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The whole like first two sessions, I sat with my knees up to my chin just rocking.

Tia Christopher (US Navy, 2000 - 2001) talks about what PTSD treatment was like.

Transcript

My story of how I got

into treatment is really kind of funny.

Well and I guess when I say funny,

I think any of you Vets can understand what I mean by funny.

We have a little bit of a dark sense

of humor I think all of us share.

And so after I got out of the Navy,

it was four days before 9/11.

So imagine I was sitting on the couch

with my grandma chain smoking and all of a sudden,

the Twin Towers are blowing up.

How would you feel if you were just

out of the military watching the Twin Towers blow

and there's nothing you can do about it 'cause you're not

in the military anymore?

So I was feeling like a real dirtbag at that moment

and so all of this was going on and my Grandma,

a few days later was reading the paper and there was this article

about the VA and they were starting a young women's

psychotherapy group that was specifically

for young women Veterans with PTSD.

And I didn't even know I had VA benefits.

So long story short, my Grandma talked me into going and I think

that was March of '02.

And that was the largest group of women like me

that I've ever sat in.

I think there were 14 or more of us when we started and the whole

like first two sessions, I sat with my knees

up to my chin just rocking.

I didn't say a word.

And that's OK, you know, just to be there, just to go.

You don't have to talk, you know, that's fine.

And I talked when I was ready.

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