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If you go to mental health, you lose your clearance.

Lee Norris, US Air Force 1993 - 2010, talks about why he didn't ask for help with his PTSD right away.

Transcript

The career field I was in, I had a top secret

security clearance, and there's a stigma that goes with that

that if you go to mental health, you lose your clearance,

which means you lose your job, which means, basically,

they're going to kick you out of the Air Force, OK.

And that was the stigma with my job from the get-go.

So that right there made it tougher for me to go get help,

and I think that kind of carried on through, afterwards.

I was almost ashamed, I guess, and in denial somewhat, too.

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