The Battle of Coming Back Danny O'Neel Warfighter Overwatch #22 10/22

Danny talks about coming home from Iraq. "They teach us how to go to war, but not how to come home."  
Danny has taken many steps in his healing process, now he's investigating Cereset to see if it can take him to the next level of mental health.

Cereset #22_Full Show Danny ONeel_26min_Oct2022 

Transcript

Cereset #22_Full Show Danny ONeel_26min_Oct2022

Mon, Oct 24, 2022
Venice Sullivan
Welcome to a new edition of "Relax My Mind" I'm Venice Sullivan, the director of Fair Oaks Cereset. I'm super excited to introduce our guest today, which is Danny O'Neill from warfighter Overwatch. Danny is an Army veteran that served two tours in Iraq. We're going to hear a little more from Danny later. But if you're joining us for the first time today, welcome. We're really happy you're here. Please keep your ears open, because we're going to offer you lots of healing opportunities and ways to take charge and change your life. If you've been with us before. Welcome back. We're doing it a little different today. And I think you'll be interested in listening to the program.

You know, one of the things I'm hearing everywhere right now is how important mental health is. Some of us have known that for a really long time, but finding the rest of the world is catching up. Yeah, I'm someone who has struggled with mental health myself for years. I actually did six weeks inpatient therapy many years ago for depression. What I know is that saved my life, but it didn't change a lot. You know, most of the things that we work with with mental health is medications, talk therapy, and immersion therapy. What we're going to talk about today is Cereset. Cereset is different. It's not a medication, it's not talk therapy. And God forbid, it's not making you re experience what you've already gone through. What Cereset Is, is letting your brain heal itself. We put sensors on your head, pick up your brainwaves convert those brainwaves to sound. And as your brain hears itself, it starts recognizing what's not working the way it did, and starts changing itself. Now if this sounds like something that's right for you, please listen even more closely. To learn more about Cereset, call us at 916-534-7577 or check us out at Cereset/FairOaks.com. Or you can schedule a discovery session was Cereset. This discovery session is normally $149. But for you, our listeners, it is free, all you have to do is give us a call at 916-534-7577. You can ask us all the questions about Cereset how it might help you. And they'll help you understand if this is the right thing for you at this point in time.  So people have asked, How did Cereset happen? Danny will talk about some of his experiences in a minute. But how Cereset started was Lee Gerdes, founder of Cereset had actually been attacked by four guys, one with a baseball bat. They left him with traumatic brain injury and PTSD. He searched for eight years trying to find help. And finally a doctor said, you know, Lee, it's all in your brain and we don't know how to fix it. Now Lee is an incredibly intelligent guy and he says Fine, I'll do it myself. So this program actually started out to help PTSD and traumatic brain injuries. In that way, it's perfectly lined up to help our veterans to help our first responders. As a veteran myself, helping veterans is my passion. Danny tell about you, why you are here, and why you think Cereset may be important for his life.

Danny
Thank you Venice. So my name is Danny O'Neill. I'm the founder of warfighter, Overwatch veteran and first responder, nonprofit. I also own a couple businesses Kinetic Ink, a tattoo company and Kinetic Threads, a Tee shirt printing company. I was born and raised right here in Northern California.
I signed up for the army on September 11 2001. I was 19 years old, which changed the direction of my life.  Before I had joined the army, I did have a significant amount of childhood trauma. I thought most of that stuff was pretty normal. When I went to warand came home, it was very clear that I was not reacting to things in an appropriate manner. And I was having a lot of issues with my mental health and irritability, frustration. I had problems remembering things. So I was diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury, post traumatic stress disorder. I have depression secondary to that. I have shrapnel in my back. I have a lot of physical ailments. But the biggest issues that I was facing, were mentally. It was my brain. And to be honest, that's a collection of all the trauma that I had in my life that continued to get compounded and wasn't being processed. first. So what that look like in my life was road rage incidents, frustration, doing things small minute tasks that before had not been an issue when I was healthy person was causing severe anxiety and even more issues, relationship problems.
To be honest with you my transition from the military, when I got out was was pretty devastating. The Army realized that I had problems, I was getting ready to go back for my third trip. And they said that I wasn't good. And I think that hurt my pride number one, and I didn't believe them. My my ego definitely stepped in there and made me believe that I was okay. The guys who were missing their legs weren't, but I was okay. Well, I was wrong. And I needed to start finding things that would help me live a much more, better quality of life. I just didn't really know how to get there.

Venice
Danny, I am so sorry that you as an example of so much of what our troops go through, that we as civilians, don't recognize, and thank you for your service and your sacrifices. But thank you for stepping up and doing what you do for veterans and helping all of them get more healthy.

