Security Halt!
Welcome to Security Halt! Podcast, the show dedicated to Veterans, Active Duty Service Members, and First Responders. Hosted by retired Green Beret Deny Caballero, this podcast dives deep into the stories of resilience, triumph, and the unique challenges faced by those who serve.
Through powerful interviews and candid discussions, Security Halt! Podcast highlights vital resources, celebrates success stories, and offers actionable tools to navigate mental health, career transitions, and personal growth.
Join us as we stand shoulder-to-shoulder, proving that even after the mission changes, the call to serve and thrive never ends.
Security Halt!
Healing Invisible Wounds: A Soldier's Journey Through TBI
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In this powerful episode of Security Halt!, host Deny Caballero sits down with veteran Alex Briggs to explore the life-altering impact of traumatic brain injury (TBI) and blast exposure on today’s warfighters. Alex shares raw, first-hand accounts from his deployments, his battles with invisible wounds, and his mission to change how the system supports veterans post-service.
From navigating the VA to finding hope through alternative treatments like hyperbaric oxygen therapy, this episode unpacks the critical gaps in veteran care—and the urgent need for advocacy, education, and action.
Whether you're a veteran, family member, healthcare provider, or supporter of those who serve, Alex's story offers valuable insight into recovery, resilience, and what it means to fight for those who’ve already fought for us.
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Chapters
00:00 Introduction to Advocacy and Personal Stories
01:46 Military Background and Deployment Experience
03:49 The Impact of Blast Exposure
06:37 The Aftermath of the Blast
10:56 Navigating Recovery and Symptoms
13:34 Returning to Duty and Mental Health Challenges
19:37 Facing Vulnerability and Mental Health Challenges
21:25 The Journey to Diagnosis and Treatment
24:39 Struggles with Medical Professionals
28:31 Finding Hope and Alternative Treatments
31:54 The Impact of Hyperbaric Treatment
35:41 Advocating for Veterans' Health
40:28 Breaking the Stigma of Asking for Help
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LinkedIn: Alex Briggs
Instagram: silentwoundsandwarriors
Website: https://silentwoundsandwarriors.com/
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Produced by Security Halt Media
Security Out Podcast. Let's go the only podcast that's purpose-built from the ground up to support you Not just you, but the wider audience, everybody. Authentic, impactful and insightful conversations that serve a purpose to help you. And the quality has gone up. It's decent. It's hosted by me, danny Caballero.
Speaker 2:Alex Briggs. Welcome to Security Out Podcast. How's it going, man? Good, how are you doing? Thanks for having me, Absolutely, man. I love running into other individuals that are passionate for a cause and have a unique and amazing story to share about why and how they got involved in this advocacy space. And, uh, I saw a clip for a viewer show talking about something that I'm very passionate about, which is blast exposure, TBI treatment and, uh, you know, helping our brothers and sisters realize that it's not always just an explosion or IED or a big major situation. These exposures come from everyday training scenarios that a lot of soldiers are constantly involved in. So today, my man, it's your story, your show. How'd you get involved in this space?
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's a great question and 100% appreciate you having me on here because I feel like these stories need to be told and I feel like there's veterans out there that are facing these symptoms of TBIs and blast exposures and they don't even realize that these are symptoms from their time in service. But, kind of, my story starts a long time ago, like my whole military career. I actually started out working as a civilian for the Air Force and I was a software engineer, so I got to work on some really cool products, Like I did software for the B-1 bombers, F-16s. A lot of my friends worked on the technology systems behind allowing A-10s to drop 500 pound bombs, and so I was doing that. My brother he, he joined the military and the national guard and I wanted to do the same.
Speaker 3:It took some convincing to allow my my wife to to let me join, but he had a good experience. He went to ranger school, came a ranger and, uh, I wanted to follow in his footsteps. So, uh, I joined as a zero nine Sierra officer. I know, I know, but went through officer candidate school and branched field artillery. So I spent some time behind a gun line and as a fire direction officer. So we work on processing all the fire missions. Uh, when they come from the forward observers, they go to us, we process it, do all the math, send it to the gun line and the gun line shoots it. Um, so fantastic experience.
