CTE, Hyperbaric Therapy & The Hidden Toll Of Olympic Bobsledding | William Person - Beat The Mental Health Out Of It! | Dark Humor Conversations On Mental Health, Trauma & Society

Episode Transcript
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SPEAKER_01 (00:22):
Hey everybody.
It's your favorite podcast,hopefully.
It is Beat the Mental Health Outof It, aka Bottom Hui with your
hosts, Nick, aka the defectiveschizo effective.
This is Tony Indy Pocket.
And today we have a very specialguest with us.
If you want to introduceyourself, we'll move kind of
right into the to the process.

SPEAKER_00 (00:44):
Well, uh, my name is William Person.
Um, if you know me from theMidwest growing up as a kid,
they called me Bill, so theymean to me Bill Person.
Media the media slowly changedmy name to Will.
And I I never met another Willbefore in my life before they
did that.
So eventually I went from Billto Will.
But um, yeah, I was a trackrunner.
I uh I went to when I left highschool, it's kind of like this.

(01:06):
If you want to keep runningtrack, your only option is to go
to college.
There's no other track circuitfor you to run.
And so that's what I did.
Uh matter of fact, it was theonly reason I went to college.
Uh I didn't I didn't think I wassmart enough to go to college,
to be honest.
And uh same.
So yeah, so I I I took the thesports made me do it, and I
realized I actually I'm just assmart as everybody else.

(01:28):
I just wasn't um I guess I guessI was encouraged to go, but
didn't believe I could do it.
That's kind of how it works.
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah, so I started with track,and then eventually that track
led me to um World College, ofcourse, and then I was doing
like football movies for awhile.
Like um I started with likeJerry McGuire.

(01:49):
So if you watch that movie,yeah, you'll see me uh running
up and down the field with umfootball.
I did five different footballcharacters.
Did you really?
Okay, cool.
Yeah.
So I just really and you seesomebody on the field running
fast, that was just me.
They had these other, yeah.
They had these other guys thatthey brought in who were just
smashing each other.
And I was like, but luckilyenough, I didn't have to do any

(02:09):
of that stuff.
But Right.
Yeah, but then but my realbackground is mental health.
Uh when I left college, thefirst job I took was at the San
Joaquin County Mental HealthDepartment, and it was the first
mental health facility west ofthe Midzipa River.
So everybody flocked there forit with extreme behaviors.
Yeah, so I saw all the basicstuff like depression and you

(02:30):
know the all the bipolars andum, you know, like paranoid, all
the different schizophreniathings.
But then we also had people whocome through there for uh who
were criminally insane, andthey'll come through for wow.
So they'll come through with usand we'd be evaluated, you know.
And then of we also had thepeople who had lobotomies back

(02:52):
then were still alive.
And so I got to see a lot ofthose people.
Yeah, that was spooky rightthere.
That was just real flat effect.
They're just like mu likewalking zombies.
Like if you want to see a realzombie, that's really what that
looks like.
Oh.

SPEAKER_01 (03:06):
Yeah.
That's incredible.
I don't I don't know anybodywho's seen.
Have you seen that?
I mean, he's a he's been in thefield for years, and I don't
know anybody who's seen that.

SPEAKER_00 (03:16):
Wow.
Yeah, I was reading some of thestuff that you guys do, so I
figured you probably might get akick out of that.

SPEAKER_01 (03:22):
Yeah, yeah.
I'm so glad you brought that upbecause I honestly I didn't know
you had that background.

SPEAKER_00 (03:27):
Yeah, yeah, that was that's what I was doing.
And so, matter of fact, um, whenI joined Team USA, like for two
years prior to that, I hadopened the first ever
independent living transitionalhousing program for the state of
Utah.
So they opened me as a pilotprogram.
And so I was doing that for awhile.
And um, here I am telling all myyoung men.
Thank you, thank you.

(03:47):
You know what?
Yeah, absolutely.
Right now I think back to doingthat.
I was probably 27 when Ipresented the program, or maybe
28, but I was 28 years old, andthese it was an inpatient
program, so these young menlooked at me like their father,
you know.
And I think back now, I was lessthan 10 years older than some of
these kids.

(04:08):
You know, I was I was a kidmyself, to be honest.
Like I but now that I thinkback, I'm like, wow, I was doing
what?
But back then I was just anotherday, you know, just another
thing that I was doing.
So mental health was really mybackground.

SPEAKER_02 (04:21):
Is that what you went, what you uh got your
degree in?

SPEAKER_00 (04:25):
No, actually, no, I did it the hard way.
Okay, okay.
I did my associate degree.
I was here for the hard way.
Yeah.
Yeah, I did my associate degreeum in at Delta College in
California.
And then when I finished that, Ihad committed to UC Berkeley for
track and field.
And so just by hands, I wound upuh hyperextending my knee at a

(04:46):
track meet.
And uh all the other schools,like everybody stopped calling
because they knew I hadcommitted to Berkeley.
But then when Berkeley camearound, they was like, you know,
we'll pay for your school, butnot your housing.
And housing was so expensiveback then.

SPEAKER_02 (05:00):
So yeah, still out.

SPEAKER_00 (05:02):
Yeah, yeah.
Yeah.
So I wound up at Weaver StateUniversity up in Utah, and um,
they still gambled on me comingin, and um, and you know, the
injury was fine, and um and Icompeted for uh two years for
those guys and finished up.
But really, I was takingelectrical engineering when I
got there.

SPEAKER_01 (05:21):
Oh, wow, okay.
Oh, wow, okay.

SPEAKER_00 (05:23):
Yeah, but I was in my final.

SPEAKER_01 (05:24):
Yeah, you're a pretty intelligent guy, bro.
If you're going for engineering,but I quit because I was like,
you know what?

