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I didn't realize I changed, but other people around you see the change.

Louis Bickford, US Navy 1967 - 1978, talks about how his PTSD affected his loved ones.

Transcript

No relationships.

I'm on my third marriage.

Most of that is because I just didn't let anybody close to me.

And so after I got out of the Navy

and got divorced the first time, then I spent most of the rest

of my career of working at two months here

and three months there as a construction worker.

That was easy.

It was, you work 12,14 hours a day, six, seven days a week,

didn't have time to think about anything.

And when you're off, you're in a bar, you know.

Lot of drinking, lot of drugs, you know,

you just kind of like stayed numb.

And I did that for many years,

so that's why I lost my second marriage.

And the wife I have now, we've been together for 25 years.

And about five years ago after I got into treatment,

she says, "You know what?

I put up with you, now I like you."

I didn't realize I changed, but other people

around you see the change.

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