I haven’t done a video project in a little while, so it was nice to get back in the studio. And what a project!
Every time I do one of these video projects, I learn something. This time what I learned was that more than just soldiers and veterans suffer from post traumatic stress (PTS). It hadn’t even occurred to me that first responders would suffer from this, even though the fact that many experience gruesome visuals on an almost daily basis is obvious. I guess I’d just never sat down to think about it. I also learned about the move to drop the “disorder” from PTSD (you can read more about that here), with many trending toward calling it an injury rather than a disorder (the thinking is that an injury you can recover from, a disorder you’re stuck with).
Benny’s story is an interesting one, and the fact that he’s encouraging other PTS survivors to share their stories was very inspirational to me. As you’ve seen in the video, his Project TN56 strives to share the stories of 56 other individuals who struggle with PTS, but are overcoming, and will do so with the backdrop of all 56 Tennessee State Parks. So much of Benny’s recovery story revolves around getting outside, it makes total sense.
You can find Benny on YouTube and Instagram, and if you’d like to learn more about Reboot Recovery, check out their website here . www.rebootrecovery.com.
–Dan Thompson
