For Waterford veteran, battling PTSD was too tough a fight

For Waterford veteran, battling PTSD was too tough a fight
The Day Connecticut
By Izaskun E. Larrañeta
Published 11/17/2013

Justin Eldridge tried to overcome his post traumatic stress disorder, his wife said. He spent time in VA hospitals. He tried various drug combinations and underwent counseling and therapy. None of it worked, she said.

On Oct. 29, he took his own life in his Waterford home.

Courtesy Joanna Eldridge
This photo of Joanna and Justin Eldridge was taken in 2010 during a Marine Corp ball held in Connecticut. Justin Eldridge killed himself Oct. 29 in the couple's Waterford home after suffering from PTSD for several years.

The former 31-year-old Marine, who served his country for 8½ years before taking a medical retirement as a sergeant in 2008, could not seem to overcome what he had experienced while serving an eight-month tour in Afghanistan.

"He lost his battle, but I will fight the war," Joanna Eldridge, his wife, said in a recent interview. "My children will not be defined by this. I'm not going to let their father's death be in vain."

Joanna Eldridge, 31, became a certified caregiver through the VA in 2011 so she could care for her husband full time.

"We need to talk about PTSD," she said. "We need to take better care of our veterans. I'm here to tell Justin's story. If it can help a fellow veteran, then his life and death wouldn't be in vain. We are losing too many veterans because of suicide."

Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs released a report on the most comprehensive data collected on suicide from 1999 through 2010. The study found that the number of suicides among veterans reached 22 a day - a suicide every 65 minutes.

After the hospital stay in Massachusetts, Justin became involved with the Wounded Warrior Project and, in August, became a peer mentor with the group.

Even though Justin seemed to be doing all the right things, Eldridge said, he still struggled.

"He was on his medications for a year," she said. "It wasn't getting better. I think part of the problem is that they don't know enough about PTSD and traumatic brain injury. I also think you cannot make someone unsee what they have already seen."

On Oct. 29, the day he committed suicide, Justin was in the basement, listening to loud music, Eldridge said. She said he was more agitated than normal and began yelling at her. Fearing for her safety, she left the house and called police.

"His brain separated from reality, but I knew there was enough of him still there that he wouldn't harm the children," she said. "He locked himself in the basement and killed himself. The children were asleep and didn't hear anything. I think it could have been more terrible if I stayed."
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Marine's Family Decides To Talk Openly About His Suicide JOANN GALLUP ELDRIDGE: He just couldn't take the pain anymore. He just wanted to have peace. He didn't want to see it and feel it anymore.