WEBVTT - What Your Brain Does With Trauma—And How to Finally Heal It (Pt 2) 0:00:02.520 --> 0:00:05.040 Everybody is bill courted with an army and normal folks. 0:00:05.080 --> 0:00:08.400 And we continue now a part two of our conversation 0:00:08.600 --> 0:00:12.200 with Dan Jarvis. Right after these brief messages from our 0:00:12.720 --> 0:00:28.680 general sponsors. That's heartbreaking to me. 0:00:29.400 --> 0:00:32.479 Well, I was in a position where I didn't know 0:00:32.520 --> 0:00:35.360 what to do, Like do I self refer. 0:00:35.240 --> 0:00:38.080 To mental health? I mean you're drinking. I'm drinking just 0:00:38.120 --> 0:00:39.560 to calmin just so I can. 0:00:39.440 --> 0:00:43.720 Sleep, which explains alcoholism and a number of vents. Yes, 0:00:43.960 --> 0:00:45.720 they're self medicating. 0:00:46.040 --> 0:00:48.360 When they go in the Olympic hijack. The nervous system 0:00:48.400 --> 0:00:52.839 is pegged. So think of an engine and a thousand 0:00:52.920 --> 0:00:55.120 RPMs at idols and then you hit the gas pedal 0:00:55.560 --> 0:00:57.400 and you're up to seventy five hundred RPMs. 0:00:57.520 --> 0:00:59.000 An engine can't last long there. 0:00:59.280 --> 0:01:00.560 And people are the same way. 0:01:01.000 --> 0:01:03.320 So that engine in the brain opens up the entire 0:01:03.360 --> 0:01:05.560 nervous system and it's just you go through these cycles 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:08.120 up and usually it's like ninety second waves and it 0:01:08.200 --> 0:01:09.360 just keeps going and keeps going. 0:01:09.360 --> 0:01:11.520 But those not How often do you feel that in 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:11.920 a day? 0:01:12.160 --> 0:01:13.920 It depends depends on the intensity. 0:01:14.760 --> 0:01:17.680 If you can keep your brain occupied, you know you 0:01:17.680 --> 0:01:18.399 can do okay. 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:21.480 It almost sounds like a guy getting off the meth. 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:25.160 I know that sounds weird, No, but seriously, I've interviewed 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:29.160 and I have a friend. Actually, I was talking with 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:32.759 that friend this weekend and asked him how he's doing 0:01:32.880 --> 0:01:36.200 with his demon and he's been cleaned for three years, 0:01:36.280 --> 0:01:39.080 and he's like, I still think about us some. And 0:01:39.120 --> 0:01:41.160 he said, but you know what, as long as I 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:45.160 stay working or as long as I stay busy, I 0:01:45.319 --> 0:01:49.440 never feel it. It's when I get downtime or boredom 0:01:49.920 --> 0:01:54.720 it comes back. And I am in no way comparing 0:01:55.360 --> 0:02:00.840 our veterans to folks that have a drug add what 0:02:00.960 --> 0:02:05.480 I'm saying is I kind of get what they're saying about. 0:02:05.520 --> 0:02:08.480 As long as they keep their brain active, they don't 0:02:08.520 --> 0:02:11.760 go through one of those triggering things. And I guess 0:02:11.840 --> 0:02:15.480 if your brain is hijacked, as long as you're staying busy, working, 0:02:16.040 --> 0:02:20.160 or maybe still active in the military and theater, it 0:02:20.160 --> 0:02:25.000 doesn't happen as much. It's when you don't keep your 0:02:25.040 --> 0:02:27.640 mind occupied that the hijacking takes over. 0:02:28.160 --> 0:02:30.720 And is it right, No, it's your one hundred percent 0:02:30.800 --> 0:02:31.239 on target. 0:02:31.320 --> 0:02:33.560 So like a lot of us, when we come back 0:02:33.639 --> 0:02:37.520 from combat theater, we have a hard adjustment because the 0:02:37.639 --> 0:02:41.680 brain is hardwired for the fight or flight, So like. 0:02:42.639 --> 0:02:46.680 Has become hardwired's as a result of the environment and 0:02:46.720 --> 0:02:47.880 the experience constantly. 