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I'm Owen.
This November will be 22 years in the
military with the US Army.
Where I've been?
I've been to the Gulf War.
I've been to Panama, been to Afghanistan, been to Iraq.
My tour in Afghanistan, where I got wounded, that affected
my mental health.
My vehicle was hit by an IED.
I was launched from my seat into the ceiling of the
vehicle, and I broke open a three quarter inch steal hatch
with my head, well, I had my helmet on.
I was knocked unconscious.
I don't remember the blast. Don't remember a
lot of it or anything.
And honestly, I never knew anything was wrong with me
until I actually came home.
I'd say the biggest thing I had that I had to deal with
was frustration.
I couldn't speak right, I didn't know why.
I couldn't communicate well, I didn't know why.
Everything seemed out of place.
Even though military life is a little chaotic at times, it's
structured for a reason.
You know what you're going to do every single day.
And when I came home to my wife and my three kids, which
is complete chaos and anarchy, I couldn't function very well.
What I didn't know when I couldn't speak very well was
because I have a traumatic brain injury
that affects my speech.
I couldn't communicate well because I have attention
deficit due to my brain injury.
I have balance problems due to my brain injury, memory due to
my brain injury.
And overseas, hey, he's fine.
Of course I'm fine.
Because I know what I'm going to be doing.
But when I come home, it's completely different.
And it wasn't until a friend of mine who happens to be a
Veteran Service officer, Veteran affairs Service
officer, he goes, you know, maybe you should go get it
checked out.
And I was like, what do you mean?
Go ask to see if you have a TBI.
And I was like what's a TBI?
He taught me, and sure enough, I would go to the VA here in
Minneapolis, and yep, I've got one.
One of the biggest things I felt was
frustration with myself.
Because I'm normally very in control of myself.
And with my brain injury, I couldn't speak right.
I couldn't act right.
And it was something I couldn't control.
So I'd get frustrated with myself and
get angry with myself.
And whenever my wife would try to help me, I would get angry
at her because she was trying to help me.
And my kids, the first couple of years were kind of scary
for them because they wouldn't know what would make me angry
and what wouldn't.
The best example, my son spilled a cup of water.
I didn't say anything to him, I just cleaned it up.
My daughter spilled a cup of water, and I totally freaked
out on her.
That's part of the brain injury that is frustrating
because you don't know what it affects,
what it doesn't affect.
When it's going to affect, when it's not going to affect,
things like that.
When I got to the VA, I got assigned a general physician
and explained to them what I was going through and then
they just started lining up with the right clinics.
And I got lined up with the poly-trauma unit, which means
multiple injuries, basically.
It was there that they diagnosed my TBI.
They zeroed in on what exactly is affected.
They gave me the right meds to deal with the problems. I
started speaking more clearly.
I became less frustrated and less angry.
And then at the same time, I got to speak somebody every
month if I wanted to or more.
And talking the problems out probably helped more than
anything else.
I was your typical soldier where if I say I've got a
problem, that's a sign of weakness.
I was a big, strong paratrooper type where if I
admit I have a mental problem, then they're
going to kick me out.
It was like an attack on my manhood, if you will.
And back then, I took it serious.
Now it's just kind of silly.
But talking to my doctor helps.
She'll ask me what's going on.
I tell her.
She'll pick out either key phrases or something.
She'll start to talk about that.
Then I'll talk about what she talked about.
And by the end of the hour, it's just oh, OK.
You kind of understand what you're going through.
And you're able to deal with the situation
when it arises again.
Because it will rise again.
Just talking to her has helped me learn how to deal with a
lot of the problems I have, cope with a lot of the
problems I have, some of the things I can't change.
A lot of the behavioral things I can change.
And it's helped me a tremendous deal.
It's been my experience as a soldier, as a leader of
soldiers, as a member of the law enforcement community, as
a Veteran, the number one trick, the number one drug,
the number one therapy, the number one thing that gets
people away from suicide, away from divorce, away from
criminal behavior, away from all the bad stuff is talking
to somebody.
The VA has untold amount of services and people.
And all they want to do is help you.
It took a lot of swallowing of my pride
to go talk to somebody.
And I did.
And I'm better for it.