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According to RAND, the nonprofit research think tank based in California, more than 20% of Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), or depression. For Vietnam veterans the figure can be as high as 30%.

If you’re a veteran who is currently in crisis due to symptoms stemming from PTSD, anxiety or depression, you can get help immediately by clicking here and then clicking on the white “Get help from the Veterans Crisis Line” tab in the upper right hand corner.

For therapy that isn’t of an emergency nature, it’s worth looking into how programs utilizing the power of music can help alleviate the anguish and unsettling thoughts that the aforementioned conditions perpetuate.

Take, for example, the veterans featured in the following video — veterans participating in music therapy sessions at a local VA facility:

The story one vet tells of how a song affected him, then helped him heal, is particularly poignant:

“She played ‘Amazing Grace’ and that immediately brought to mind a funeral I attended in Howell Township it was the first guy that got killed in Monmouth County in Iraq, [Corporal] Curtin, I’ll never forget his name. We were over in the church in Howell Township, and it’s the end of the service. The pipers started going and the drums — I thought the walls were gonna come down. I never heard anything like that in my life. It really, really was moving. And that’s what ‘Amazing Grace’ did to me. And from there it moved onto what I was thinking about in the service, from there, what I was doing over in Japan and Korea.”

You can securely communicate with members of your VA health care staff by clicking here. To find out if music therapy would be right for you — or a loved one — and what facilities offer such sessions, simply ask them in a message.