0:02:47.880 --> 0:02:50.320 See what ends up happening is when your brain is 0:02:50.320 --> 0:02:53.760 in survival mode because every day you're in combat and 0:02:54.480 --> 0:02:57.440 combat actions are happening, troop tics, troops in contact, are 0:02:57.440 --> 0:03:00.280 going on id's are going off indirect fires, and in 0:03:00.400 --> 0:03:02.600 your brain is in a heightened fight or flight response. 0:03:02.800 --> 0:03:04.200 And I'll give you a prime example of it at 0:03:04.240 --> 0:03:06.360 all times, at all times. So they say that one 0:03:06.440 --> 0:03:08.120 hundred percent of the guys when they come back for 0:03:08.240 --> 0:03:13.440 more would be diagnosable PTSD right because they're still in 0:03:13.480 --> 0:03:15.520 the fight or flight. And then over time the brain 0:03:15.560 --> 0:03:18.839 reprocesses things out. But here's the way that that part 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:20.440 of the brain is supposed to work. And I'll give 0:03:20.480 --> 0:03:23.519 you the first time we took contact in Afghanistan. We're 0:03:23.560 --> 0:03:26.680 having a leadership meeting in our plateen leader and platoon 0:03:26.720 --> 0:03:32.320 sergeant's area and I heard this in the distance and 0:03:32.360 --> 0:03:34.040 I looked at everybody and I said, we're about to 0:03:34.040 --> 0:03:37.080 take contact. And they're all looking at me like what 0:03:37.720 --> 0:03:39.800 I said, We're about to take contact. And then about 0:03:39.840 --> 0:03:43.800 ten to fifteen seconds later, rounds blew up about twenty 0:03:43.800 --> 0:03:46.440 meters from we were. We took our first casualties, and 0:03:46.480 --> 0:03:49.800 then afterwards those guys were, how did you How did 0:03:49.840 --> 0:03:51.440 you know that was going to happen? I said, because 0:03:52.040 --> 0:03:53.480 the hair on the back of my neck stood up 0:03:53.480 --> 0:03:54.320 when I heard the thumb. 0:03:54.800 --> 0:03:59.160 Because it's the thumb the munition leaving whatever tube it's in. 0:03:59.400 --> 0:04:00.760 It's the pooh, the point of origin. 0:04:01.120 --> 0:04:04.000 So and the way I say that is because in 0:04:04.040 --> 0:04:06.200 two thousand and seven, when I'm in Iraq, I'm a 0:04:06.200 --> 0:04:09.119 sergeant of the Guard. We're getting relieved by the top 0:04:09.160 --> 0:04:12.240 mountain guys, and I heard a thump in the distance 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:14.440 and I went on the radio, said anybody hear that? 0:04:14.440 --> 0:04:15.960 And yeah, it came from the south. 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:19.120 And then about fifteen seconds later, one hundred and twenty 0:04:19.160 --> 0:04:22.200 two millimeter or chillier round detonated on top of the 0:04:22.240 --> 0:04:25.320 Hesco barrier, which was only about fifteen feet from me. 0:04:25.800 --> 0:04:29.400 And basically that was one of my first big concussions. 0:04:30.120 --> 0:04:34.400 So that thump in seven activated the nervous system in 0:04:34.440 --> 0:04:37.520 twenty eleven. Wow, that's what the brain is supposed to do. 0:04:38.400 --> 0:04:41.719 It's like the alarm went off right that's the context 0:04:41.760 --> 0:04:44.240 that alarm is supposed to go off, not when we're 0:04:44.279 --> 0:04:46.280 back home and we hear the fireworks on the fourth 0:04:46.320 --> 0:04:49.760 of July. We hear the fireworks on the fourth of July, 0:04:50.040 --> 0:04:52.440 that alarm goes off, and that's what triggers a lot 0:04:52.480 --> 0:04:53.040 of your vets. 0:04:53.400 --> 0:04:56.040 It's funny because if you go down like in Memphis, 0:04:56.160 --> 0:04:58.520 we have our big Fourth of July thing on the river. 