & Children’s Place and working with Indiana’s Child Protective Services to regain custody of his son.

Working with his therapist to process his trauma and to begin to navigate and conquer trauma-caused symptoms, Jason is making slow but encouraging progress. He is sober and participates in Narcotics Anonymous meetings every day.

Whether or not Jason regains custody of his son remains to be seen, but he now gets to see and spend time with the boy every week and is working hard to earn the chance to have more regular visits with him. Jason sees recovery as his duty now and takes it every bit as seriously as he did his service.