Transcript
The trauma of war,
of not knowing whether the next step you make is your last,
or when you close your eyes whether or not you'll wake up,
changes your body through chemistry
and it creates an attraction, I think, my words, an addiction
to the adrenaline of fear, chaos, war.
Part of what I think is just beginning
to be addressed that's common throughout all wars
for civilians and soldiers is the mystery of some
of the chemistry of the body that makes the persistence
of the fear, the adrenaline flow both addictive
and harmful, simultaneously.
And I think that's part of why it's so difficult to deal with.
It isn't just, "Take a pill and it goes away."
It isn't just, "Tell yourself it doesn't exist."
You can't just believe it doesn't exist.
It gets embedded in your body in ways
that we just can't simply adjust
to without putting some effort into it.
And part of that effort,
the most important step is simply recognizing
that it is what it is, and you're not unique.
Human beings have been experiencing this for millennia.
We only in the last few decades have come up with a name for it.