0:04:59.120 --> 0:05:03.040 But I'm not talking about yard Fourth of July. I'm 0:05:03.080 --> 0:05:05.960 talking about the big firework show. If you pay attention 0:05:06.800 --> 0:05:09.240 before the big explosion the sky, you we're here that 0:05:09.880 --> 0:05:12.520 they're shooting those things up in the air, and that's 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:14.840 exactly what stops that's it was that. But if you're 0:05:14.880 --> 0:05:17.120 at the river and you hear that thump, you're immediately 0:05:17.160 --> 0:05:17.640 going to go. 0:05:17.640 --> 0:05:21.240 To If you're a VET with PTSD, you're immediately going 0:05:21.320 --> 0:05:24.880 to go back to Iraq or Afghanistan or Syria or 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:27.000 wherever you heard of that the first time, and then 0:05:27.040 --> 0:05:28.600 the nervous system will open back up. Now a lot 0:05:28.600 --> 0:05:30.720 of us are just like, Okay, we're safe, we know that. 0:05:31.240 --> 0:05:34.320 But in the moment a person that's struggling with PTS, 0:05:34.600 --> 0:05:37.600 their brain doesn't tell them hey, this is not They 0:05:37.600 --> 0:05:39.840 think it's real and they think it's happening, and then 0:05:39.839 --> 0:05:41.920 their nervous system reacts. That's what they call like the 0:05:42.200 --> 0:05:45.279 flashback moment, where all of a sudden, you're diving for 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:48.719 cover because you hear that thump and you think indirect 0:05:48.720 --> 0:05:51.640 fires coming in and then you realize, oh, I'm here, I'm. 0:05:51.520 --> 0:05:53.919 Safe, right, but your nervous system is still going. 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:57.160 So you got that going on. Your brain's hijacked. You're 0:05:57.200 --> 0:06:06.920 filling all kinds of guilt. Yeah, first, thank god you didn't. 0:06:08.080 --> 0:06:13.440 What happened is your thinking about lights out. 0:06:13.640 --> 0:06:16.640 So I think what it came down to was, I'm like, 0:06:16.680 --> 0:06:19.400 do I do I ask for help? This is myself 0:06:19.520 --> 0:06:23.200 talk before do I ask for help? Or I'm like, man, 0:06:23.360 --> 0:06:25.160 if my commander finds out, they're going to put me 0:06:25.200 --> 0:06:26.839 in the barracks, they're going to take my guns away. 0:06:27.360 --> 0:06:29.680 My men aren't going to respect me. That's the language 0:06:29.680 --> 0:06:31.159 that's going on. And I'm like, well, do I do 0:06:31.200 --> 0:06:36.400 I call EAP what's like an employee assistance program outside 0:06:36.480 --> 0:06:38.320 of the military, And I'm like, no, they're still going 0:06:38.400 --> 0:06:40.080 to let the commanders are still going to find out 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:43.480 that I'm getting treatment. So that's why suicide became the 0:06:43.520 --> 0:06:45.719 better option, right, and this ridiculous. 0:06:45.720 --> 0:06:48.560 It should not be that way, and so. 0:06:48.520 --> 0:06:53.159 You would rather kill yourself than lose face and standing 0:06:53.279 --> 0:06:55.480 with your unit and your commander. 0:06:56.640 --> 0:06:59.240 Man, But that's the problem with a lot of us. 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:02.039 Is that biggest stigma over it in the military, Yeah, 0:07:02.240 --> 0:07:03.719 there is. That's a real thing. 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:05.600 I think they're starting to be a little bit more 0:07:05.640 --> 0:07:08.599 open minded to it because if you really go into 0:07:08.600 --> 0:07:12.200 the numbers of suicides of active duty forces, the highest 0:07:12.680 --> 0:07:16.360 numbers is in the special operations community. So it's obviously 0:07:16.360 --> 0:07:19.800 got nothing to do with psychological weakness. But that's that's 0:07:19.840 --> 0:07:21.880 the dialogue that we tell ourselves, because. 0:07:21.600 --> 0:07:24.120 You don't get into special forces unless you're a high 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:25.520 speed anyway, right. 0:07:25.440 --> 0:07:28.440 And you're and they're evaluated from a psychological perspective before 0:07:28.440 --> 0:07:31.920 they even get there, right, And so if they're having 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:35.840 that problem, you know what's what? It's not a weakness thing, right, 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:38.200 but we all look at it as it's a weakness. 