Hello and welcome to another episode of the Speak the Truth podcast. I am your host, Matt Tardio.

Today's episode is being sponsored by Shopify. Now chances are if you came across this video you're probably struggling with some mental health.

Or somebody that you know or love is struggling with mental health and

you're trying to seek ways to help them out. Well you came to the right place.

For those that don't know me my name is Matt Tardio I'm a retired green

barre I served almost 16 years in the United States military and was medically retired at the tail end of 2018.

Prior to joining the Army Special Forces, I was also an infantryman.

I've been given speeches and guest-starred on other people's

podcast for a while now and it never fails. Afterwards, somebody always approaches

or reaches out to me and they tell me Matt I haven't been through what you've been through but and that's generally where I stop them

Ladies and gentlemen it doesn't matter what you have been through in life.

Everybody reacts to situations differently.

You and I can go through the exact same situation and come out with different perspectives of it and the same thing's true with trauma.

Just because it's generally accepted that the things service members deal with during a time of war are bad does not mean that what you're

dealing with doesn't affect you the exact same way it affects us. Don't cheapen

yourself. So if you're watching this video and you're like, dude, there's no way. Me and this guy were incomparable, what he's about to tell me, it's not going to make sense. You're wrong. Now I have three pillars when it comes to your mental health treatment.

Pillar number one is preventative maintenance. Now if you have suicidal thoughts and you think you're unique

I'm here to tell you you're not. About one in ten adults here in the United States of America

have seriously considered suicide. One in ten. One in ten. What should you think about that next time you walk to the grocery store and you're passing through crowds of people or you go to a major event. 1 in 10.

So why is that and why does it bother us so bad and why do we feel ashamed of it?

Now it took me years of treatment before I actually got an answer to that question

and it's a very important question that does in fact need to be answered.

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