Danny
I think it's important for us to know that there is help out there. My second trip, we lost nine guys who were killed in action. Since I've come home, we've had 15 suicides in my unit, and I was nearly one of them. If this can benefit, those guys, or the people that I care about, that I love, and not just them. But anyone. I think at some point, we get desperate enough to try anything. And if we can find the answers to some of those, some of the adversity we face, you know, why not spread that word?

Venice Thank you.  This is Venice Sullivan from Cereset. If anything that Danny has said so far has piqued your interest. If you would like to know more, pleas reach out, Give us a  all at 916-534-7577. Let's see if this is right for you. We can setup a discovery session to see how your brain is handling the stress and the emotional components of your life. And you might be like Danny and go, Hey, I'm just fine. Now isn't that how most of us are.  But in reality, so many of us are struggling, especially today in the COVID world with all the excess of violence and stuff that's happening in our world, you know, with the kids in school and the things that they're experiencing, everyone could benefit from Cereset.

Danny
So, I have these symptoms and the stuff that I'm going through, How would Cereset benefit me and people like me?

Venice
So let me start by with how Cereset works. After doing a very thorough consult with you usually on the phone to make sure that this is a program that's right for you. We have you come in, you're sitting in a nice, comfortable chair. So many therapies are about you doing something. Okay, Cereset is about you relaxing and letting your brain do its own work. We put sensors on your head, pick up your brainwaves, the computer instantly converts those brainwaves to sound and plays them back to you. I call it an acoustic mirror. So as your brain hears itself, it recognizes how it's no longer working the way it should, for your situation in life today, not where you've been in the past, but today, and it starts making its own changes. We usually do about four sessions in a row, usually every day or even every other day. Then we kind of wait about three weeks to see how your brain is doing and go from there.

Danny
I think that's pretty awesome. Specifically, because when we talk about triggers or what I've learned as an amygdala hijack, when I said my brain wasn't responding appropriately, that's exactly what I mean. I kept thinking things were life and death. And it sounds like this would benefit me quite a bit. So I have a question is Cereset biofeedback or neurofeedback?

Venice
Cereset is neither one of those. Biofeedback and neurofeedback is where you are training your brain to respond in a certain way. That's the really cool thing about Cereset is we're not training you. You're not trying to make your brain do something or respond in a certain way, to a certain pattern. Your brain is doing its own work. And only your brain can do that. Because your brain and my brain and the person next to you just next to yous brain is all different. We've all lived different lives, had different experiences. So how I could train your brain and how I could assume that your brain should work. To me doesn't make a lot of sense. You know, and this is the nice thing about what I call the acoustic mirror is it lets your brain be the best it can be.
I love that.So are Earlier you had mentioned, we're not going to force you to do some of this stuff like the immersion, I had exposure therapy. And when you talk about reliving your experiences, every time I left the exposure therapy, I was shaking, I had been crying my eyes out. It was literally my worst day on this earth that I repeated over and over, I could smell everything that happened that day. I relived it over and over. I definitely don't want to do that again. And I just so to make sure I understand, can you please explain the process to me one more time, just so I can share it with others.

Venice
Absolutely.  We start with a  very thorough interview, because this program isn't right for everyone. We don't want to waste your time and your money. They're both precious. So we want to make sure that this is something that's going to work well for you. That you're willing to do the work for it. It's not a magic bullet. So you come in, you sit down, you relax, you close your eyes. That's not safe for everybody. Not everybody wants to close their eyes. And that's okay, too. You know, we work with you, we meet you where you are. But we put the sensors on your head, pick up your brainwaves, we move those sensors around about four times during a session to work on different areas of the brain. Each one has different responses. So what we're trying to do is bring the different areas of the brain into balance, for maximum benefit, maximum relaxation. You talk about PTSD, and triggers, Those triggers happen, because your brains number one job is to keep you alive.

Danny
Right!

Venice
Number two is to keep you safe. So you experience things. Now, every time you experience something similar, your brain makes you react in a certain way. That's a trigger. The cool thing about Cereset is it goes, you don't need to react that way that's inappropriate in today's life. Your brain still going to do what it takes, to take care of you. But in a life long ago, I had been strangled twice. Anybody came up and touched my neck, they usually found themselves injured. So after I had done Cereset, it was months later, some guy that I dearly love came up behind me and wrapped his arms around my neck. I didn't respond. But it took me about four hours to realize. I didn't respond. And I was flabbergasted that I didn't respond to that. And so this is just one example of how your brain can change. Once it recognizes the needs are no longer there to create those triggers.