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:40.840 At least that was a dialogue that I because I 0:07:40.840 --> 0:07:43.760 would make fun of those guys beforehand. 0:07:43.440 --> 0:07:44.240 And you're one of. 0:07:44.160 --> 0:07:46.680 Them, and now all of a sudden, I'm wait a minute, 0:07:46.680 --> 0:07:48.840 I'm I'm I'm sure I was a drill sergeant between 0:07:48.880 --> 0:07:51.240 two combat tours. I had already been a police officer. 0:07:51.720 --> 0:07:53.760 Why am I having these problems? I'm tougher than this. 0:07:54.680 --> 0:07:57.800 And thank god it was the kids in the apartment 0:07:57.800 --> 0:07:59.960 above me that ran across my sailing when I was 0:08:00.640 --> 0:08:03.360 at the moment, and I'm like, Okay, that's a horrible 0:08:03.360 --> 0:08:05.880 idea because that that rifle round will go right through 0:08:05.880 --> 0:08:07.680 that floor. I didn't want to hurt a kid. I mean, 0:08:07.720 --> 0:08:09.480 I'm literally playing this out of my mind. I'm like, man, 0:08:09.520 --> 0:08:12.840 that was stupid. So I passed out. Want to sleep 0:08:12.880 --> 0:08:18.040 that same night? Yeah, I passed because I'm self medicating. Right, 0:08:18.040 --> 0:08:20.120 That's how I would sleep if I didn't. If I 0:08:20.160 --> 0:08:25.080 didn't drink, I wasn't sleeping. And does the drinking turn 0:08:25.120 --> 0:08:27.640 off the highjacking? Yes, it numbs it. 0:08:27.720 --> 0:08:30.440 Well, the it's a central nervous system depressant. 0:08:30.800 --> 0:08:32.199 That well, that makes complete sense. 0:08:32.720 --> 0:08:35.600 Alcohol is when the anxiety goes up, when the PTS, 0:08:35.600 --> 0:08:37.640 which is PTS is the highest warm anxiety. When it 0:08:37.679 --> 0:08:40.920 goes up, alcohol will quiet it back down. It'll just 0:08:41.040 --> 0:08:44.480 it'll numb it out. You won't feel it for a while, right, 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:46.680 And that's a sense of normal It becomes a sense 0:08:46.720 --> 0:08:48.840 of normalcy. But the problem is you end up being 0:08:48.960 --> 0:08:52.000 being depressed because you're not processing, because. 0:08:51.760 --> 0:08:53.760 It's alcohol, and because it's it's a depressant. 0:08:53.760 --> 0:08:55.360 It's a depressant, so. 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:59.520 Which exacerbates it. Actually, once you sober up, yeah, it 0:08:59.559 --> 0:09:04.960 makes it because then a spiral. Yeah, it's a horrible spiral. 0:09:05.000 --> 0:09:08.280 And that's part of the problem is trying to identify that. Right. 0:09:08.920 --> 0:09:11.880 So the next morning after that, with the kids above 0:09:11.960 --> 0:09:14.000 me in the apartment, I get my phone rings probably 0:09:14.120 --> 0:09:16.679 eight o'clock, I think it was a Saturday morning, and 0:09:16.800 --> 0:09:18.000 Ryan was one of my soldiers. 0:09:18.000 --> 0:09:19.880 He goes, hey, sarm Jarvis, did you hear about Corey? 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:23.280 Right, that's a word when everybody, if you're in the military, 0:09:23.360 --> 0:09:24.520 somebody says that they're either dead. 0:09:24.440 --> 0:09:27.240 Or engine Did you hear about did you hear everything 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:27.720 behind that? 0:09:28.640 --> 0:09:31.160 And I'm like, nobody, what happened? So Corey shot and 0:09:31.240 --> 0:09:34.400 killed himself last night. So Corey was a twenty I 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:36.160 think it was twenty one or twenty two year old 0:09:36.280 --> 0:09:39.680 soldier from the platoon I had just come from. So 0:09:39.720 --> 0:09:43.079 I went from a line unit, you know, Proble Company, 0:09:43.520 --> 0:09:46.199 one of the platoons up to headquarters because I got 0:09:46.360 --> 0:09:48.880 put on a desk, which was what's That's what caused 0:09:48.920 --> 0:09:51.560 me to spiral, because I had time to now