WTF is Operator Syndrome? | Dr. Chris Frueh | Ep. 357

The Team House

dee takos

History, Documentary, Society & Culture, Government

4.7 • 929 Ratings

🗓️ 3 July 2025

⏱️ 107 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The conversation with Dr. Chris Frueh delves into "Operator Syndrome," a framework for understanding the complex, interrelated health issues faced by high-risk professionals beyond just PTSD. He discusses its physiological and psychological components, challenges within the VA and military in recognizing it, and emerging treatments for these often-misdiagnosed conditions.

Operator Syndrome:
https://www.amazon.com/Operator-Syndrome-PhD-Chris-Frueh/dp/1962202070

Dr. Frueh's website:
https://chrisfrueh.com/

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00:00 - Start
00:49 - Introducing Operator Syndrome
03:45 - Dr. Frueh's Background & PTSD History
24:17 - Debunking PTSD Myths
37:40 - Developing Operator Syndrome Framework
50:40 - Resistance to Operator Syndrome
1:04:15 - Key Treatments for Operator Syndrome
1:33:43 - Emerging Treatments

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Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Special Operations
0:04.0	Covert Ops. Espionage.
0:09.8	The Team House.
0:12.8	With your hosts, Jack Murphy, and David Park.
0:22.1	Hey, everybody.
0:22.9	Welcome to episode 356 of the T-Mouse.
0:25.4	I'm Dave.
0:26.1	This is Jack.
0:27.0	Our guest tonight is Dr. Chris Free,
0:29.4	the author of the Operator Syndrome,
0:33.0	which is, I feel like a seminal book.
0:35.8	Like, it pulls in so many things that people are ignoring
0:38.9	now or that are getting misdiagnosed or just kind of lumped all together.
0:44.1	Thank you so much for joining us. It's really great to have you.
0:47.9	Oh, well, thanks for having me. I'm excited to be here.
0:51.0	So real quick, before we go into your origin story and your, can you just give us a real quick teaser on what operator syndrome is?
0:59.9	Yeah, sure.
1:01.4	So operator syndrome is not a diagnosis per se, but think of it as a framework for understanding the very complicated and interrelated injuries and impairments that develop over time
1:15.4	during the career for many high-risk professionals.
1:19.6	So obviously operators from military special operations are an extreme end of that.
1:28.3	The framework is relevant for first responders,
1:32.2	firefighters, law enforcement, for soldiers
	...

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