SPEAKER_00 (05:32):
I'm in my last year, I got two quarters, well, we had
a quarter system, we had threeleft.
And I was like, I don't want tosit behind a desk the rest of my
life.
And I just so I was alreadytaking uh sociology and
psychology as a minor, so I justtook a bunch of credits just to
finish up with uh sociology.
So yeah, but I did it the hardway.
I did it to, you know.

(05:54):
But but any not nothing Ilearned in college prepared me
for anything I did after school,to be honest.
Like, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (06:01):
It's a it's a fair amount of truth to that.
Yeah.
I mean, that's a whole notherconversation.
Yeah, going to college thesedays, but okay, so led you out
west, came, brought you back alittle more in the Utah area.
How did you end up in mentalhealth then?

SPEAKER_00 (06:18):
Well, when I was doing my internship for
sociology, I okay, so you did aninternship.
Yeah, I wanted to be a I thoughtI wanted to be a parole officer.
And um they they took me out onI was doing ride-alongs with the
parole and probation office, andI noticed there was there were
children on probation, like 12and 13, and I was like, what?

(06:42):
I didn't know that was a thing.
Yeah.
And I just we're yeah, and we'rein Utah, so I'm thinking like
everybody in Utah is supposed tobe little angels, but you know,
it was compared to so far.
Wow.
Yeah, absolutely, but it's notthe truth.
It was and so like I was I wasso I guess enamored with that
field that I wanted to just kindof help kids, so that's what I

(07:06):
kind of uh wind up doing.
Yeah.
So I did I didn't do parolaprobation, I just I stuck with
the the mental health side anduh really just working with um
people with the you know conductdisorder kids and and this one
place I was working at, it wasin Phoenix, and what I learned
is like these kids did reallygood in the program.

(07:26):
They made the program so muchmoney.
There's not this is not the onethat I own though.
And so every time they sent akid home, there was no they
didn't invest back into thatcommunity, so that kid went
right back into the chaos.
That's so that kind of brings itfull circle.

SPEAKER_01 (07:42):
That's incredible, Will.
Yeah.
I love knowing that backgroundabout you.

SPEAKER_00 (07:46):
After I left Arizona, I went back to Utah.
I was training at uh BYU at thetime.
And they were doing trialsgraduation?
No, no, yeah, it was yeah, aftergraduation, yeah.
Okay, okay.
I have done a few things since Ileft college.
This was probably um six yearsafter I left school.
So I was 23 when I left school.

(08:06):
So about five years later,because I'm about 20.
Oh, okay, okay.

SPEAKER_01 (08:10):
I got you.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (08:10):
Okay.
So uh NBC was holding tryoutsfor um the 2002 winner link was
coming up.
They needed more push athletesfor the bobsledders.
And so somebody called me andtold me about it.
And man, I I really didn't wantto do it, like I was thinking.
I remember this thing when I wasa kid called um it was the wide
world of sports, the agony ofdefeat is what it was.
Yep.

(08:32):
Yeah, man, it's they see theskier wipe out, then you see the
bob say wipe out.
And I was like, that looks kindof violent.
I don't, you know.
But I was thinking, maybe I cango and pick up a sponsor.
This is my last couple years oftrack.
Maybe I'll pick up a sponsor.
And so I went for it, and when Iwas there, NBC was hosting his
tryout.
These had all these hot lightson us, and I didn't know what I

(08:55):
was doing.
So I watched the first like umprobably 30, 40 people go
through the tryout.
And then when it was my turn,what it really was, it was kind
of like, you know, you have atreadmill, they put it on the
highest elevation.
They had some bobsled handleslike fastened to the handles.
So I have to hold these handles,and it was hooked up to a
computer.

(09:15):
So what they do was punch in 10miles an hour, and the faster I
run on this thing, the quickerit gets to 10 miles an hour and
they time it.
So you know, I watched thefirst, like I said, 30, 40
people go through.
So when it was my turn, I didwhat was normal.
I just, I'm a sprinter, so Ijust took off running, and uh,
when I finished this bobsterdriver, his eyes were like size

(09:37):
of all like that.
Huge.
You know, and I can't that hehad the cot cameras around me,
and uh, he's like, hey, um, if Ioffer you 50 grand for the next
three months, would you race onmy team?
And I said, sure.
You know, I get well, I gave himthe educated answer.
What I really told him is ifit's a fair price, yeah, if not,
we can renegotiate later.

(09:58):
You know, at that time I owned acompany, so I like I didn't
really need the money.
So uh, but for 50 grand forthree months, I'm thinking.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah,absolutely.
Uh I would say so.
You know, um, yeah, but I woundup, you know, that was on a
Wednesday.
I went to the bobster track onthat Sunday, pushed the sled for
the first time.
A couple things happened.

(10:19):
When I as soon as I got to thebobster track, one of my old
teammates from college saw megetting off the truck.
He was like, Will, I've beencalling you, man.
Where you been?
I've been trying to get you tocome race on my team.
And then his driver, he panicsagain.
He pulls me to the side andsaid, Hey, brother, uh, don't
leave me.
I'll get you more money.
So when I told the other guys,man, he's gonna pay me a lot of

(10:40):
money.
He was like, What?
Like, I was like, You're notgetting paid?
They was like, No.
I was like, Man, you guysgetting ripped off.
But the truth was, there was nomoney in the sport.
This guy, he didn't have anymoney.
He, matter of fact, Bobsled, ourBobsled at the time, National
team was built by Jeff Bodine.
This guy he builds race NASCARs.

(11:01):
So our sleds looked like NASCAR.
Slays shaped and you know, looklike race cars.
This guy's sled was looked likea spaceship, had a little bubble
on it.
And uh, no matter how fast Ipushed this guy, the women beat
us to the bottom of that hill.
And uh quickly, yeah, quicklylearned he was kind of full of
it.
He didn't have money, he didn'thave sponsors, and but by the

(11:22):
time I figured that out, anotherteam picked me up, and I wound
up racing from the time I didthe tryout to the race was like
eight days, and I won a I won aninternational medal and uh it
was a Mercos Cup.
Yeah, Mercers Cup.