Speaker 3:Got to spend about a year and a half on the gun line and then, uh, when my brother was competing at best Ranger competition, um, got to meet the Sergeant major that was going to be over the battalion that was deploying and, you know, competing at Best Ranger competition. Got to meet the Sergeant Major that was going to be over the battalion that was deploying and, you know, got to get in his ear and say, hey, like I'd love to deploy with my brother and get that experience. Like, if you have any leeway in getting me on the deployment, I'd love to. And then deployed with a group of fisters and got to have that awesome experience of, you know, deploying and and living the good life. What year was this? Yeah, this was actually recent. So, um, we deployed in 2022 to Syria. Yeah, yeah, that's how recent.
Speaker 2:Yeah, holy shit, yeah, good on you. How was it going it going, uh, going down range of your brother man that was.
Speaker 3:It was really cool. So, uh, he stayed in kuwait for for a little bit. Um, I went to syria. I was in syria for about six months and then, uh, he was ripping into the same place that we were, our mission support site, and we overlapped for about two weeks, um, so got to do one mission with him before I was out of Syria. But still a really cool experience deploying with you know someone you care so much about. There's a lot of you know things with that. Like, we had a soldier unfortunately pass away on that deployment and I was helping out on the staff at the time and no one would talk to me and I knew someone had passed away and wasn't around anymore and I was worried that it was my brother and going through that guilt feeling of just hoping it was anyone else that passed away other than my brother. So there's some really good things but also some really tough things when you get to hear the news that's going on and and, uh, you worry for him, you know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's. That's incredibly hard, um, even with close friends, man, that you almost have a little bit of guilt when you're like fuck anybody else but this guy anybody else would mind. Yeah.
Speaker 3:It's tough.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so how did the rest of the career go?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so a lot of our mission set as FISTERS is we're supporting an infantry company, so our our main thing that we were doing is we were controlling aircraft. When we would go out at our mission support site. We had roughly about two JTACs Me and my guys we're JFOs, joint Fire Observers so definitely not as cool as JTACs, but we got to talk to the MQ-9s a lot and then Apaches. I do a lot of air weapons team requests and then we'd go out outside the wire and control Apaches and a lot of recon assets to help keep us safe. When we would go outside the wire, mostly looking for like people smuggling weapons, because we're getting rocketed quite a bit. So we were looking for like these barrel systems that they would use to launch the rockets at us on the on a timer system, or we would just go out and use our optics to look for activity out there presence patrols, and so my, my story is is you know we didn't. We didn't do anything crazy Like I don't. I don't like to think that I'm anyone special or anything, but on one particular mission we're outside the wire, we're doing some recon and there was what I called like the deconfliction line of like Assad pro regime forces on one side and our, our side Um, and we weren't really supposed to go past this like deconfliction line Uh, aircraft wouldn't go past that line either, and uh, we're kind of kicking parallel to this, this deconfliction line, and, um, I was in a Bradley and then an explosion went off and the last thing that I remember is kind of flying through the air and then just everything went dark, um, and it was only a few seconds, but I remember I was, I was waking up on top of my buddy that was to my left and just I couldn't breathe.
Speaker 3:Like it felt like all the air was out of my body and there's so much smoke and dust that I just couldn't breathe. And I don't know if you've ever been in a Bradley, but there's this true patch on the top, you know for emergencies or and so my adrenaline kicked in, jumped up, popped open that true patch and, like this, just flood of air came in. I could finally feel like I was breathing and the effects of the blast didn't really kick in right away, it was just more adrenaline. And we got really lucky because I had submitted an air weapons team request for what I thought was the most vulnerable point of our convoy and it happened to be 15 minutes that they they were going to check in on station um from when we got blown up. So my first thought was like, hey, we need aircraft here right away. So, um, we got on whatever system we had to to request those assets and I was like, hey, you guys need to get here, I guess, as fast as possible, cause we didn't know what was going on and, honestly, like in in that environment, we everything that was happening was like pop shots here and there and then rockets that would hit us at night, like. So we weren't like really getting into gunfights or anything, there's just little things like that. And um, so, uh, luckily, like the Apaches were checking in on my net like 10 minutes later and uh, so I remember that my first, my first thought was like, hey, like we're going to get a huge stack here coming in. Uh, so I was trying to get them to to hear me out of like, hey, we need to stay below you know coordination level, stay below 2,500 feet and get here as quickly as possible. But then the net was breaking up and couldn't really hear each other that well, and then, probably like three minutes later they're back on the net and they're like hey, we heard you guys hit an IED, like, is that true? And I was like, hey, stay when ready for friendly grid, get here as quickly as you can. And so Apaches got there within like 10 minutes and kept us safe.
