Yeah. Been down that road.
Seen things normal people don’t get exposed to during war. Almost torched my own marriage more than once in those early years trying to process it alone, then trying to process it with a stranger in an office instead. Buried my father to suicide. Buried close friends the same way. So when I talk about therapists, I’m not talking theory.
The rooms helped a little. Mostly they gave me a script for the pain instead of a way through it. What actually moved the needle was the guys who’d been in it with me, and the ones who hadn’t but stuck around anyway. People who knew the whole timeline, not the sixty minute version I was allowed to give a stranger once a week.
I’m not saying burn the whole system down. I’m saying don’t mistake a couch for a foundation. Mine came from people, not appointments.
