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Why I’m hiking 2200 miles in 2018

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2200 miles may seem a tad crazy and an odd number to come up with, but with only a couple of weeks left in the year, I contemplated what my New Year’s goal was going to be. Granted, I always have several (mostly small goals), but I couldn’t decide what to make my big goal (resolution) for the new year. Then it hit me as I looked at my husband!

Military Spouse is hiking 2200 Miles in 2017 to raise awareness for Combat related PTSD and Suicide among our Servicemembers & Veterans

Back Story

2016 was a trying year for our family, especially the last portion of it. Most of you know that my husband (an active duty soldier) has PTSD and the trouble we have had with the Army and his past commands with getting him help. It should not be like this!

December of 2016 things hit their breaking point and long story short, my husband was admitted to the 3rd floor of Darnall (that is the mental ward at the military hospital on Fort Hood). He has tried to commit suicide several times in the past, and in December I had enough. The military was going to provide him with the treatment he needed and I didn’t care how many people or high-ranking officers/personnel I had to yell at to make it happen.

UPDATE: I originally planned to start this journey when I wrote this blog post in Jan of 2017, however, my husband and children needed my main focus which between doctors appointments, work, and health issues of my own I had to postpone my quest. It is now October 2017 and I shall without a doubt start and complete my journey in 2018. Everyone is doing well, my health issues have finally been solved (after 3 years of testing) and I now have medication to deal with the nasty little thing they call cyclic vomiting (which by the way, stress increases the episodes).

The Reason For 2200 Miles

During the process, I quickly realized why so many of our men and women that would lay down their lives in a heartbeat for our freedom were so scared to try and get treatment for PTSD through the military. I now understood why most just suffer in silence instead.

This has to stop! Our active duty AND veterans need to be able to get the help they need, when they need it, without fear of losing their job, their rank, or being kicked out of the military. They shouldn’t have to worry that trying to seek treatment means that they, will in turn, get treated like they are weak from their command. They shouldn’t worry that their family might be taken away from them or harassed by civilians that work for the military.

Every day roughly 22 of our veterans commit suicide. They fought for us and we need to fight for them!

Join Me!

I will hike/walk 2200 miles in the year 2018 to bring awareness to combat-related PTSD and the 22 men and women who fought for our freedom that end their lives daily.

I have every hope that this will go national (so please feel free to share this post or any statuses I post on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram) just like when I hiked 1000 miles to support 3CR RSS Soldiers that were deployed!

How you can participate
I know not everyone can hike/walk 2200 miles in a year, so I would like to do a combined total of 220,000 miles, which means every mile you hike/run/walk will count! You just need to keep track of your miles, then report them to me on the weekly mile round-up thread.

To Log Miles
Simply keep track of the miles you run, walk, or hike from Monday-Sunday. Then report the total miles on the weekly mile round-up post (I will make a weekly post on my Facebook page as well as on my blog, just comment with your total for the prior week).

Reporting Miles
Every Monday, I will make a weekly mile round-up post and you just comment with how many miles you logged the previous week. I will keep a running tally so we can see how close we are to our combined goal.

Hashtags to Use
If you will be posting status messages or pictures to social media, please use the hashtag #2200Miles4PTSD and if you can please tag me @nuttyhiker for Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram =) I would love to share pictures on my social media of those that are participating (I will only share them if you tag me). The hashtags are so I can see how many people we have participating and how far this cause has traveled. Plus it helps raise awareness!

Stay Up To Date

To make sure you are getting all the latest information, please subscribe to my blog (it will only email you whenever I make a post which is about 3 times a week and you will be subscribed to my monthly newsletter).

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To keep up to date on an instant level (and plus I love when I connect with my readers) make sure to follow/add me on the following:

Antics of a Nutty Hiker & Military Spouse

 

Instagram (for daily pictures I post while hiking)

Donations & Pledges

I am working on trying to set up a place where people can donate or pledge to donate so much for every mile completed. The money raised will be split up between two veterans organizations (1 national & 1 local). Currently, I am researching organizations and if you have any suggestions, please let me know!

Also, if you are interested in making a pledge for either my miles or the combined miles total please let me know by emailing me. As soon as I figure out the best way to do this I will shoot an email to those that are interested in donating or pledging.

Are you in?

Are you in? Will you help rack up 220,000 miles for the combined goal? Comment below and let me know.

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Comments

  3. Ok! I can’t on Mondays and Wednesdays. I have classes on campus but I’m down for any other day unless I have something on the calendar.

    Reply

  4. I can’t come close to your number, bur I was thinking of shooting for 1,000 miles this year… how can I help?

    Reply

    • Every week I’ll do a mile roundup thread for everyone to post their miles for the following week that they logged.

      Reply

  12. Bridget, are you looking for others to walk and contribute miles??? I bet I could put together a team and I would really like to help raise awareness!!

    Reply

    • Yes indeed! Especially since I’ve gained 30 lbs :/ Here’s to knocking out 2 New Year’s Resolutions with one stone lol!

      Reply

  23. What a great cause! Tweeted, Stumbled and scheduled on Facebook for later this week via Travel Pockets :) Good luck!

    Reply

  28. 2200 miles is a lot, however it is doable! I hope you have a fun journey of completing these miles. I shared your post to Pinterest so hopefully more people can join in with you!

    Reply

  30. As a wife of a retired military member I support you all the way. Fight for what medical care your husband needs.

    Reply

    • Thank you! I just don’t understand why our active duty military has such a hard time receiving medical care! This has got to stop!

      Reply

  31. Yes! To all of this! I am so in! My brother is in the army and this holds a place near and dear to my heart. I will definitely commit to hiking (hopefully 2200 miles) in 2017. My husband and I are hiking out near Vegas next week actually and will use that as our kick off point! Thank you for working to spread awareness!

    Reply

  33. I love this! While a lot of what I do in the day depends on what my kids are doing, I plan to follow your journey. I’m a veteran and my husband is still serving. When you get home from a deployment and go through briefings, close to no one volunteers themselves to get help, and most just say that they’re fine during surveys and evaluations. EVERYONE treats you differently if you have a problem. There is a huge stigma and sometimes bullying that happens and it is so, so sad. Anyway, it’s obviously a huge topic, so I won’t go on, but just know that you’re amazing and thank you for what you’re doing!

    Reply

  34. It hits close home to me. My brother has PTSD from service and tried to commit suicide. There needs to be more awareness.

    Reply

  35. This is awesome! Looking forward to contributing lots of miles after our son is born in February!

    Reply

  40. Wow this is such a great thing you are doing and such a selfless resolution…good luck in reaching your miles :) and bringing awareness!!

    Reply

  58. I can’t believe I found this post today! We became friends with a family a few years ago after their son (an Airman that was friends with my brother after having attended basic training together) took his own life. Through that we have learned a lot about this serious problem in our military system. It makes my heart ache! Your husband is so blessed to have you as an advocate for him!!

    I would so love to contribute to the miles! Is the roundup post on FB?

    (The family I mentioned above has since started a project in their son’s memory, called the comfort Creature Project! They have a Facebook page explaining all about their mission, can I drop the link here?)

    Reply

    • Yes feel free to let me know the link! I just posted an update to this post. I will actually be starting the miles in 2018 (you can read the update above). I am excited to get started and wish I was able to do it last year. But at least now I have plenty of time to plan and get this broadcasted in hopes that more people will join. When I originally decided to do this earlier this year it was in January and on a whim. I want to make sure this gets out to as many people as possible!

      Reply