you're out. 0:09:51.720 --> 0:09:53.840 Now I'm out of the action, and I'm behind a 0:09:53.880 --> 0:09:59.200 desk and I'm thinking. And Corey just he killed himself 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:01.440 the same night that I was and serena, Wow. So 0:10:01.520 --> 0:10:03.679 I couldn't imagine, you know, And I do say this, 0:10:03.720 --> 0:10:06.240 Corey saved my life, unfortunately when he took his own 0:10:07.480 --> 0:10:11.480 so doing the memorial service, preparing, you know, to do 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:14.720 the send off, let guys get closured. When I saw 0:10:14.720 --> 0:10:17.679 how it affected the guys, I realized, Okay, I cannot 0:10:17.720 --> 0:10:20.240 go out this way. I cannot give permission to my 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:23.600 men to do this. And I just continued to drink 0:10:23.640 --> 0:10:24.720 and so I'll medicate. 0:10:24.600 --> 0:10:31.199 Because because now the fear of letting your men down 0:10:31.440 --> 0:10:34.120 was greater than the other fear. 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:38.160 The fear was not letting them down, but giving them permission. 0:10:38.640 --> 0:10:41.240 Oh oh oh yeah. 0:10:41.280 --> 0:10:43.640 I didn't want to green light one of those guys. 0:10:43.240 --> 0:10:45.600 To do the same thing, because you knew they were 0:10:45.600 --> 0:10:46.280 all struggling. 0:10:46.320 --> 0:10:47.160 They're all struggling. 0:10:47.760 --> 0:10:49.920 One other thing we didn't name. I think Nils Jargonson 0:10:49.960 --> 0:10:52.480 said this well too. Obviously you want to say face 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:54.720 of your man and with your commander. But also Nill's 0:10:54.760 --> 0:10:56.959 put it like he dealt with a lot of the 0:10:57.000 --> 0:10:59.040 same things. After nine to eleven he was FDNY, and 0:10:59.040 --> 0:11:01.160 he said, and they actually took it more out of 0:11:01.160 --> 0:11:04.000 the FDNY once he got cancer, so he lost his career, 0:11:04.040 --> 0:11:06.800 and he said, they took away my priesthood. So it's 0:11:06.800 --> 0:11:09.440 like you're taking away everything, like your entire identity if 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:12.000 they kick you out, or you're losing your position because 0:11:12.000 --> 0:11:12.400 of it too. 0:11:13.640 --> 0:11:14.079 For sure. 0:11:15.280 --> 0:11:19.320 I mean, I got another question to get to, but 0:11:19.480 --> 0:11:24.000 I'm just going to say this. I just have such 0:11:25.600 --> 0:11:33.800 deep empathy for a person who chooses to serve their 0:11:33.840 --> 0:11:38.840 country and on a relationship with brothers in arms and 0:11:38.920 --> 0:11:41.760 risk their lives for one another to end up in 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:48.440 an apartment drunk, contemplating suicide, because that's the work. 0:11:51.000 --> 0:11:51.600 It's a story. 0:11:51.760 --> 0:11:52.600 It's horrible. 0:11:53.440 --> 0:11:55.800 It's a story you hear regularly. 0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:59.000 And that's the problem is your story is I mean, 0:12:00.360 --> 0:12:03.480 it feels very personal sitting across from you hearing it. 0:12:03.559 --> 0:12:09.040 But the very truth then it is not uncommon. It's 0:12:09.160 --> 0:12:14.880 very common, you know, which leads me to what are 0:12:14.920 --> 0:12:16.679 the numbers twenty two and zero mean. 0:12:18.040 --> 0:12:22.839 So twenty two was originally the accepted numbers of suicides 0:12:22.880 --> 0:12:24.400 per day by vets. 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:30.439 Per day, per day, and we're losing more veterans for suicide. 0:12:30.880 --> 0:12:32.959 I did the mad when I read that. I looked 0:12:32.960 --> 0:12:36.240 it up. That's more than we lost in theater per day. 0:12:36.360 --> 0:12:36.760 Totally. 