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There's a lot of machismo attitude going on...

Joe Duarte, US Army 2002 - 2006, talks about why he didn't ask for help with his PTSD right away.

Transcript

I was born and raised on the island of Guam,

and we have the islander mentality where men are tough,

we're supposed to protect women,

there is a lot of machismo kind of attitude going on,

and that you're f---ed up if you go get therapy.

If you go see a therapist, you're f---ed up, you know.

And it's kind of offensive if somebody tells you,

"Maybe you should go get counseling or something,"

because it kind of is like,

"You're not right in the head, so you need to go get help."

And that's kind of the way that I was brought up.

In actuality, it was the polar opposite,

and so it was a very hard time for me to go get help,

and it really took a lot for my wife to kind of get me.

But so, she made it a premarital agreement that we go get help.

Or that, not that we go get help, but that we go together

to try to have tools so that when we have

hard times in our marriage, that we can use those tools

instead of waiting until stuff happens and being

reactive instead of proactive.

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