SPEAKER_01 (11:38):
Wow, okay.

SPEAKER_00 (11:38):
Yeah, so NBC kind of ran that story, and you know, it
was something different, it wasfun, and I never made the
national team for track andfield, and so it gave me another
opportunity to scratch somethingoff that bucket list before time
to retire.
Yeah, and so and it and itactually I was able to do that,
so that was a blessing.
Yeah, so that's kind of I gottricked.

(12:00):
The real short answer is I gottricked into the sport.
That's the real answer, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (12:05):
And of course, you ended up having some very
serious uh some traumas.
Traumas from it.

SPEAKER_00 (12:12):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Well, I've had uh seven crashesthat I can remember.
I I'm not quite, could be more,but I remember at least seven of
them.
Um but yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (12:24):
Can can you, for our listening audience, we've said C
E CTE a couple of times.
Can you tell our listeners alittle bit about what a CTE is?
Let's see if I can pronounce ittoday.
Uh is it cerebral traumaticencephalopathy?

SPEAKER_00 (12:39):
Is that no it's chronic chronic traumatic
chronic traumatic encephalopathyencephalopathy.
Yeah, there it is.

SPEAKER_01 (12:50):
There it is.
Yeah.
I couldn't have gotten there.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (12:53):
Some days I can't even say it close.
I can't say it at all.
But but I even struggle withsmall words on some days.
So but Really?
Okay.
Yeah.
Wow.
Okay.
Well no normally, but like I Ithink I've hit that threshold
with the chamber where like I'mso clear right now, I'm back
reading, writing again, and uhwell, yeah, reading and
creating.
For a while I couldn't read verywell.

(13:13):
I couldn't do math in my headanymore.
Simple problems, you know.

SPEAKER_02 (13:17):
So yeah, it's it's definitely been uh all of that
is caused by that the CTEs,those those brain injuries.

SPEAKER_00 (13:24):
Yeah, the best way to explain CTE is if you look at
all the NFL players who begancommitting suicide or who began
murdering other people, andactually there's a huge
connection with our military,uh, and this one just just is
disgusting.
I hate to even say the number.
It was sixty three, sixty, fourhundred people veterans.

(13:46):
Wow.
And the next year it was alittle bit higher, and then the
following year it was a littlebit higher.
And so for the last two years,they haven't released the
numbers.
So for three years in a row, welost 20,000 veterans to just
suicide.
And and I don't even know ifthat counts for the ones who
drink themselves to death.
You know, because usually withwith uh CTE, people who uh

(14:07):
self-medicate, that's usuallyhow it gets you.
Yeah.
If you drink already an alcoholdrinker, it's gonna get you.
If you're doing meth or cocaine,it's what's gonna take you out.
Okay.
Yeah.
Yeah, so it it's it's just uhit's an awful disease, it's very
slow and progressive.
For me, it started with um, Ihad these random cloudy days.

(14:30):
And so I thought it was diabetesor sugar problems.
And uh doctors always theyalways told me I was wrong.
Uh I was traveling with aglucose meter, just checking it
myself because I didn't believethem.
Because I've seen people withdiabetes and low blood sugar, it
looks just like it.
Sure.
Sure enough.
But the but the truth was ittook for my teammates to start
taking their lives before wekind of was able to connect the

(14:51):
dots.
And uh, like it's so many of uswith the same symptoms.
It just depends on how bad itis.
Like some of them go all the wayup to Parkinson's, then you know
you're not functioning.
Yes, tons of suicide attempts,uh, strokes, seizures.
Man, it's just so many of them.
I even found an ALS, uh, a guywho died from ALS, he was a

(15:11):
slider, Olympic slider.
Wow.
And uh so yeah, it's it's reallyawful stuff.

SPEAKER_02 (15:16):
But and you never hear about this stuff.
No.
You only hear the glory of ofgetting to the Olympics.
You don't really hear some ofthe aftermath.

SPEAKER_00 (15:24):
So When I started, like I filed a class action
lawsuit to get everybody help.
Never asked for money, I justasked them to take care of the
guys who needed it.
And I said the number one thingabove all, warn the new
generation before they get in aslit, right?
So they're still fighting me.
You had to fight me on that forit.
Buff's like, no, uh if we knowwhat this is now, anybody who

(15:46):
does this sport shouldunderstand, like every athlete I
spoke to and every athlete thatthey spoke to is deal they're
dealing with it, you know.
So that's what's that's whatit's really about, it's
transparency.

SPEAKER_02 (15:57):
So I'm a big football fan.
So I know that they've put in alot of the concussion protocols
in football, and they're they'vestarted to take that very
seriously.
You referenced some of thekillings, you know, people
murdering other people whowho've had these same kinds of
things you're talking abouthappen to them.

(16:18):
Would those kind of protocolsare they in place for the
Olympics?

SPEAKER_00 (16:22):
They're putting one in place right now, but because
we can't agree on the terms,it's not official yet.
I gotcha.
So what they want to do is nowmention the word concussion.
And I think they would put itinto the membership package,
like kind of as a wavered thing.
But the problem with that is, islike my first crash, I knew I
had a concussion because I hadvertigo for seven days, and I

(16:44):
knew my uh my breakman on thatday, he had a concussion because
he was knocked unconscious.
This happened on live TV.
This was two weeks before the2002 Winter Olympics.
It was you know, it was live TV.
Treatment for concussions inAmerica is the problem.
Like, all they always tell us,if you get a concussion, just
don't go to sleep for the firstfew hours.
Right.
That's the only treatment.

