Many of us are aware of the disproportionate number of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) diagnoses within our country’s veteran population, but what are the further consequences of this causal sequence?
There are many studies conducted by the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs and other organizations on the relationships between veterans and PTSD, and consequently, how a PTSD diagnosis was found to increase a veteran’s chances of experiencing legal issues, arrests and incarceration.
Grove City resident and U.S. Army veteran Eric Sowers sat down with Discover Grove City Magazine and shared his mental health challenges and how he worked to overcome them.
Sowers’ story
When Sowers returned to Columbus after his military service, he felt lost. He no longer had the structure and strict schedule the military provided, and at 22 years old, he didn’t feel prepared to take on the stresses of adulthood.
This, along with undiagnosed PTSD and a TBI he sustained during his military service, led him to a lifestyle of criminal behavior and he soon found himself involved in the justice system.
Thankfully, Sowers was inspired to turn his life around, and as a highly educated family man with a passion for Jiu-Jitsu, you would never know today the darkness that overtook him less than 10 years ago.
“I got out of the army in 2008 and spent a better part of the next decade getting legal education on the wrong side of the wall,” Sowers says. “After my children were born, it was a motivating factor to be the best version I could for them.”
Breaking barriers
Sowers’ road to redemption began when he attended Kent State University to become a paralegal, hoping to help other veterans feeling despair as he did. He often volunteered to serve as a mentor to fellow veterans and volunteered his time to assist veterans in courtrooms.
After he completed his undergraduate studies, Sowers applied to The Ohio State University’s masters of social work program. With his experiences working with veterans involved with the criminal justice system, he knew he had a stellar application and had no doubt that he would finally attend his dream school.
To his disbelief, Sowers was denied entrance to the program, but he refused to take no for an answer. He met with the program director to state his case and learned that he had scored zero in the diversity portion of his application.
“If you look at my application, it says that all I want to do is work with veterans…I said, ‘If you take the word veteran out of my application and you put any version of the word diverse in there, it still reads the same because the veteran community is the most diverse community in this entire country, and probably the world,’” Sowers said.
In 2020, the decision was overturned and Sowers began pursuing his master’s degree. He is now studying for his PhD in social work at OSU.
Eric Sowers
He continues to fight for the livelihood of others in his army veteran community at Ohio State, co-authoring the STRONG Veterans Act which was passed in 2022 and calls for increased accessible mental health services for veterans.
Additionally, he offers support to other student veterans through the Student Veterans Association, a student organization at Ohio State he took over and revamped.
“One of the things I tried to do when I created the Student Veteran Association at OSU, was create a community of people that are there to share their knowledge and how they progressed to the point of where they are now,” Sowers says. “You made it here. Now reach back and see if there’s anybody behind you that’s interested in climbing the same ladder you did.”
Because PTSD and TBIs have been shown to increase suicidal thoughts and actions in those who are diagnosed, and veterans are significantly more likely to have these diagnoses, the risk of severe mental health struggles within this population is high.
The risk factor increases even higher when people are taking on more stress and challenges in life, such as working towards a bachelors or graduate degree.
This is why Sowers encourages veterans to take care of themselves – taking breaks, giving themselves grace and getting professional mental health treatment while they work towards their education.
Kick it!
The premise for Sowers’ PhD dissertation came when he started practicing Jiu-Jitsu. Sowers found that it had a significant positive effect on his mental health and decided to investigate deeper.
He discovered a study that concluded, over time, that continued practice of Jiu-Jitsu lowered criminal activity among participants. Sowers currently holds free sessions Friday evenings at USA Seibukan Martial Arts Training Center, downtown Columbus, for veterans who want to give the sport a try.
“For me, that was a nice light bulb where it took my hobby and my professional life and gave me a nice dissertation,” he says. “I’m my own guinea pig too. I think about my experiences to help inform the direction of my own research.”
With all the work Sowers has done to uplift his fellow veterans, it is not surprising that Sowers became a Tillman Scholar in 2024, an awarded status given by the Pat Tillman Foundation to veterans who pursue higher education and make a difference in their community and those around them.
This was an extra-special achievement for Sowers who had idolized Tillman from a young age and dreamed of being awarded Tillman Scholar status for years.
“When I saw what Pat did: walked away from the NFL, from the Cardinals for millions of dollars, to go be an Army Ranger, I thought that was the greatest thing ever,” he says. “I went into the Army recruiter’s office, and at the time, I didn’t know what the rangers and airborne was, and he’s just like, ‘What do you want to do?’ And I was like, ‘I just want to serve.’ That’s all I wanted. I want to serve with Pat.”
Grove City guy
Sowers lives with his wife Briana and their three children: sons Lucas, 16, and Jackson, 9, and their daughter, Raylynn, 12. The family has a happy life in Grove City and Sowers says he feels his community supports him and his fellow veterans.
“We found this house, and it was a Marine veteran who owned it and ended up passing away and I was the only veteran that bid on the house, and so (the homeowner’s son) figured that his dad would have wanted another veteran to have his house,” Sowers says. “So even though I wasn’t the highest bidder, they still picked to sell it to me, so my appreciation was instant, like man, it’s a neighborhood that still cares about selling to veterans like that.”
Celebrate our veteran's this on November 11 in Town Center Park for the annual Veterans Day service, hosted by the American Legion Paschall Post 164 and Veterans of Foreign Wars 8198.
- When: Monday, Nov. 11, 11 a.m.
- Where: 3359 Park St.
Maisie Fitzmaurice is an editor at CityScene Media Group. Feedback welcome at mfitzmaurice@cityscenemediagroup.com.
