How Do You Live After You’ve Almost Died?
Good Life Project
Jonathan Fields / Acast
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 4 February 2015
⏱️ 78 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
"PTSD is less of a brain event than an existential event."
We've all heard of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, but we may not realize that we probably all know someone who suffers from it.
While it is typically associated with war and soldiers coming home after combat, trauma is a big part of civilian life.
Today's guest has a fascinating perspective on this as he served for four years on active Marine duty, in the most peaceful of times, but then voluntarily went into war zones as a war reporter after his service.
What he learned from his own experiences with PTSD, as well as his subsequent digging into the research and experiences around it, resulted in his new book, The Evil Hours.
In our conversation, we cover all facets of trauma, David's experiences, and the underlying psychology behind the behaviors we are seeing more of in this country.
He explains the fantasy soldiers create in their minds about coming home (and how difficult it is to reconcile reality with that once they are back), why Americans especially struggle with PTSD, and the idea of coming home as a Joseph Campbell-esque heroic journey that many never finish.
One of the most helpful points he makes, which each of us can apply, is the idea that you have to re-invent yourself after trauma, and creating community around that new identity is essential.
Whether you've experienced trauma yourself or are close to someone who has, David Morris shares a powerful story to better understand what trauma can teach us about ourselves.
Contact David and learn more about his work
"What you arrive with in the war is as important as what happens to you."
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | That kind of is one of the, I think, central intellectual issues at the heart of PTSD is, |
| 0:11.8 | how do you live? |
| 0:12.8 | How do you live after you've almost died? |
| 0:15.8 | It's kind of fitting that as I'm recording this short introduction, they're sirens in |
| 0:27.6 | the background. |
| 0:28.6 | I'm sitting in New York City, but today's conversation is about PTSD, post-traumatic stress |
| 0:33.5 | disorder. |
| 0:34.5 | It's a conversation with a guy named David Morris, who wrote a book called The Evil |
| 0:38.6 | Hours, which is a fascinating exploration. |
| 0:41.8 | He served first as a Marine and didn't see combat, but then he chose to go back into combat |
| 0:48.4 | zones as a war journalist, and at that point he was exposed to some pretty profound |
| 0:53.6 | life-changing trauma. |
| 0:56.7 | He came home and struggled with it, mightily, as many veterans do, and really turned his |
| 1:03.8 | journalistic inquiry into trying to figure this out. |
| 1:08.2 | Looking at the whole world, how we deal with, how we work, how we interact with people |
| 1:14.0 | who are living with this thing called PTSD, and how it profoundly changes you and may never |
| 1:18.8 | leave you, and how the institutions and the therapies that are set up for it may or may |
| 1:23.0 | not do much good, some may potentially do harm, and how we should approach it, and also |
| 1:29.7 | how we can support people who may be our friends of ours or who we love who have gone through |
| 1:35.3 | this. |
| 1:36.3 | The other thing that's really important about this conversation is this is not just about |
| 1:38.5 | veterans, this is about people that you know every day in your life, almost guaranteed |
... |
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