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The emotional numbness, it'll just tear away all of the relationships in your life.

Sarah C. Humphries, US Army 1994 - 2012, talks about how she knew she had PTSD.

Transcript

Let's see, I got home in June of 2006 and that summer,

it might have been July or August, I don't know,

I wanted to go for a walk.

I'm sure I was just trying to get away from it all.

My son, he was probably six or seven at the time,

he wanted to ride his bike with me

and we had just started walking

down the street, riding the bike.

A lot of neighbors were out talking, it's the time

of the night where everybody comes out 'cause it's so hot.

He almost got hit by a car on his bike and it was so close

that the driver stopped and was crying in tears and my son was

in tears, my neighbors were screaming

and my husband came running down the street

and I had no reaction at all.

The mom that I was before I deployed would have had a

screaming adrenaline fit.

And then I realized that the focus was on me,

now that they realized my son was OK and I was just, "La la,

Lance almost got hit by a car," and just no emotion to it

which really made my husband mad.

It was quite the scene.

He yelled that I was some kind of a zombie freak or something

and went in the house and my son's crying

and said I didn't care.

And when I caught on to it, I tried to fake it

but it was a little late and that's not me.

And of course I care about my son,

it's just that I did not have the ability.

You have enough experiences like that and you just don't want

to be bothered with people.

Yeah, the emotional numbness, it'll just tear away all

of the relationships in your life if you don't learn

to unlock them, get those emotions out.

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