(17:05):
And so if that's the onlytreatment, like I think back to
every injury I ever had, that'sa treatment plan.
Like you get ice, then you getheat, right, then you get relax,
take it easy, get yeah, getultrasound, yeah.
But you're always doingsomething physical to fix that
injury, you know, and youusually have a physical
therapist who helps you throughthat stuff, you know.
Right.
Matter of fact, at the very endof it, you normally you have

(17:28):
like if you tear a muscle, youyou're gonna get a scar tissue
in there.
So what they do is uh they takewe they take the elbow like
this, and they just they at theOlympic train stream, they give
us this white towel.
We know what that means.
That means they give you here,bite this.
Because they're gonna dig inthat muscle and they're gonna
break the scar tissue up, right?
And so for every injury I'veever had, there's a treatment

(17:50):
plan.
For the concussions, the onlytreatment you get is don't go to
sleep for the first few hours.
And I believe that is theproblem.
That's the problem.
Because your brain, yeah.
Yeah, I think your brain doesthe same thing with any other
injury.
Like you get a concussion, allthe fluid and blood rushes there
to protect it.

(18:11):
But how do you remove it?
Like, there's no process toremove it.
And so whatever other injury,they go in there and they dig it
out and they, you know, theyforce it out.
So for me, when uh Joe Namusstarted speaking about uh using
hyperbaric oxygen to reverse hissymptoms, I was in that chamber
for one hour.
And when I came out, I waslooking around.

(18:32):
I didn't recognize this placebecause everything was like in
3D.
All the colors were vivid, and Iwas like, oh my god, like whoa.
So I realized I probably hadn'tbeen seeing colors for a while.
And then the crazy part is thatsalesman came over to me and he
saw me because my glasses wereslightly tinted.
I kept taking them on and takingthem off, and he's like, What's

(18:53):
wrong?
I said, I don't think I need myglasses.
And he's like, Oh, you're one ofthose.
And I was like, Ah, okay, he'sgonna try to sell me this
machine, but you know, I hadjust bought a house in the
Midwest.
I say, I don't have$20,000laying around.
Uh but that guy was right.
Some people get that kind ofquick relief, and some people

(19:15):
need like two sessions a day for30 days.
Okay, for me, okay, for me it'sfast.
And uh, like matter of fact, mycloudiness that I had for 20
years was gone within one hour.
And it lasted for six days, thenI went back at the end of that
next week, and then it lastedfor about nine days.

(19:35):
So then I had to buy one.
So that then I bought this thingback here.
So this thing right here is mylifeline.

SPEAKER_02 (19:42):
So can can you tell us uh some of the like what is
physically happening?
What is the hyperbictic chamberdoing that gives you those those
good out the relief?
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (19:54):
Well, I'm glad you asked me that because this is a
good time to explain it, becauseI just found another way of
doing the same thing, butnaturally.
Okay.
Yeah, what it does is like um itmakes your body think it's seven
to nine feet underwater,minimal.
Depending on what pressurechamber you have.
I have a small pressure, I havelike a 1.3, but there's a like a
1.5 or 1.6, and then it goes to2.0, then a three point oh is

(20:18):
what you find in the hospitals,right?
Okay, okay.
I'm using a the small Smallestamount of pressure possible.
So what it does, it makes yourblood is more like a gas when
it's under when it's that lowunderwater.
And so now it's a gas.
So now it can get through allthe blockages and go where it
needs to.
So if you're rich and you have astroke, they tell you to get in

(20:39):
the hyperbaric chamber.
Because it'll it'll get past allthe blockages and send blood
where it belongs.
And that's really the sciencebehind it.
Now, a couple weeks ago I wasinterviewed by some uh British
pilots, right?
Um they have the same issues asas well as our American pilots.
And they what they told mebefore we even discussed
hyperbarics, they said whattheir pilots do, they it's

(21:02):
illegal to deep sea dive in theUK.
So they go to some islandsomewhere, and when they go
there, he said they go down tothe bottom for a long time.
He said they just stay downthere for a long time, and when
they come back up, oh, thenthey're just better.
Every time you get in a chamber,it's called a dive.
Because it simulates the exactsame thing.

(21:24):
It's doing identical.
And I had never heard thatbefore until last week.
But it's the same thing.
If you're a diver, go get inthat water, it's gonna heal,
it's gonna heal that brain ifyou go down far enough.
You just gotta be lower thanseven feet.

SPEAKER_01 (21:39):
Okay, that's what I was gonna say.
So this this chamber makes youfeel like you're seven to nine
feet submerged, right?
Yeah.
So when diving, I mean, you cango way deeper than that.
If you're deeper, will theeffects last longer?
Do you do you know?
Yeah, I believe.
Okay, because you know, it's I Iimagine it'd be a lot easier to

(22:01):
access a chamber than it wouldto, you know, dive consistently.
So I'd like to wondering, like,okay, if you're gonna put the
time in to travel to dive, ifsince you can go so much deeper,
I didn't know if that would havea longer feedback.

SPEAKER_00 (22:15):
Matter of fact, for me, normally I usually uh if I
go about three to five weekswithout getting that chamber, I
get a little cloudy again.
And then I start to strugglewith words and stuff again.
But I went and tried a higherpressure chamber about six weeks
ago and I only did one session,and I did it for half the time,
only 30 minutes.
I haven't been cloudy anymore.

(22:36):
Like I had a really bad migraineabout uh last Thursday, right?
Typically what I do, I I, youknow, I usually don't tell many
people about it at first.
Like I was always against likeany type of drugs.
I was a counselor, you know, andthen I was also on that list of
people, you know, the UnitedStates anti-doping agency.
They're the ones who follow likeuh Barry Bonds, uh Lance

(22:58):
Armstrong.
Okay, yeah.
Yeah, they have to know whereyou are 24 hours a day, man.
So like I was a no-drug kind ofperson.
Like, you know, I told all theathletes, if you do anything
stupid around me, we're gonnaget in trouble for I'm gonna be
the snitch, just so you know.
So don't do it around me.
And so you know how it is.
You an American, as well as youcross those oceans, anything you

(23:19):
do over there, now that was aninternational incident.
Like, I don't want anything todo with that.
So um, what I did is likewhenever that migraine is about
to come, if I use a little THC,it'll stop the migraine from
kicking in all the way.
And so last Thursday, I waslike, you know what?
I don't want to smoke.
I hate smoking.