0:12:37.640 --> 0:12:41.160 We're losing more men at home than we did fighting 0:12:41.320 --> 0:12:42.720 in Afghanistan in Iraq. 0:12:44.760 --> 0:12:45.640 That's nuts. 0:12:45.960 --> 0:12:49.760 Well, it's a system that we have, right, So the 0:12:49.840 --> 0:12:52.439 VA came back and they tried to revamp those numbers 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:55.079 of that. I think they claim its seventeen and a half. Oh, well, 0:12:55.120 --> 0:12:57.199 that's so much better, so much better, right, because they 0:12:57.200 --> 0:13:00.319 forgot to add Texas and California in those numbers, which 0:13:01.160 --> 0:13:02.680 the two big right. 0:13:02.880 --> 0:13:04.720 Which I'm pretty sure it would go the other direction. 0:13:05.360 --> 0:13:06.520 But what does zero mean? 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:09.000 The goal is to not have any suicides. 0:13:09.720 --> 0:13:11.400 The goal is zero, you know, because even in the 0:13:11.440 --> 0:13:14.280 first responder world, we lose more cops to suicide than 0:13:14.320 --> 0:13:17.360 line of duty deaths. Same thing with firefighters, all right, 0:13:17.400 --> 0:13:20.000 And it's just trauma, right, not knowing how to handle 0:13:20.000 --> 0:13:20.720 the nervous system. 0:13:20.880 --> 0:13:24.040 It's that whole amigula being hotjick, right. 0:13:24.559 --> 0:13:26.960 If think about it this way and the way I 0:13:26.960 --> 0:13:29.480 explained it to people. Have you ever felt like you 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:31.319 were so scared that you thought you were going to die? 0:13:31.760 --> 0:13:35.040 Yeah? Almost ground once, And yes, I do know that 0:13:35.080 --> 0:13:36.679 they legitimately. 0:13:36.200 --> 0:13:37.160 That legitimate feeling. 0:13:37.200 --> 0:13:41.320 Now imagine it's every day, every hour, every minute. That's 0:13:41.360 --> 0:13:45.840 the problem is the nervous system gets so overstimulated and 0:13:45.840 --> 0:13:49.479 it dumps chemicals into your bloodstream, your cortisol, your adrenaline. 0:13:49.960 --> 0:13:52.600 You guys are ending up with a drenal fatigue. They're 0:13:52.640 --> 0:13:55.800 just exhausted. They can't rest, they can't recover. It's a 0:13:56.160 --> 0:13:58.320 lot of them numb things out. So when you numb 0:13:58.360 --> 0:14:01.600 things out, you can't even feel the good feelings, and 0:14:01.640 --> 0:14:04.600 that becomes your normal, and that becomes what these men 0:14:04.640 --> 0:14:06.559 and women don't want to deal with. 0:14:07.120 --> 0:14:11.640 I actually have had the drowning thing happened about ten 0:14:11.720 --> 0:14:16.240 years ago, but I actually have had not too long ago, recently. 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:18.240 It's so weird that you asked that question to me, 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:23.200 because I have had I've woken up with a sense 0:14:23.200 --> 0:14:30.920 of dread because I dreamed. I had a dream, a 0:14:31.080 --> 0:14:34.080 recollection dream. I don't know what the words are of 0:14:34.080 --> 0:14:41.360 that moment, and it's scary and I'm just thinking about 0:14:41.360 --> 0:14:43.440 that one little time. I wouldn't be an attack to 0:14:45.200 --> 0:14:46.520 think of that going on. 0:14:47.360 --> 0:14:50.000 But it's still a life or death moment, but it is. 0:14:50.080 --> 0:14:55.400 But you're saying that's happening petually, perpetually, every hour, every day, every. 0:14:55.240 --> 0:14:57.200 Hour, every day. It depends, I'm on how intense the 0:14:57.240 --> 0:14:57.840 symptoms are. 0:14:58.480 --> 0:15:01.040 It's some people every hour every day, once a week, 0:15:01.360 --> 0:15:02.720 some people it's three times a week. 0:15:02.760 --> 0:15:04.120 Some people it's every single day. 0:15:04.680 --> 0:15:06.520 So when you get to that point where your stress 0:15:06.600 --> 0:15:08.360 loads and your nervous system is just going and it's 0:15:08.400 --> 0:15:11.400 firing and it's firing and all those chemicals, you know, 0:15:11.520 --> 0:15:14.600 I use a metaphor of a box of