Military service runs deep in Capt. Carolyn Furdek's bloodline. She is a third-generation female officer with her parents, uncle, and grandparents all serving in the U.S. military before.
She was recruited to the United States Military Academy for swimming during her senior year of high school. After graduating from West Point in 2000, Furdek served as an engineer officer in the U.S. Army, deploying to Afghanistan and Iraq.
Furdek was medically processed out of the Army following three back-to-back tours, but she then found herself fighting another tough battle on the home front, and that was mental illness. She told Spectrum News she would become reticent and withdrawn and did not want to go outside.
Furdek diagnosed with cycloid psychosis
She added that she did not want to interact with people. Furdek explained that she was unable to process for a long time mentally. She said she could still think and do everything just fine but did not want to be around people as she was timid, quiet, and very paranoid.
According to Furdek, her condition was cyclical and would occur without warning. She spent the next decade in and out of psychiatric wards, trying different treatments and meeting with mental health providers to find out what was wrong with her.
Fortunately for Furdek, a Louisville doctor finally got it right. He refined her diagnosis from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to cycloid psychosis. It is a medical condition that made Furdek suffer from PTSD, flashbacks, fear, anger, social withdrawal, and paranoia. The new diagnosis was a life-changer for Furdek as she finally found an effective treatment for her illness.
Furdek said that she and her doctor had written a paper on it since then. The research was published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, and they have given talks, over 120 of them, across the United States.
Jackson uses mom's mental health journey to help others
She also wrote a book about her mental health experience and traveled the country to share her inspiring story. The one person she has inspired the most is someone who watched her struggle through those dark times - her teen son, Jackson.
He said that he did not understand his mom had PTSD. He added that he thought she was sick or something like that. Jackson, who is just 13, speaks with frankness and confidence about the deeply personal topic.
The Meyzeek Middle School student said it was scary watching his mother suffer through her once-mysterious condition, but much like his mom, he is now turning that said experience into action. He recently wrote a speech about the unseen wounds military families and veterans endure for his seventh-grade social studies class.