(23:40):
I'm gonna stand my ground today.
So that was on Thursday.
It kicked in on Friday, it wasthere Saturday, and by Sunday
morning, about 4 30 in themorning, I got up and I crawled
to the ER.
Now I'm getting an IV drip, youknow, because I ignored this the
signs.
And I and I was just beingstubborn.
That's just what it is.

SPEAKER_01 (24:01):
Well, you you have a belief that you didn't want to
lean into the to the drugs,right?
Well it kind of helped save mylife because it really did.

SPEAKER_00 (24:09):
It did, you know.
But I feel like a hypocritebecause I told people so many
years if you do this stuff,you're stupid, you know, and
then it comes back to save mylife, man.
It's like, oh, what thehypocrisy of this all, man.

SPEAKER_01 (24:21):
It's just Well, let's be real though, you're
using it for purely medicalrelief.
Like you've got some prettysevere symptoms, man.
So you know, it's a verydifferent application.

SPEAKER_00 (24:35):
It is, it is.
Once the once the once thatmigram subsided, I've been clear
as a bell ever since.
Like, no cloudiness, no anxiety,no anxiousness, no reason to get
back in that machine right now.
And and I think it it might haveall started happening because I
use a higher pressure.
That kind of goes back toanswering your other question

(24:57):
about that.
And people telling me if I use ahigher pressure chamber, it'll
probably stop me from having togo backwards sometime.
But like Joe Namer, when hestarted his out, he said it
reversed his symptoms.
You know, and a lot of otherpeople tell me it reversed their
symptoms.
But for me, I normally got threeto five weeks of going without
it, and then I'm gonna feel theI'm gonna feel the difference.

(25:20):
But lately I haven't.
Like I feel like I'm back tonormal.
I don't know if this ispermanent or if it's short term.
I I don't know yet.

SPEAKER_02 (25:28):
So your your chamber is a 1.3, right?
Yes.
And and since we're trying tofigure out how to feasibly help
all of these individuals, canyou tell me what does that cost?

SPEAKER_00 (25:39):
I bought one from a storefront because I know I was
afraid of the technology.
I didn't know um exactly how todo everything.
And then you start doing theresearch on it, and they'd be
like, oh, people die in thesethings, and uh so you get
nervous, you know.
So I bought from a yeah, Ibought from a place with a
storefront.
And so I paid this one here, itcost me um between 18 and

(25:59):
20,000.
Uh that one.
Yeah.
Um, but the the metal ones thatare the hard chambers or the the
ones I need for this facilityI'm trying to open, those, those
might run me almost a hundredthousand, fifty thousand,
depending on which ones I get.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (26:16):
Let's put that in perspective.
I mean, so you're you're paying18 to 20 yourself for, you know,
a treatment that you can useperpetually, right?
You can continue to use it.
I mean, think about prescriptionmedication.
I was on medication for mymental illness for years that it
was 900 a month.
And that was when covered byinsurance.
But if that's something you cancontinue to access and use

(26:40):
whenever you need it, it's rightthere.
And if it really takes care ofit, even if temporarily, that's
a killer resource.
I love that there is thatavailable.

SPEAKER_02 (26:50):
What is it is there enough doc documented efficacy
that insurance companies helpwith that?
I'd ask that.

SPEAKER_00 (26:59):
No, that's that's the thing.
Like, but there's a there'senough studies out there.
If they wanted to pay for thisthing, if they if they weren't
gonna get the bill, thistechnology has been around since
the 1800s.
If they didn't have to pick upthe tab, this would be
something.
Matter of fact, there's acompany called uh treatnow.org.
They helped military people gettreatment.

(27:21):
They reached out to me and askedme to be one of the spokespeople
to help so we can get it, get iton legislation in California so
that insurance will start topick up these tabs.
So these things are around inmost people's neighborhoods.
If you type in hyperbaric oxygenor H B O T and near me, you'll
find there's people around whohave these things.

(27:41):
They're in chiropractors'offices, they're in people's
homes.
But yeah, they're gonna chargeyou probably 200 bucks an hour
what it costs out this way.
And so for me, I'm probablyalmost 500 hours inside that
chamber.
So 500 times 200 bucks.
I've got my money worth on thisthing.
Matter of fact, I think peoplearen't getting the treatment

(28:02):
who, when they learn about it,they keep saying, like, I can't
afford it.
I can't afford to do.
What if I need um 60 sessions in30 days?
That's why a lot of peoplearen't getting help.

SPEAKER_02 (28:14):
And insurance won't even cover those kinds of
sessions where you go to someoneelse's.

SPEAKER_00 (28:19):
No, um it's a lower pressure, so it's not a medical
device.
Once you get to threeatmospheres, 3.0, then they
consider that medical grade.
So if you have burns or if youget the bends or something,
they'll put you in there.
If you have bed sores that won'theal, they'll put you in there.
This thing does a lot.
They say cancer can't live in anoxygenated environment.
So this thing oxygenates allyour cells.

(28:42):
It saturates your body withoxygen.
So, matter of fact, there was aguy, he was uh the University of
Cougars football coach, right?
He was he had uh melanomacancer.
They gave him four to six weeksto live.
So they started him on chemo andnone of that stuff was working.
So he tried to do somethingtraditional.