crayons, right, 0:15:15.400 --> 0:15:17.040 I tell my marines, this has got nothing to do 0:15:17.080 --> 0:15:19.000 with you guys. For as a marine out there, I'm 0:15:19.040 --> 0:15:23.560 not talking about you guys. We have an eight pack 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:26.000 of crayons. We know what our emotions are. We have 0:15:26.040 --> 0:15:28.840 eight of them that we're pretty comfortable with. The ladies 0:15:28.880 --> 0:15:31.320 ore there they got a sixteen pack and we're like, 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:33.640 what the heck is that emotion that you're doing. 0:15:33.640 --> 0:15:35.400 My wife's got the fifty four pack. 0:15:35.440 --> 0:15:37.240 But then we throw in the sixty four pack. 0:15:37.320 --> 0:15:39.000 Yeah, sixty four, which is trauma. 0:15:39.040 --> 0:15:41.720 And we don't understand what future looks like. You don't 0:15:41.760 --> 0:15:44.640 understand what future fusia the color fusia. 0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:47.880 You show those emotions compiled because what happened is your 0:15:47.880 --> 0:15:49.600 body will dump them all in the system at the 0:15:49.640 --> 0:15:53.520 same time, good emotions, bad emotions, and different emotions. 0:15:53.320 --> 0:15:55.080 And it overwhelms the nervous system. 0:15:55.760 --> 0:15:58.360 That's the feeling of overwhelm that you just don't know 0:15:58.360 --> 0:16:00.960 how to process what is this? And it goes in 0:16:01.000 --> 0:16:04.120 those cycles, that waves of ninety seconds, and that ninety 0:16:04.120 --> 0:16:06.640 seconds feels like an eternity because what happens when you 0:16:06.680 --> 0:16:11.560 go into that limbic hijack. Think of your brain requiring resources, right, 0:16:11.720 --> 0:16:15.920 it needs survival mode needs resources. So what's the first 0:16:15.920 --> 0:16:19.880 thing They get shut off? Prefrontal cortex, logic brain, thinking 0:16:19.920 --> 0:16:23.360 brain gets shut down. That's also where our empathy centers are. 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:26.960 So you're losing empathy. So you lose the empathy for 0:16:27.080 --> 0:16:30.080 anybody in your world, right, not intentionally, it's just that 0:16:30.120 --> 0:16:32.160 part of the brain turns off. So when you get 0:16:32.160 --> 0:16:36.000 into that emotional overwhelm, you lose empathy, you lose the logic, 0:16:36.040 --> 0:16:39.240 you lose decision making, you lose impulse control, because that's 0:16:39.280 --> 0:16:43.320 also prefrontal cortex, and that's when guys do it right, 0:16:43.760 --> 0:16:45.920 not realizing because they're out of the frontal part of 0:16:45.960 --> 0:16:46.160 the brain. 0:16:46.240 --> 0:16:47.240 They're in the back of the brain. 0:16:47.400 --> 0:16:52.600 Can then also manifest itself instead of in suicide, can 0:16:52.640 --> 0:16:57.600 it manifest itself in screamate a spouse or children, or 0:16:57.840 --> 0:17:01.239 even getting into fights and abuse, all of that same. 0:17:01.000 --> 0:17:03.520 Stuff one hundred percent of the same thing. So when 0:17:03.520 --> 0:17:06.600 a person gets into a triggered state, right, they lose 0:17:06.640 --> 0:17:09.280 that prefrontal cortex, they lose empathy. And I always talk 0:17:09.320 --> 0:17:11.439 to groups of vets and I'll ask him, all right, 0:17:11.480 --> 0:17:14.240 who in this room has said something to the person 0:17:14.240 --> 0:17:15.960 they love and care about the most? And five minutes 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:17.399 later we're like, oh my god, I can't believe I 0:17:17.440 --> 0:17:20.520 said that. Everybody's hands goes up because they the brain 0:17:20.600 --> 0:17:23.360 resources shut off that front part of the brain, and 0:17:23.400 --> 0:17:25.479 then all of a sudden they're saying something in anger, 0:17:25.680 --> 0:17:28.119 not realizing because they can't connect to that person. 0:17:28.160 --> 0:17:32.840 And you're saying scientifically, at that moment, they literally cannot control. 