Danny
If I come in for a few sessions, and when I'm done with those sessions, my brain has changed

Venice:
Ahhh, the magic bullet, the magic pill, don't we wish we all had one?

Danny
Absolutely.

Venice
No, your brain doesn't work that quickly. What Cereset does is it starts the healing process, that healing process is going to go on for weeks to actually up to three to four months. And that's where I say sometimes the changes are so gradual, you don't even know they're happening. We've had a few people that the first day out of the chair, they have noticed a change. That's rare. People go, "Oh, I feel more calm". Sometimes it's like we want you to sleep better. But the first couple nights you don't sleep better. That's your brain healing. It's all part of the healing process. But healing in any way takes time. So yeah, you're gonna do the first few sessions, but your brain is going to continue to heal over months and some changes you'll see. But what I find interesting is it's the family, the friends that go, "Wow, what the heck are you doing, because you're so different, you usually fly off the handle about something, and you're not doing that anymore." Yeah, those are really cool changes.

Danny
I was going to ask because you said it took you roughly four hours after that gentleman put his arm around you. And I imagine that the self awareness wasn't necessarily there until later on you were like, Wow, that really did happen. And my reaction wasn't what it's been before. So I'm definitely grateful that provides hope. I think for people who have dealt with stuff like this reacted poorly before and know that they don't. I used to believe that my responses were automatic because of my trauma but the truth is, that was me, not taking responsibility or accountability for my growth and for making sure that I did process this stuff. So I'm grateful for that. Have there been studies about Cereset success?

Venice
Yes. For those people who love research, please go to cereset.com. Go to the Research tab. There's a long list of studies there that will give you all the research that we've done with Fort Bragg, Bethesda, Wake Forest, medical school, and it's done a lot of research. So it's all there.

Danny:
And who is this for?

Venice :
That's another question that we forget to ask. We've talked about PTSD. We've talked about traumatic brain injuries, chronic stress, we have a specific program for aging. For those things that we start losing as we get a little bit older, anxiety, depression, sleep issues. It was a total accident that we discovered that Cereset works amazingly well for long or post COVID symptoms. So a lot of the brain fog and a lot of people that have that it's brought them back, even the sense of smell has come back using Cereset. So who could not be helped by Cereset? I can't think of anybody. But again, there isn't a program that's right for everybody. So we want to make sure it's right for you.

Danny
Does this work even with kids?

Venice:
Absolutely. Our youngest kid that we've worked with is four.

Danny:
 Wow,

Venice:
We need them to be able to sit semi still in the chair, right? For Kids, obviously, their eyes aren't closed. The little ones we usually have, say sitting in mom or dad's lap, and mom or dad might be reading them a story or something. They're not there is long. But the amount of stuff that our kids are exposed to today, they're more stressed than ever, their behavior problems are bigger than ever.

Danny:
Absolutely.

Venice:
You know, the COVID world that they just went through is insane. So this is huge for kids. In fact, we've just this last week had an eight year old, in and he says everybody calls me as a devil's child is like, well, that's wrong to begin with. But he's an awesome kid. And Cereset is already proving to be a good help to him.

Danny:
That sounds amazing when we're talking about a kid who you know, could benefit from the help, and the parents can only give so much. But Cereset Maybe can help fill in the gaps and make things that much more better. So it's awesome.

Venice:
And with any kid, you know, so many people come back and say, I need this for my son, my daughter, my spouse, my parents, my whoever. We can't fix anybody else. So we have to start with ourselves and fix ourselves first, and our response to them.

Venice: The process is, we bring you in, we sit you down, we put the sensors on your head, pick up your brainwaves, this is where we're different from anybody else, is we're using your brainwaves to let your brain heal itself. And as your brainwaves are picked up, converted to sound and played back to you. Your brain recognizes what's not working right. And it changes. Your brain is different from everybody else's. So we personalize the program specifically to you. As your brain starts healing through each of those sessions, you're not hearing the same thing. People often say, Well, why can't I just get a recording of this? Well, your brain is different from minute one to minute five. So it's not recorded. It's all in real time. And as your brain heals as we go through the sessions, every time is different. Because your brain is different.

Venice:
Please give us a call. 916-534-7577  talk to our Tech's find out if this program is right for you. You know, it doesn't matter whether you are a veteran, whether you're a first responder, whether you're a struggling parent or someone who's taking care of your parents, being a caretaker is difficult. We are here in the Sacramento area in Fair Oaks. We are also located in the Bay Area as well as many other offices around the country.