(29:02):
And this was all on ESPN about amonth ago.
And then next thing you know,you see him climbing into a
hyperbaric oxygen chamber.
Now his numbers are normal.
These things have a lot ofdifferent things at it.

SPEAKER_01 (29:14):
Well, applications.
Do you know if like the CancerAssociation is actually
researching the effects of thesechambers on cancer?
Because if that's the effectsthat's happening, I mean, good
lord, that seems like a at leasta great step in the right
direction.

SPEAKER_00 (29:30):
You would think so.
However, a lot of the new agedoctors, they're putting their
cancer patients through thesethings before chemo, during
chemo, and after chemo.
But old school doctors, youknow, they're still doing the
old thing, just chemicals,chemicals, chemicals, you know.
And usually the chemicals iswhat kills you, you know, the
cancer is a little bit of achemical.

(29:50):
Yeah, I mean, we're chemo.
Chemo's poison, right?
And you have to be carefulbecause I think it's only this
one medicine that if you takeit, you can't do uh oxygen with
it because it'll stop yourheart.
So there's some chemos youcannot mix with it.
So you always have to make sureif you're doing chemo with uh
hyperbaric, make sure you talkto your doctors and make sure
you do your own research becausea couple of them that don't mix

(30:13):
with it, it's fatal.
But it's like there's only veryfew things that you can't use
these things for.
If you already have holes inyour lungs, of course, or
problems and things like that,COPD type stuff.
Always do your homework.
Don't take this information froma guy on the internet.
I'm one guy with a chambertelling you my experiences.

SPEAKER_01 (30:30):
I I appreciate that approach.
Uh, we try to take the samething.
You know, we people share theirexperiences, but that doesn't
mean it's going to work for you.
It's just an idea, it's anoption.
So if it's okay, I would like toactually transition kind of over
to the more mental health sideof these effects and things
you've gone through.
I it sounds like for years,these negative effects from your
concussions and things.

SPEAKER_03 (30:50):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (30:51):
Can you explain some of the uh more of the symptoms
that you had a bit in moredetail and how that affected
your daily life?
And you can go intorelationships, you can go into
whatever you're comfortablewith, but I I would appreciate
to know how did this affect youon the daily.

SPEAKER_00 (31:05):
Well, I'll give you like some of my red flags.
Like those are just like sopathetic.
The first one, I was traveling alot, so um, I started having
these panic attacks.
Like I didn't know where I wasat.
And it's the middle of thenight, so I'll jump up and I'll
hit the light switch.
And I'll just kind of lookaround, and you know, the
pictures on the wall always didlet me know where I'm at, you
know.
Like the worst ones, I guess ifyou feel I'm in Europe, like

(31:28):
especially in the uh EasternEuropean countries, they have
all those weird pictures.
So when you walk, the eyesfollow you, you know, it's like
that.
Like in the spooky old spooky,yeah, they have those.
And then if I see the paintedbrick walls, I know I'm at the
Olympic Training Center.
So I I was always that was my umgo to.
I turn that light on, look atthe walls, I know where I'm at.
But that was your grounding.

(31:50):
Yeah, but I rationalized it.
I was like, you know what?
I travel so much, I represent mycountry, that's why I don't know
where I'm at.
You know, so I rationalized it,you know.
That I because I I got a greatlife.
I'm traveling, you know.
But the other one, I was uh Ihadn't seen my friends in a
while, so we I went back to SaltLake City and uh we was out
shooting some pool and my buddysaid, Hey man, it's your your
girlfriend over there, yourex-girlfriend.

(32:12):
And I look and I was like, Yeah,she's pretty, but I don't know
her.
And then she runs over and shejumps in my arms and I catch
her, and I'm like, uh-oh, Iguess I do know her.
Well, yeah, I wasn't recognizingfaces anymore.
And uh, I didn't know it, butyou know, as an athlete, I'm
thinking, like, you know, youknow, we we're arrogant, man.
We just like, you know, we gotthese muscles now, we ripped to

(32:34):
shreds, all the ladies just loveus, just stupidness, you know.
But the truth was, I I wasn't Iwasn't recognizing faces
anymore, and that plagued me fora long time through my rest of
my life.
Yeah.
Wow, that would be a wake-upcall for sure.
Nah, I was just like, I just theI just so many ladies love me.

(32:55):
I I guess can't keep up withthem.
But no, man, I was I wassuffering, man.
I was suffering and didn't knowit.
And um, like when I first leftthe sport, my last race was
January 2006.
So we won the U.S.
National Championship.
It was my final race.
And um, so I left when I leftthere, I went straight back to
Hollywood.
And people asked me, How old areyou?

(33:16):
I automatically said 28.
But I was 36th when I won thatlast title, and I turned 37 that
summer.
So I'm walking away every timepeople ask me that, I'm
thinking, wait a minute, I'm not28.
And I'm not lying to them onpurpose, but I lost some years
somewhere.
Do you recall that gap or justthe details of time?

(33:37):
I I don't have an honest answerfor that because it gets a
little bit worse.
So when my symptoms kicked in atits worst, like every night
before I went to bed, I um Iwould take a thermos, a coffee,
or a bottle of Coca-Cola and putit on the nightstand.
Because I knew in the morning Idon't have any energy.
I can't, I'm not gonna be ableto get up.
So if I didn't have thatcaffeine there, like I began to
live off of that stuff.

(33:58):
So once I wake up, Iautomatically didn't know what
the real day was, and I know Ididn't.
Whatever day I said it was, Iknow it was a lie.
So I had a little daily plannernext to the bed.
And so I'll look, I'll find aday.
Okay, today is Monday, okay,cool.
And then I have to figure outwhat month we're in.
I always thought I was inJanuary or August.
So I got in trouble so manytimes because of that.

