Transcript
When you experience something as extraordinary
as what you may experience in combat,
these things kind of stick with you,
and they may live in a really dark place.
And for me, my traumas kind of manifested themselves
through dreams, and that's why sleeping was such a problem.
But I really didn't know what all these memories were because
my brain did a really great job of tucking them away
and hiding them away from my living hours.
So, in Exposure therapy we spent a lot of time in
focusing on some of the harder traumas
and recounting them repetitively
and going deeper into the memories.
And it was almost like taking layers of film,
like if it's really cloudy and you take one cloud away,
and it gets brighter, and you take another, and another,
and you're kind of pulling back these filters,
and all of a sudden you see it very, very clearly,
and all the details from that memory that your brain
did really well in tucking away for survival purposes
is now brought to the surface, and you can remember why
that trauma was so traumatic.
And by talking about it repetitively
and bringing it to the forefront,
it won't make the memory go away, but it will help
reduce the pain and intensity of the pain that you feel
when that memory happens,
and that's what Exposure therapy is.