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The person who can really help you is the trained professional.

Reedy Hopkins, US Air Force 1983 - 2011, shares his advice for others who may be concerned about PTSD.

Transcript

I think a lot of people think that if you're sitting around

with folks who have experienced the same thing that you have,

you've been through the same actions, same fight,

and in some cases you were there together, that all you need

is somebody who understands what you went through

to sit there and talk about it, and things will be fine.

The problem with that is, in my case,

you just end up commiserating about what went on.

And before you know it, you're, you haven't done anything

but get yourself back in a mental state, in a mental frenzy

of what you went through and how you can try and fix it

now, a year, two years, six months, two days after the fact.

So, while it's nice that you can have people to talk to

who understand, because the general person on the street

who's never been in the military or never experienced,

in my case, Iraq or Afghanistan -- Iraq, for me,

my son was in Afghanistan, so I kind of experienced

a little bit of that through him -- the general person on the

street who's never been in the military or experienced it,

they don't know what you're talking about,

so you don't talk to them.

And the person that can really help you

is the trained professional.

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