Speaker 3:A lot of the other Bradleys didn't want to come in to where we were because we were worried about more explosives and we were, honestly, safe for the most part. But our whole front of our Bradley was blown up and so all of the rotor wheels on the side were gone. It blew a hole into the hull of the Bradley, like in the bottom of it, and the whole engine block was gone. And that overpressure came inside the Bradley, like in the in the bottom of it, and the whole engine block was gone. And, uh, that overpressure came inside the Bradley and I was sitting in the back left corner and almost like the farthest person away from the blast. But you know I'm not an expert in blast waves, but it almost like everything came to the back right where I was sitting and took about an hour and a half to get Kazevac out of there back to our mission support site and then we got checked in by some emergency doctors there man.
Speaker 2:That's a very lucky individual to be here yeah, because we got super lucky, depending on the, if it would have been a different munition, if it would have been a bigger charge, this whole story, you know, probably ended a whole different.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:That is yeah. Everybody in the Bradley made it out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, luckily, um, a lot, of a lot of us just had, you know, brain TBIs after that concussions. The EOD guy that was at our mission support site that I was friends with, he said that if it would have hit a foot or two behind where it did that we all would have died. And it just happened to hit in the front right where the engine block absorbed most of it. Like there's a you know one or two inch thick I-beam that holds the engine and this I don't know if you've ever seen in the engine of a Bradley, but it's huge, and that whole I-beam was bent all the way up Like and it's a you know multiple inch I-beam that's supporting that engine block and that whole thing was was destroyed.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and then comes the aftermath of going through the the post blast, uh, headaches, light sensitivity yeah, of course. Like well, just stay in a dark room for a little bit, yep.
Speaker 3:That's what it was. Yeah, the the doctor, the doctor that was at our mission support site. He goes hey, like any treatment you get outside of our mission support site, it's going to be the same thing. They're going to tell you to lay down, turn off all the lights, don't look at your phone. Um, he's like we can't give you any medicine because we're worried about brain bleeds, like you're you get. All of you are just going to stay here, which, honestly, I was okay with.
Speaker 3:We were dealing with some difficult personalities on the, the unit that we were supporting, so I didn't want to leave my guys. I felt like I was kind of a line of defense for them to like keep them from the bullshit, to be honest with you. And so the yeah, the first multiple days was just hey, laying this cot and get some sleep. But that doesn't work out like we want it to right. Yeah, so on top of that, like we're still in a combat zone. Yeah, so on top of that, like we're still in a combat zone.
Speaker 3:So you know, we would get into Epicon, delta or something would happen Like the radars would kick off because some rockets are coming. So even in that we'd have to jump in, get in our Briley, go to you know where we're supposed to to make sure our mission support site is safe and we're not getting hit by rockets. So it probably wasn't the best environment to stay in. Yeah, but you know, I, I like I don't blame anyone, right, like that's just how the cards cards are played but at the end of the day, you're a warrior.
Speaker 2:At the end of the day, you're, you're at war and if you've, you got to do what you got to do, yeah, you, you can't, um, you can't quarterback it after the, the fact and the, the medical staff are only, they only know what they know, and they're.
Speaker 2:Now there's so much literature, there's so many new things, like they don't recommend going in all quiet, blacked out room, like that's all been thrown out to the wayside. There's so many things that have have advanced, but in the moment you're still at war, like, yeah, you're alive, so let's, let's be focused on that, and tomorrow we're gonna need you to go out and carry out. But when you're, when you return, it's what a lot of people don't realize is it's it's something that compounds, and you don't always have, like this myriad of symptoms right off the bat to turn your life upside down, like, no, it's, you're still going to go back on the gun line, you're still going to shoot, you're still going to be exposed to blast exposure and then going to go back and you're going to go train. So what was it like coming out of that deployment and where were? When did you finally notice like hey, like I'm still dealing with some issues.
Speaker 3:Yeah, man, there's so many emotions with it too, when, when you, when you talk about it and bring it up and you look back on it and you, you don't really regret how things happen, but you kind of wish that you had the knowledge you had now. But so, like the first day after the blast, I honestly just felt like I was floating, like I always say I don't know how to describe it other than that Like you, just you're, you're not there, right, you don't realize what's going on. And so then the second day, um, I'm just laying in my cot in in this tent in the middle of nowhere and I literally felt like someone was grabbing my head and squeezing it. I felt like my head was about to explode and I wasn't on any pain meds because they were worried about brain bleeds. And they kept a line medic near me just to make sure I was okay and I asked him to come over. They kept a line medic near me just to make sure I was okay and I asked him to come over.
