Trey Warren sitting in alert, prepared to be called away at any moment, in his squadron "Ready Room" on the aircraft carrier "George Washington" while conducting deployment training in 2002. He remembers it being around 2 a.m. when the photo was taken. Trey Warren’s symptoms began in the cockpit of a supersonic fighter jet.
He flew in jets off aircraft carriers for the U.S. Navy, accelerating from zero to 200 mph in less than 10 seconds. Warren sat behind the pilot, managing weapons and operating targeting sensors on missions over Iraq and Afghanistan.
Every takeoff rattled his brain. Every time he fired a cannon, he felt his eyes vibrate. Every landing left him shaking out the cobwebs.
Today, 16 years out of the service, Warren struggles to work more than 15 hours per week as an adjunct at a St. Louis community college, where he teaches introductory political science courses. He picks up his teenage twins from school and gets dinner on the table, but even that drains him.
Treatments offered through the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs haven’t worked for Warren. He left the military as a lieutenant commander in 2009, after 13 years of service. A graduate of the Navy’s elite Top Gun flight academy, he flew 192 combat missions over four combat deployments.
Since leaving the military, there have been periods when Warren had to take six to eight prescription medications daily. Most were antidepressants and drugs to treat side effects he describes as “wicked.”
He now pays roughly $2,000 per month for therapy and supplements not covered by insurance.
Seeking alternative treatments beyond those offered by the VA, he and other veterans experiencing mental health crises pay out of pocket or travel abroad. Many are advocating for state governments to foot the bill and change laws to expand treatment options in the absence of federal action.
Approximately 18 veterans take their lives each day in the United States, according to the VA statistics from 2022.Bills working their way through state legislatures seek to expand access to two treatment alternatives: hyperbaric oxygen therapy and psilocybin, a psychedelic compound found in mushrooms. Dozens of other […]
Bills would allow hyperbaric chambers and psychedelics as treatments for veterans