0:17:32.440 --> 0:17:37.000 It correct until that limbic releases, until they come out 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:38.879 of that and the empathy can start coming back. 0:17:38.920 --> 0:17:41.280 It's what's getting our law enforcement in trouble. Right. 0:17:41.520 --> 0:17:43.879 I was just about to say to cop, is this 0:17:44.000 --> 0:17:48.800 why cops? An otherwise normal, nice guy ends up beating 0:17:48.800 --> 0:17:51.639 that out of somebody for twenty seconds because he's. 0:17:51.480 --> 0:17:52.520 In Olympic hijack. 0:17:52.800 --> 0:17:56.720 The amigdala is taking over and the logic impulse is 0:17:56.760 --> 0:18:00.800 gone and the empathy is gone. You can see law 0:18:00.840 --> 0:18:02.560 enforcement also is getting in trouble all over the place. 0:18:02.560 --> 0:18:04.120 And there's people that go around that's their whole job. 0:18:04.160 --> 0:18:06.000 They want to get cops triggered and let them do. 0:18:06.000 --> 0:18:08.480 Something so they can sue the department. Right, So we 0:18:08.520 --> 0:18:08.840 had a. 0:18:08.960 --> 0:18:12.040 And there's also to be clear, there's also some just 0:18:12.119 --> 0:18:14.440 bad human beings that are cops. But those are very 0:18:14.560 --> 0:18:19.119 very very very very very very very infinitest SMaL percentage. 0:18:19.960 --> 0:18:21.280 What are the ones that I'm talking about? Are the 0:18:21.320 --> 0:18:24.679 ones that lose control that you would never expect. 0:18:24.440 --> 0:18:27.040 That to happen to And it happens. 0:18:27.160 --> 0:18:28.800 It happens, and. 0:18:28.840 --> 0:18:30.840 A career can be over in a second, a life 0:18:30.880 --> 0:18:33.720 can be over in a second. You know, a lot 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:36.680 of those folks get into those limbic hijacks. There was 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:40.240 a sergeant down to Sunrise Florida, and there was a 0:18:40.280 --> 0:18:43.399 young black male. He was in custody, hands cut, but 0:18:43.400 --> 0:18:45.840 he was just running his gator, right. He's in the 0:18:45.840 --> 0:18:47.639 back of the patrol car ready, he's not going anywhere. 0:18:47.760 --> 0:18:49.000 Let him run their gators, right. 0:18:49.280 --> 0:18:53.040 And this sergeant arrives on seeing everybody's body cams are out, 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:55.639 and he goes into the back of the patrol car. 0:18:55.680 --> 0:18:56.960 He's got his pepper spray out. 0:18:56.760 --> 0:19:00.879 And he's mfing this kid, and a female police officer 0:19:00.960 --> 0:19:03.119 reaches to his duty belt because what they trained him 0:19:03.160 --> 0:19:06.000 do to de escalate it pulls him away. So what 0:19:06.040 --> 0:19:09.600 does he do in that moment he's in He's enraged, right, 0:19:10.400 --> 0:19:12.960 He turns to her and puts his hands on her 0:19:13.000 --> 0:19:16.760 throat and starts pushing her back and mfing her. He 0:19:16.800 --> 0:19:19.199 was in the hijack right now, All of a sudden, 0:19:19.359 --> 0:19:21.960 he's a convicted felon because he ended up getting arrested 0:19:22.000 --> 0:19:23.679 in charge with the battery and a law enforcement officer 0:19:23.840 --> 0:19:26.560 because that's what he did, right, all because the LIMPIC 0:19:26.600 --> 0:19:31.480 system overactivated from something that was probably twenty years prior. 0:19:33.280 --> 0:19:36.159 So think of it in the terms of because I 0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:39.320 work law enforcement too, so I'm deeply passionate about trying 0:19:39.320 --> 0:19:42.159 to shift some of the culture and law enforcement because 0:19:42.200 --> 0:19:43.840 I've seen guys. 0:19:43.560 --> 0:19:48.520 Overreact on the job. Right, I've probably overreacted plenty of. 0:19:48.520 --> 0:19:51.720 Times on the job, but a lot of them are 0:19:51.720 --> 0:19:54.240 losing it, and they're losing their careers over it, or 0:19:54.280 --> 0:19:54.880