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The speaker check came on, which is a loud explosion to me and it just set it me off right away.

Timothy Laynor, US Army 2003 - 2011, talks about how he knew he had PTSD.

Transcript

The last trigger that I had from PTSD happened during my R and R

which was about a year and a half ago.

I had just come back from Iraq and I was tired

and my wife had waited a long time to see a movie

and so she finally went to see it.

And she wanted to see it in the IMAX.

I had been home maybe six hours so I thought, "Ah, that's great,

let's go catch a movie."

So we and got a bite to eat and I was tired

and we went to the theater.

And IMAX movies always start off with a type of a speaker check.

I must have passed out in the theater prior to the movie

and all of a sudden the speaker check came

on which is a loud explosion to me

and it just set it off right away.

And a good hour and a half into the movie,

my wife said I was literally kind of crumbled in my chair,

just kind of holding onto her arm real tight

and she was engulfed in the movie so she didn't realize it

but every time she look back she said I wasn't really looking

at the movie, I was more or less just kind of looking around.

And the only thing I can remember were gunfire

in the movie, the sound of a propeller like a helicopter.

I actually had to go see the movie again 'cause I had no idea

what I saw for two and a half hours.

The only thing it took me back

to was I think every single deployment I'd ever had

for that two hours.

I just kept seeing images of where I'd been

and it would change from sound to sound.

So that was the last anxiety attack I had.

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