Transcript
For 20 years, 20 years I had pretty much put Vietnam
out of my mind.
9/11 the epiphany came and all
of the sudden everything intensified.
All my feelings, all my frustrations,
all of the bitterness and the depression I had
over how our war was misunderstood
and what we did there, all of it came
out in a moving nervous breakdown.
I was just a moving nervous breakdown for months at a time.
Suicide thoughts, all of that stuff was going
on in 2001 with the drinking.
All of that.
I had never been suicidal, ever.
I don't think that way.
It's not my style, ever.
So that was another sign.
That's when I went to the VA for help.
I met some people at the Vet Center in Boston
and what these people do, it's right down the street
from where we are now and what these people do is really
stunning because they took me and they listened to me
but it was a different brand of counseling.
It was Veterans on Veterans.
These people are combat Veterans.
They know what we call seeing the elephant, which is combat.
That's what we call it.
And they know how to deal with you, they know what PTSD is.
They're well versed in it.