Transcript
I was sitting out back of our compound in Iraq
and a Special Forces soldier came up to me, an old NCO,
been in for probably 20 years.
And he immediately started talking to me about PTSD.
"You got the symptoms, I can see it," and he's like,
"You getting treated for it?"
I'm like, no, why would I do that?
He's like, "All right, first off, you need to admit
that you have it, 'cause there's nothing wrong with having it."
And this is a warrior, somebody that people look
up to and some of our best.
He says, " Just like you're going to combat with a weapon,
you fire your weapon in combat, it gets dirty.
The same thing with your mind.
In combat, your mind is going to foul up.
Your mind is physically changing itself to adapt
to combat situations, high stress situations.
It's the same thing as if you had lions chasing
after you 30,000 year ago.
And you need to recognize that and go through therapy
and maybe even get on medication to help your mind
and body readjust to that."
Then at that point, I was like, why is one of our best
and brightest telling me this?
Then who am I to have my own preconceived notions about PTSD?
That was the single biggest thing to help me start coping.