Speaker 3:I was like I'm not doing okay right now. Like can you take me back to roll one? Like I'm dry heaving. I literally feel like I'm about to pass out, I can't like my head's spinning. So he took me back to roll one and they're checking on me and they're like you got some blood in your ears. Have you been scratching at your ears? It's like no, no, I haven't touched my ears. They're like yeah, you must have been scratching at your ears because you got blood in your ears. It's like I promise I haven't scratched at them. And they're like all right, well, I think you're past the 24 hours. Let's give you some pain med.
Speaker 3:But I was in so much pain that I couldn't sleep, like I didn't sleep what it felt like three or four days, and this was a pretty big incident in the area. And so they sent some psychologists and like trauma specialists from behavioral health over to our mission support site to check on us. And I remember I sat down with them and he's like all right, how are you doing? I was like honestly, I, my head hurts all the time and I'm just not sleeping. And he's like okay. And then like that's all. The conversation was Well, if you need anything, let me know. And I'm like all right, I'm not sleeping. And he's like okay, yeah.
Speaker 2:All right.
Speaker 3:His notes just scribbles of. Things like this weren't really happening at the time. So I think a lot of these people hadn't seen any injuries recently. And you know, post what happened to us, I actually had a lot of friends in Iraq that were getting hit by those suicide drones, all that kind of stuff, and so I think it happened a little bit more in 2023. But I just think people didn't know how to react, to be honest with you.
Speaker 3:So I was on concussion protocol, um, and it was two weeks after the blast that my brother was ripping into where we were in Syria, and so I was like hyper motivated to get off concussion protocol and to try to get out of outside the wire with him. And so he gets in. I was still on concussion protocol. Like he's like at this point, the doctor's like hey, you need to try to work out, move around, see how your body reacts. But everything I did, I felt dizzy. I just felt like I was going to pass out. And so I, uh, I'm working out with my brother and I like literally felt like I was going to fall over the whole time. And he's like you, are you all right? I'm like yeah, I'm doing okay, like I'll be all right, like I need to get better so we can go out and do some fun stuff together, and uh, so I probably shouldn't have done it. But I went to the doctors and I was like I'm good to go, like get me off, get me off concussion protocol, Let me go outside the water. And they're like, okay, and they were getting phone calls from like the Pentagon, four-star generals checking in on us all the time because, you know, an incident like this hadn't happened in a while. And so I think the, I think the doctors were like, yeah, let's get you off concussion protocol and it would alleviate some of the pressure on their end, so where they're not getting called all the time to check on us. And so I got to go on one mission with my brother and do some recon in the middle of the night and had a wonderful experience. That was one of our more interesting last missions.
Speaker 3:And the next day I was actually flying to Iraq. I spent a week in Iraq while we waited for some flights back to Kuwait. I spent a week in Iraq while we waited for some flights back to Kuwait and then in Kuwait, just kept seeing doctors there. And you know, a few weeks into that. I just keep telling them. I'm like, hey, my head hurts all the time, and they're like, all right, we'll just take some ibuprofen, take some Tylenol. It's going to take a few months for that to go away. Take some ibuprofen, take some Tylenol. It's going to take a few months for that to go away.
Speaker 3:And as being a soldier, it's hard to admit it, but I started having PTSD symptoms. I'd lay down in my bed and I couldn't breathe. It seriously felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest and I had had some dreams of that blast wave hitting me, and I think I had associated being in my bed to pain just from that time after the blast. And so anytime I got in bed I'd have this panic attack. I couldn't breathe and everyone that was around me could like see that my eyes were sunken in and I was just not doing well and I was so desperate for sleep.