(34:19):
So what I did is I had a bigeight-foot whiteboards.
I put them in my living roomwall, I had three of them up,
and then I sectioned them off.
I had one for um docsappointments, meetings, and
dates.
Because sometimes, like someyoung lady asked me out on a
date.
And so let's say today isMonday.
And she's like, hey, let's uhmeet me for dinner on Tuesday.

(34:40):
I'll be like, yeah, sure.
To me, Tuesday's like a monthaway.
I can't see Tuesday, it's so faraway.
And the next day is Tuesday.
Now they're calling me, hey, I'mhere.
Why aren't you here?
Like, what do you mean?
I'm like, what are you doingthere?
Like, I did I agree to that, butI learned like if you say, if
today is Monday, we both knowit's Monday, if you say meet me
tomorrow, I'll be there.

(35:01):
I'll be there like clockwork.
But uh there's a gap.
There was some there were somethings that were missing.

SPEAKER_02 (35:07):
That connection of the information.

SPEAKER_01 (35:09):
And at this at this point, you didn't tell people
you were struggling with this,you were kind of trying to
manage it on your own.
Am I right on that?
Well, I I try to tell people.

SPEAKER_00 (35:20):
And you tell somebody, man, I go in a room, I
can't remember while I'm in herefor, I can't remember this, I
can't remember that.
Most people say, Oh, I do thattoo.
Especially if you're talking tothe older generations.
They were like, Oh, I do thattoo.
Downplay it.
Yeah, they downplay it, mything.
Yeah, and and I think that's whya lot of people don't get help.
No other athlete, includingmyself, we couldn't come up with

(35:41):
the words to describe.
Like, I was literally atdoctors' offices and to
explaining them, and they neverchecked my brain, not one time.
They always check my blood, getthe lab work back.
Oh, it's you're great, you're6'1, you're 220, you're lean.
Like, you're fine.
No, I'm not fine.
Something is not right.
And and I I was convinced it wasdiabetes for many years.

(36:02):
I was so far wrong.
And it took for my teammates tostart taking their life before I
can kind of figure it out.
And even then, I still didn'tfigure it out.

SPEAKER_02 (36:13):
So I know you had a couple of friends who have met
an early demise more than a lotof people.

SPEAKER_00 (36:19):
More than a couple, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 (36:20):
So were you guys in communication and were you all
talking about these symptoms andsharing?

SPEAKER_00 (36:26):
No, not until I filed the case.
Any other team I've ever beenon, you know who you can trust.
Bob Sutton is a really cutthroatsport.
You know, it's one of thosesports they did things to me.
You know, I filed complaints somany times, and uh they just got
in trouble for it.
I filed complaints going back2003, 2004, and they just got an

(36:46):
external audit done um in 2022,and then another updated one
came out about four months ago,five months ago.
And it's still actuallylistening up.
They told me it was the good oldboy system, but they said, but
it's getting better.
But I didn't believe thembecause at that time my
ex-girlfriend was um she was ahurler for the German Olympic
team.
And so I traveled with theGermans.

(37:06):
Like I showered in the women'slocker room.
Like, how could there still beracism back at home on our
Olympic teams?
I didn't really believe it.
They weren't always the bestpeople.

SPEAKER_01 (37:17):
So you know, you had friends who committed suicide,
and it sounds like several.
Um and then can I ask if youever struggled with ideations?

SPEAKER_00 (37:28):
Oh, every day of my life.
Well, no, when I was struggling,when I say my life, I meant like
as in that time when I wasstruggling with the stuff.
See, I was a counselor, and so II taught hundreds of people one
technique that I really stuckwith.
Let's say today is Monday, anduh I always go with Monday

(37:49):
because I'll scramble them daysup.
I know it's actually Tuesdaytoday, right?
I'm on top of it now.
So let's say let's just say it'sMonday, and I'll tell I'll teach
people like if suicide is a goodidea today, it's gonna be a good
idea tomorrow too.
So when you get to the next day,and you still everything still
look crumpy, you know, messed upand nasty.

(38:09):
Well, if it's a good idea today,it'll be a good idea tomorrow.
So you just keep moving that dayfor you.
And so when I was on that floorstruggling, like, I mean, I was
I was begging for death.
I was praying for death everynight.
Just um I had I knew what itdoes to the families, like it
leaves that trauma behind.
And I didn't, I'm so close to alot of people, and I didn't want

(38:30):
to leave that trauma.
And um, and then once I figuredout what this was, then I was
too stubborn to take my life atthat point.
I'm like, these fuckers, excusemy language, did this, and they
don't want to speak and uh takecare of the people who are
dealing with it, then I wouldlike there's no way in the world
I'm gonna do it now.
But back then, like I wanted todie, but I every night I was
praying for it.

(38:50):
I was like on the floor, and umlike I just kept waking up and I
was pissed off every day that Iwoke up.
I'll be honest about it.
So I'm no I was no stronger thananyone else.
I just didn't want to leave thatfor my family.
Um, and that that's the truth ofit.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (39:07):
Thank you very much for sharing that.
I um, you know, I struggle withthat myself every day.
Have for years.
Um attempted myself three times,almost completed twice.
And my grandmother committedsuicide, and I my mother and I
found her when I was 16.
And the reason I share that isbecause I would not have the

(39:27):
perspective of the devastationthat somebody doing that has.
Because I guarantee if I didn'tknow what that felt like, I'd
have done it by now.
Yeah.
I would have killed myself yearsago.
I appreciate that you, ifnothing else, found a reason to
stick around to advocate forwhat happened to you.

(39:48):
I imagine at this point youfound other value in yourself.

SPEAKER_02 (39:52):
Well, I just I like the narrative of I'm just gonna
go make sure those fuckers don'tforget me.
I love yes.
If nothing else, just be, youknow, cantankerous enough to be
a thorn in their side to makechange.

