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My mom would be scared of me.

Valerie Ovalle, US Army 2004 - 2005, talks about how her PTSD affected her loved ones.

Transcript

My family and my friends,

they all knew something was wrong,

probably about a month after I returned home.

My mom would be scared of me

because I was living with her.

I would always, like, flip the blankets,

and tear my room apart because

I was always looking for my weapon,

or I was looking for my helmet, my Kevlar.

She was always scared 'cause

she would hear me talk in my sleep.

You know, just things that I,

you know, the medivac's coming in,

or stuff like that, 'cause I was attached

to a combat support hospital.

Some of my best friends, little by little, started

distancing themselves from me

because I wasn't the same person as I was before.

I used to be a joker,

and now I was all serious.

So, yeah, I,

everybody knew something was wrong,

but I didn't.

I didn't want to believe it.

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