Speaker 3:I went to the doctor and I was like, please give me sleeping pills, like I'm not doing okay. And they're like you need to go see behavioral health because we can't give you sleeping pills. They're the only ones that can. So went to behavioral health. They still didn't give me sleeping pills but then made me talk about my panic attacks and all that kind of stuff. And you know, another couple of weeks went on and, uh, I finally went to go see one of the PAs that was from our state and I was like, hey sir, like I am not doing good, he's like I can see it, he's like you, you look terrible, to be honest with you. And I had this whole time like I was trying to have a good face for my soldiers, have a good face for everyone, right, like I honestly was hiding my symptoms and I didn't want people to really know, cause I don't know why. Like we get embarrassed about our injuries I don't know if you ever experienced that, but you don't want to look like you have any vulnerabilities.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, vulnerability on the backside of all this. We learn, or we can learn. That is a strength, but when you're living it, when you're not able to perform and do the job of an officer and and really live up to your duties and responsibilities, it fucking weighs on you. It weighs on you when you can't be that stud in the team or in the platoon or that fucking by-the-book Green Beret that can run and do all the things you're supposed to do. That'll weigh on you and that pressure, that self-imposed, will fucking kill you. It literally has led guys to do that one thing that we all are trying to fight commit suicide Because you are not willing to talk about, or be vulnerable enough to talk about, the things that you're suffering through.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah. So he had me go see a different doctor. I went and saw that doctor and told him what was going on, what my symptoms were, and he's like why did we never send you to Germany right away? He's like it doesn't make sense to me. And and he's like we need, we need to get you out of here. Like there's there's really not much we can do for you at this point. Like it's been multiple months. And so the next day I was on a flight a medevac flight to Germany and got to the concussion clinic there, saw the doctors and I had failed every single balance test. Like I met with a neuro optometrist and they do these. You know, these have these cords where you have to look at it and focus your eyes. Yeah, and I failed all of that. Like my vision wouldn't focus. Like I remember I did that. I don't know what's going on. My body, my left eye, would not focus like what?
Speaker 2:and I'm just trying to hide it and I'm trying to move forward and everybody sees you like fuck, why aren't you performing the way you used to you? Because you have both your arms, you have both your legs, you're talking, you're fine on the back side. There's vindication when you go to a TBI clinic and you're like I lost balance, stepping down from the transition steps from my kitchen. It's one step, one step lose balance and fall down. I couldn't go up my steps to my bedroom, to the second floor of my house without falling down. The only vindication you have that there's something cognitively wrong is at these treatment centers. And to think that if you wouldn't have talked to that guy, you wouldn't have been able to go there. You would have missed out on that. And the reality is how many of our veterans, how many of our brothers and sisters just continue to live life never understanding that there's something wrong with you and somebody can diagnose it?
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's, I'm, I'm very grateful Like that. If I wouldn't have had that conversation, to be honest, I don't know if I'd be here today. Like that was a point where I was like, okay, I'm, I'm going to go get help Cause I didn't want to leave my soldiers. I didn't want to and you know we're dealing with difficult personalities on a deployment and I just felt guilty about leaving. To be honest with you, I didn't want to, but I knew our deployment was coming to an end and I needed to go, was in Germany for a few days. They flew me to Joint Base Lewis-McChord and I got to the concussion clinic there and I hate to talk ill of the location, but it was terrible there. It was terrible and I think the time that we were in they were seeing less injuries from combat and so the doctors take a mentality of people are faking it and trying to take advantage of the retirement system, and my job is to find those individuals that are trying to fake it, grilling me about every symptom. I was having everything that happened to me, and it wasn't one of those conversations where you can feel like the intent is to help you. It was. Let me document this or try to catch you on your words so that I can write things down in your medical profile to prove that you're doing okay or this and that doing okay or this and that.
Speaker 3:And so I kept meeting with doctors and I got I was on nine prescriptions for migraines, mental health. I had tremors, my hands would shake all the time, the left side of my face would go numb and then all my limbs would go numb and the neurologist said it was a symptom of complex migraines. The neurologist said it was a symptom of complex migraines. And then they made me meet with a neuropsychologist Because, honestly, I think when I started taking all those medications, I got worse. Like mental health, wise, yep, way worse. And then, on top of that, I was dealing with doctors that didn't believe my symptoms 100%.
Speaker 3:And so I sat down with this neuropsychologist and he goes all right, tell me everything that's happened, your symptoms, and I started explaining. Like first day I honestly felt like just I was on clouds. And day two and three and four I literally felt like I was dying. And he pulled out this piece of paper that had this chart that showed concussions and how the first day is supposed to be the worst day and day two and day three you're supposed to be getting better. And he goes. What you're describing to me doesn't match this chart. So I feel like you're lying to me and I go, excuse me. He goes. I feel like you are trying to take advantage of the situation. He's like you didn't come here for like three months post blast, and now you're here all of a sudden, trying to take advantage of the government and hoping you can retire and get all these benefits. He's like what you're saying doesn't match this chart and I feel like it's my job to find those individuals that are lying and catch them on the lie. And I was like no, your job is to help veterans, your job is to help people. Nowhere in your job description does it say catch people that are lying about their symptoms.