Venice: We're here today with "Relax My Mind" I am Venice Sullivan, Director of Fair Oaks Cereset. And I'm here with Danny O'Neill of War Fighter Overwatch. Danny is a veteran, having served two tours in the Army, in Iraq and came home with his own demons, with his own battles, has healed a lot, but still looking for more ways to heal. So Danny, you mentioned that you had been through a lot of therapies that VA had provided a lot for you. That didn't take care of everything?

Danny:
Unfortunately, it did not. In fact, what we found is that the majority of therapies that they provided were ineffective in combating post traumatic stress disorder and the symptoms that go along with that. Minimally, we saw any sort of help with traumatic brain injury. And because of the what's called comorbidity, or the symptoms are very similar, they mirror each other, it's hard to tell where one ends and one begins. So the stuff that they were doing was seemingly ineffective. And the symptoms that I would experience continued to progress, it continued to not just be a problem in my daily life, but we're continually getting worse. And that for me, it kind of signaled that there wasn't much hope and what I was doing, which, you know, partially led to my suicide attempt, I didn't feel that I would ever be able to stop the things that I was feeling things that I was thinking. And this seems like it's really going to help not just veterans and first responders, people who go through an exorbitant amount of trauma, right., So most people go through one to two crisis events in their life. First Responder, we'll go through 184. So when we're talking about trauma, compounded trauma, you know. 

Danny: Nine of my friends were killed every time we have an anniversary of one of those dates, or the people who were there live days where they were supposed to be killed, and they survived those attacks. It weighs on us, it weighs on everyone who was there who survived that. So this doesn't just sound like it could benefit us. But everyone goes through trauma and loss in life. And that for me is even bigger, we want to make sure that everyone who hears this knows that they could benefit from this. I'm looking forward to having my first few sessions and and seeing the results.


Venice: 
And that's the difference. So today is normally we bring someone in who has been through Cereset to tell their story. I specifically wanted Danny here today, so he could tell his story prior to Cereset. What I found is sometimes after Cereset People forget, or the things are no longer important of what they've experienced. So catching things ahead of time. And we're going to have Danny back in about a month or so after he's done his sessions to see how life has changed and what's a little bit different.

Danny: 
Some of the things that have transpired since I've had traumatic brain injury and post traumatic stress have embarrassed me my behavior has been, you know, shameful and embarrassing. And I can give you a quick example. The other day, I was in sort of a rush, there was someone in front of me, they weren't moving, I'm not sure if they were on their phone or what was going on. So I honked my horn, they got mad, I flipped them off and continued on my way. Now I forgot about that incident didn't really affect me a ton. But in the moment, I was clearly frustrated. Turns out it was one of the artists in my tattoo shops wife. Foot in my mouth, right? So what can I do to stop myself from reacting that way? Knowing that using the five minute five year rule and five minutes is is gonna matter as well? If the answer is yes, well, then is it gonna matter in five years? If the answer is no, then it doesn't really matter now. And we give it the proper attention and move on. So I'm really hopeful that these sorts of incidents will reduce activity in my life, and we'll be able to have a much more effective communication with others.

Venice:
One of the things I've found having gone through Cereset I am a much better person, because of using Cereset. Not only to others, but also to myself. 

Danny
Yeah, 

Venice:
I beat myself up a whole lot less than I used to. 

Venice:  If you've got anybody that you know that is dealing with chronic stress, chronic pain,

Danny:
I have chronic pain and even Phantom Pains, people who are potentially you know, amputees, some of my friends, could they benefit from this?

Venice: 
Absolutely. The brain gets used to the pain patterns and sending out those signals. 

Danny: 
Got it

Venice: 
And as the brain recalibrates and resets, it can change those pain patterns and that automatic phantom pain. So it's one of the huge things that I would have never believed that I've seen amazing results with.  
Teachers. Teachers in today's world are just so overwhelmed. Anybody in the medical profession. My husband was recently in the hospital and seeing the amount of stress and overwork that the staff there is under. Parents, you know, parents are overloaded. And the one thing that we get so caught up in in talking about is how it helps all these people who have drama and trauma and major issues.
It can also help the people who just want to function better. The over worked executive in the office. The sports person who just wants to perform better. That kid that is reaching for that scholarship, whether an academic or sports. It can all help them focus better, be a better human, and just excel in life. 
Call us at 916-534-7577 to set up a  discovery session that is normally $149 because you're listening today that is free for you. Give us a call. We would love to help you be a better you.  Danny, thank you so much for being here.

Danny: 
Thanks for having me on. I can't wait to share my experiences with the folks in a few weeks.

Venice: 
Thank you so much, Danny. I look forward to it. We'll talk to you next week.