Transcript
Another part of Exposure therapy is to actually
expose yourself to situations that you've been avoiding.
Avoidance is obviously one of the big things about PTSD,
and I'm an avoiding fool because there are a lot of things
that I get triggered from.
And one of my biggest combat traumas
was really related to kids.
I really avoided crowds of kids, or screaming kids,
or anxious kids, or kids in close proximity to me.
Even now, I still avoid a little bit.
I'm better, but part of the homework is to put yourself
in those situations that you try to avoid
and stay until your body reaches its maximum intensification,
whether that be heart pounding or sweating or anger
or anxiety -- you want the whole fight-or-flight situation --
until you come back down so that your body recognizes
that it's OK in that situation.
You're not going to be killed or shot --
or kill somebody or shoot somebody -- and that this is America,
and it's not Iraq, it's not Afghanistan, it'll be OK.