Speaker 3:And so I start bawling in this meeting because I was feeling guilty about leaving my soldiers. I was feeling guilty about not being in the fight with them, and this a-hole guy is just yeah, you're faking it. And so I called my wife and I was like I can't do this anymore. I'm not doing okay and I'm dealing with people that don't believe me. And the thing that doesn't make sense to me is I had gotten, you know, a purple heart from from what had happened. I have all these medical records from the blast and they still didn't believe me.
Speaker 3:And, and at this point, one of my soldiers, um, from when I was on the line battery with Paladins, texted me and he's like hey, man, I heard you got blown up. Like I just want to let you know I'm thinking of you, which meant a lot to me. And then I got another text from another soldier I served with and he's like hey, I have a friend, his name is Wren Murray and he's opening up this place called Revival Hyperbarics. You need to talk to him. And I was like, okay, let's do it. And this was right at the time where that doctor told me I was faking it and I I had known Ren's 18 Alpha. He was going to be our graduation speaker at Officer Kennett School and in 2017, when they lost their teammate, aaron Butler, like I had been doing, the Aaron Butler runs every year growing up in Idaho. And so I was like I know of Ren, but I don't know him.
Speaker 3:And Ren called me and he's like you're experiencing this symptom, this symptom, this symptom, this symptom and this symptom. And he described me perfectly Like you have no emotions, your head hurts all the time, you can't sleep, you have memory fog, you can't remember things. And I told him I was like, hey, man, like I'm just this conventional guy, like you're this bad-ass green beret that's been through a lot, like, honestly, like I didn't do anything cool on my deployment, like I appreciate you, like reaching out and telling me that you can help, but like I'm no one special. And I remember he told me he's like stop, like stop, like quit thinking that just because you're a conventional guy, like you don't deserve help. He's like you got blown up man. Like accept, accept help when it's here for you. Like we can help you. He's like I've been in your shoes, I've been completely numb, with no emotions, like just accept it. Like we will treat anyone that is out there that needs help, but don't think that because you're not getting treatment, someone else is going to get it. Like we will treat everyone.
Speaker 3:And you know that week, like I had some really dark moments. Like I never made a plan to like take my own life or anything, but I wanted to, 100% wanted to, and I've got three kids, I've got a wife, and I kept telling myself don't do anything stupid, don't even think about it, because you don't want to traumatize your kids or your wife. And so at that moment I was like I'm done, I'm leaving Joint Base Lewis-McChord, I'm going home, I'm getting my own treatment. And then that came with other problems, because now Joint Base Lewis-McChord knew I was going back to my home unit. They call my home unit and tell them that they thought I was faking it. So then all the leadership in my battalion thought I was faking it. They straight up told me that, oh yeah, joint Base Lewis-McChord called us and told us that we thought you were faking it and the timelines don't match up. Like, why didn't you get help for the three months after the blast? Like, why did you deny care? If you're really wanting to get better, why are you denying care? And that was just sending me down a like a more dark spiral of not being okay.
Speaker 3:And it took a few more months for Ren to open up Revival Hyperbarics. But I finally got in and was treated by America's Mightiest Warriors, an amazing nonprofit. I know Ren, when he was on your podcast, mentioned them. I owe them my life and I owe Ren at Revival Hyperbarics my life.
Speaker 3:And the first day after I did my first dive I quit all my prescriptions all nine of them and I had these withdrawal symptoms the first couple days of doing the dives. And around dive 10, my tremor stopped, my hands stopped shaking. And then around dive 20 or dive 25, I got in my car and I was leaving and I just start bawling and I know Ren had a similar experience. But when you finally get those emotions back and you're not a completely numb person, you feel like you can experience joy and you feel like you can experience sadness. And that was probably one of the most life-changing moments in my recovery is having that feeling.
Speaker 3:And then I ended up doing 50 dives and I just felt like a new person and, not to toot my own horn, but I had three degrees two degrees in engineering and MBA. I was doing some really cool stuff and I felt like, cognitively, I was there. And then when you go from not even being able to remember that you left your car on when you went inside and find out later that your car has been running for an hour, it just it sucks Like yeah. And so I finally felt like I was starting to get back to the person I was before and I sit down with Ren and Patrick that run Revital Hyperbarics and I was like how is it that more veterans don't know about this? Like it doesn't make sense to me. Everyone is just prescribed medication and told to suck it up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, alex, I share the same sentiment. Um, but you and I and and a vast majority of of our veterans not all of us and I don't want to paint with a broad brush, but for me it was being met with that like definitive, definitive proof, after neurological, psychologist battery of tests, and they say like hey, here's, here's proof of your cognitive decline. Here's print out shows where you are within. Having like, met with that like sheer like understanding of, like, oh fuck, now I know there's something really fucking wrong. There's something really fucking wrong. There's something really fucking wrong. There's a test that shows and it proves it. I'm not crazy.
