Transcripts
We hide, you know, we hide it.
At the time and everybody is going to say this
and I say this, oh yeah, the alcohol helped.
Yeah, for one day, but then the next day when I woke up,
I still had that problem.
And the drugs, oh yeah, it helped but then
when all the drugs were gone, I still had that problem.
And you keep drinking and you keep drugging until you get it
in your head and you fall down about three or four times
and you say, "Hey, I'm tired of falling down on my head.
I need to get my shit together."
Excuse my language but that's just the bottom line sinker.
After you get through falling so many times,
and looking in your pockets saying, "I'm broke."
There's cotton in your pockets, you're spending all your money
on drugs, you're spending all your money on drinking
and you know, you just need to get it together,
just go get some help.
I mean I did it.
We hide, you know, we hide it.
I would drink until I passed out.
Through a series of about ten sessions with him, I was on my way to realizing that PTSD was crushing me.
When I got there, the people that I met were so nice
and they were so caring and intelligent
about how to get the truth.
And then Neil, my personal counselor was a game changer
because he said, he was the game changer in the sense
that he was a combat veteran
and he knew what I was going through.
And so we would joke and talk about it and through a series
of about ten sessions with him, I was on my way to realizing
that PTSD was crushing me and alcohol was a problem
and for the first time
in 40 years I realized alcohol was a problem.
I kicked my drugs. And this is all from the treatment I have been given.
I am on medication.
I am not the least bit un-proud of that.
It helps me to level out and to live with my nightmares,
my flashbacks, my anger.
I have kicked my alcohol.
I kicked my drugs.
And this is all from the treatment I have been given
from the PTSD Clinic and I have come to a place
in my life now where, it will never go away but I know
that I can live with this in peace.
You’re in pain so you’re trying to escape.
You may be broke, homeless, a drug addict, whatever.
Those are symptoms to me.
That's not the problem.
The problem is why you're doing it, you know.
Because you're in pain, so you're trying to escape.
The most immediate escape is drugs, alcohol, you know.
And that comes with its own set of problems, you know,
money, jobs, relationships, you know.
Just getting it out, it was such a relief.
Think about who you are hurting before you hurt someone else.
Things are going to happen that's going to
make you angry and upset.
But the thing that I've come to understand and people
around me have seen, the better quality of myself
is how I process things.
I don't get upset.
I look at things, I find a solution.
Even if finding solution is picking up the phone
and calling somebody at the VA, calling a friend,
talking to a family member.
There's always a solution.
The solution is not hurting yourself.
The solution is not hurting others.
And the solution is not getting drunk and belligerent
or resorting to drugs.
The solution is that going to someone, talking to them,
a close friend, going to the VA.
I would even tell Veterans that, think about everything,
think about who you're hurting before you hurt someone else.