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It was a fairly happy household...that all pretty much ended.

Steve Sullivan, Son of a Veteran with PTSD, talks about what it's like to live with someone who has PTSD.

Transcript

Before this manifested itself, it was a fairly happy household.

I mean, he coached basketball, coached baseball,

coached soccer, was at every game.

We did boy scouts, we went --

you name it, we did it, and he was there for it.

Once this manifested itself, that all pretty much ended.

It changed, it was 180 degrees.

My mother spent most of the time --

I would get home from school, I would do my paper route.

She would come home, she would cook dinner,

and then she would get on the phone and spend

most of the rest of the evening crying on the phone,

talking to one of her sisters, or this or that.

And I would spend most of the rest of the evening

in our finished basement.

I had my computer, I'd watch TV.

And she thought I wasn't hearing anything of what was

going on, and she was directly upstairs from where I was,

standing over a vent which dumped down

to where I was in the basement.

So, I would hear all of the conversations

I guess I technically wasn't supposed to hear.

So, that's how I got most of my information

from what was going on.

But it was a completely different household.

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