Speaker 2:You have that period of grief because like, fuck, okay, now am I going to be fucking mashed potato brains for the rest of my fucking life? Is this it Like? No, we're unique and we're different and you will adapt. You're still going to have shit memory. I'm just didn't realize it. But you give yourself grace, you understand. Like, I still can't find my wallet. I had a whole fucking morning trying to find my wallet today, but you know, you get Apple air tags.
Speaker 2:What I'm trying to say is you figure out how to adapt and build new frameworks for the deficits you have. But I got reading back. I couldn't read to the point where I was just highlighting everything, trying to like write everything out. I just had a gentleman on Todd Straper and I was talking about like finally giving, being given like the operator syndrome, white paper study and then printing it out and having to highlight every section. That applied to me, not because I was like, oh, I'm going to be prepared, but because I had to focus that much to read it and retain it, highlight these areas so I could advocate for myself. Finally, because, just like those people at Lewis were so ready to throw you under the bus and say you're a fucking liar, it happens to almost every veteran I was talking to. And then you have to turn to other alternative modalities to find true healing and some sort of peace. And when you dig into hyperbarics you find two camps, two very definitive camps the veterans that are feeling and have like real world peace and treatment and recovery from it and academia that are saying that there's not enough, there's not enough proof, not enough studies. Why is it that you're not taking into account these people whose lives are being changed to have their, been given their lives back, like you're going to sit here and study and say there's no proof, there's no proof. Go study the fucking veterans whose lives are being changed. Go study those. Sit down in that space. Why does it feel like it's being manipulated? It's a money thing.
Speaker 2:I used to think peer-to-peer or peer-reviewed journals in scientific research was the standard. That's what I used to think. Peer-to-peer or peer-reviewed journals in scientific research was the standard. That's what I used to think. Now I realize, being back in school, being back in college, understanding that somebody pays for these studies yeah, and for a lot of them. And you can go find this out yourself right now. Go to Google Scholar and look up these studies and then do the work to find out who's funding the research. The same people who are also benefiting from their pharmaceuticals being prescribed to you at the VA, being given to you for free in those giant brown boxes and paper bags you get on a monthly basis. So is it really advantageous for them to come out and say that this non-pharmaceutical treatment model is something that we should be putting in every VA hospital for our veterans, or is it more advantageous for them to say that no, it's not helpful and it's anecdotal at best?
Speaker 3:That's the fucked up part. It's so tough because there's so much money behind it. I don't think this system will change. Like I know I'm being pessimistic, but I literally had multiple gallon size Ziploc bags full of medications and strong medications, like I remember. One of the doctors I saw was like you are taking, there's a ton of chemicals in your body right now and that's not good for you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and they counter, and some of the things that they don't tell you about is that medicine A is going to interact with medicine B and it might give some of the side effects. Are you're going to demonstrate behavior that's commonly viewed as schizophrenic, Like what the fuck? Saw that with some of my veteran friends, Like, oh, now he has to get treated for schizophrenia? One doctor out of seven was willing to go by line all the medications and say like no, this is not schizophrenia. This is a reaction that's happening because these medications are interacting with these medications and they should. He shouldn't be taking them in combination. What the fuck? What the fuck? Yeah, it's terrible.
Speaker 3:What the?
Speaker 2:fuck what the fuck.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's terrible, it's tough because you know, here's people like us that want to bring this to light. Right, like I have zero financial motivation in anything that I do, but my hope is that if we can reach one veteran, one first responder that hears this and he says to himself that sounds a lot like me and decides to go and reach out to someone in the hyperbaric space, reach out to our nonprofit and get help to me, that is what I want. I want that one person that we help, that was in the same shoes as me, that doesn't want to live anymore, that goes and gets treatment and has their eyes open to that, that life can be like what it was before, before the. You know the microblasts that they face before any head injury or anything like that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's the single greatest injury. It's a signature injury of our G watt era traumatic brain injury. And it doesn't have to be an ID strike, it can be from training, it can be a. It's not one exposure, it's all of the exposures and my story is a testament of it. How do I explain to somebody what's going on where I didn't, I wasn't blown up by a fucking ID yet this is my story too, and for countless of my brothers in soft world, it's their story as well. And for the 11, charlie the artilleryman, this is your story as well. Like it's the repeated exposure to these blasts.
