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Now I can barbecue.

Valerie Ovalle (US Army, 2004 - 2005) talks about how PTSD treatment can help.

Transcript

Well, it took awhile for me to open up.

I felt like I was giving him pieces and pieces

of the events and not the full event.

There's,

there's one example that

I can say is that

it took awhile,

was being in a CSH unit, we had burn victims come in,

and, one of the triggers

was when I was barbecuing,

I couldn't barbecue because of the,

it would trigger that event in my life

that I experienced,

and my counselor would tell me,

you know,

"you need to barbecue,

"and you need to burn it,"

and I'm like, "One, that's money going out the drain."

"Two, that's going to send me to the hospital, you know?"

And,

it took several months for me

to even be able to light the fire

without having a panic attack

and ending up in an emergency room,

but now I can barbecue.

I don't sit there and look at the meat on the grill

because then it starts triggering,

but I can go and throw it on the grill

and come back later when I know,

okay, flip it, and you know,

get it off the grill,

but, you know, it takes awhile.

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