Speaker 2:And you have to get smart. Nobody else is willing and nobody else is going to come in and advocate for you. So you have to be willing to ask yourself hey, am I really dealing with just a headache, or are these fucking migraines Like? Am I just a klutzy, clumsy person? Or am I just dealing with vestibular issues? And if your eyes aren't focusing, like they should stop being prideful and ask for fucking help. It'll only get better when you start asking for help. Please, if you haven't taken anything from this episode, take this. The time of swallowing your pride and just moving forward has to end. Ask for help, man. There's a better life out there for you. There's better days out there. All you got to do is find that vulnerability within you and say you know what? I'm not going to deal with this anymore. I'm going to get help. People are more spun up. Now more than ever. We have resources and if you don't know where to go, hit up Alex or hit me up.
Speaker 2:Alex where can we go to find out more about what you're doing?
Speaker 3:Yeah, so we try to be a little bit more unique compared to some of the nonprofits that I've worked with. Just like you mentioned, there's so many first responders and veterans that are injured through training exercises, right, like even microblast explosions from mortar men. Right, you got those 11 chucks that are humping around, all of these combat MOSs that are near these microblasts all the time, and a lot of nonprofits only treat combat wounds. You have to show some type of combat wound. When I sat down with Ren and Patrick at Revival Hyperbaric and kind of had this coming to Jesus moment of other people need this, that's when I decided to start Silent Wounds and Warriors Foundation and our goal is to help people that don't meet that combat criteria. Of course, we'll treat anyone that's a combat veteran and was hurt in combat, but there's a lot of nonprofits out there that we can push you to. But our goal is to treat any veteran or first responder that has had a TBI could be like even just someone that's airborne, qualified, that jumps and hits their head right. Or like, let's say, where there's a firefighter that goes into a house and something happens and he has a brain injury, right. There's a huge gap there that we from a nonprofit want to help those people that don't meet those unique criteria. So we have kind of a more broad acceptance of who we help.
Speaker 3:If you're a first responder, if you're a veteran, if you've had a traumatic brain injury and you have PTSD, we will treat you, we will pay for your hyperbaric treatment, and there's such a gap in that sphere.
Speaker 3:Right Like we're helping this guy that's on a SWAT team. He's a breacher right now he's doing dives as we speak this week and I got on the phone with him and he described the same symptoms that I was facing. He's like man, I'm just numb. Like I feel like I can't go and talk to my boss about this because then they're going to take me off and I won't have that money coming in for my job. Like there's also another aspect to this of the culture of like people not wanting to speak up because they're worried about how their leadership will take it. They're worried about looking like that crazy guy that goes and talks to someone from behavioral health or they're worried about losing their livelihood. So we want to get you back to where you were before, to where you're good to go and you can keep providing for your family and keep chugging along.
Speaker 2:Yeah, absolutely, man. Well, alex, I can't thank you enough for being here today, man. What's the name of your show, by the way? How can people?
Speaker 3:yeah, it's silent wounds and warriors podcasts, and then also you can find us on silent wounds and warriorscom or look us up on instagram silent wounds and warriors. Um, reach out to me. If you ever are just down and want to talk to someone, please shoot me a message. I'd love to chat there.
Speaker 2:You go well you heard it here first, folks. Uh, go ahead and do me a message. I'd love to chat there you go. Well, you heard it here first. Folks, go ahead and do me a favor. Pause the episode. Go to episode description. Click on all those links right there. Send a friend request to Alex and tune into the show. Learn something about blast exposure and hyperbaric treatment, because I have a feeling that it can help you. It's not just. You know, my main thing is getting you the help you deserve for blast exposure TBIs, but you can get it right now for just anything. Honestly, if you reach out, talk to Alex or go straight to Revival Hyperbarics and check them out, that link will also be there. Uh, thank you all for tuning in. Alex, again, thank you for being here and we'll see you all next time. Until then, take care.
Speaker 1:Questions about today's episode. You can also visit securityhallcom for exclusive content, resources and updates.
Speaker 2:And remember we get through this together. If you're still listening, the episode's over. Yeah, there's no more Tune in tomorrow or next week. Thank you.