SPEAKER_00 (40:04):
Yeah, it's it's that's what at this point is
really about change.
But the the irony is I forgothow awful they were to me.
There was a white athlete whoreached out to me.
He said, Will, have you seenthis uh email floating around?
I was like, No.
He said, Remember those thingsthey were doing, all that racist
stuff you were dealing with?
I was like, Yeah.
Yeah.
And I actually I didn't reallyremember.

(40:26):
Like, let me give you anexample.
One time we we had trainingcampus in Canada.
Um, and so in the worldchampionships, just that prior
season, I was the breakman forStephen Holcomb, uh, who
actually took his life at theOlympic Training Center in 2018.
Any Olympic medal was won after2003 by the men, it was him.
So he let me stay with him.

(40:48):
And so in the worldchampionships the year before,
we won these uh Verizon teamphones.
Everybody had this, the nationalteam, we all had the same phone
number except one digit off.
And so uh it's time for trainingcamp for the next season.
So I called the office and said,hey, you guys can fly me up to
Canada for camp.
It was like, no, we're not gonnafund you.
I was like, what?
I'm the number one breakman ornumber two at the worst.

(41:09):
Based off the worldchampionships, I'm like, you
have to.
Like, what do you mean?
So they didn't.
But Stephen Holcomb, you know,he was a nice guy.
He was like, hey man, I got aroom already out of suite.
Just come up, you can stay withme.
So I get up there, I'm stayingwith him.
He was my driver at the WorldChampionships just a few months
before.
No big deal.
A few days later, one of theother drivers comes to me and he

(41:30):
said, Hey, Will, the coach'sname was Tuffy.
He said, Tuffy said, We're gonnamove to a new hotel.
The Federation's gonna come andpick up the tab, and you have to
find somewhere to stay becauseyou're not gonna be able to stay
with everybody.
And I was like, What?
He's like, I don't understandeither.
So I called the coach from myphone, right?
He doesn't pick up, I callagain, he doesn't pick up.
A couple days go by, maybe fouror four more days.

(41:53):
That guy comes to me again withthe same story, and he tells me
the same thing.
He said, Hey man, I don't knowwhy I'm in the middle of this.
I'm uncomfortable.
You know, he was, you know, hewasn't um condoning it, but he
was just he was passing themessage.
And so I tried to call the coachfrom my phone.
He didn't answer.
He said, Here, try my phone.
So I call from his phone.

(42:14):
Coach picks up on the firstring.
And I was like, Oh man.
I was like, Tuffy, what's goingon, man?
And he says, Well, they said Iwon't have a place to stay.
Like, what's going on?
He's like, Yeah, he said, eachdriver is getting one funded
push athlete, is what he toldme.
I said, Tuffy, I've been herefor a few weeks now.
Is that the story you'resticking to?
And he got kind of quiet,stuttered a little bit.

(42:36):
He said, I'll see what I can do.
I'll see what I can do.
So a few weeks later, we moveover to the new hotel.
They gave me a room, no bigdeal.
They didn't cover my flights, noper diem money, no nothing, you
know, but they at least coveredthe room.
I had a new roommate, and I sawthat guy the year before, he was
like the track janitor.
He like cleaned the track andmade sure the ice was smooth,

(42:57):
right?
And I said, Hey, was your yourairline uh ticket expensive?
Because you guys, tickets thelast minute, you know?
He's like, no.
He went, he told me he went tothe first training camp.
He finished dead last, is whathe said.
He said, then he got injured, sohe's laying around at the
Olympic training center justhealing up.
He said, the coach Tuffy came tohim and asked him, did he want
to go to Canada?

(43:17):
He was paying for it.
He's like, hell, what have I gotto lose?
And I'm just thinking, what the,you know, and so it was things
like that, you know.
And um, matter of fact, the nextOlympic year, um, I go to camp,
I'm up there.
Uh the previous season I had gota I got rear-ended, so I missed
part of the season.
But I rebounded, I came upthere.

(43:38):
And uh the craziest thing, onceagain, on day number one, I had
the fastest push time.
On day number two, I had thefastest push time.
On day number three, theassistant coach comes to me.
He says, Hey, Tuffy said, um,you can't push with the national
team anymore.
And I was like, why not?
He said, Because you had a caraccident last year, so you
didn't have any internationalraces.

(43:59):
And I said, Well, is that theonly reason?
He said, Yeah.
I said, Well, go back and checkyour records.
I had 10.
I came back, I had at least 10last year.
And he said, Oh, you did?
I said, Yeah, but they stillmade me practice with the women.
So it was just like thesebizarre things that they kept
doing to me.
And he told me, he said, Don'tworry.
Um, he said, Don't worry becausecoaches know how well you're

(44:20):
pushing.
I said, I know they do.
That's why you guys are kickingme out again.
You know, he said, No, yournumbers are in the books.
And I checked the books a coupledays later.
I originally my numbers were inthat book, and then they started
to cross them all out.
These guys are what they were,you know.
And like I I filed complaints,and you know, it's on some
stuff, some stuff you justlearned.
Like, I stopped filingcomplaints because the USOC

(44:41):
really never helped me.
They'll be like, okay, we'llmake them apologize, but they
never make you whole, they justkeep, you know.
So that's kind of my situation.
But I had forgot about all that.
Like, I just didn't rememberbecause the way this thing
works, it starts to strip yourmemory of things, and I just
never remembered how awful theywere to me until somebody
reminded me.

(45:03):
Yeah.
Wow.

SPEAKER_01 (45:06):
So I how kind of a bit outside this, but how did
that affect your mental healthor being a victim of blatant
racism?

SPEAKER_00 (45:16):
The truth is, I grew up in the Midwest.
That's just the life you live asa person of color in America
sometimes.
That's just um I tell people allthe time, it took for me to
leave the Midwest to realize notall white men were racist.
But it took for me to leave thecountry to know what it's like
to be treated as a human beingbecause I was traveling with the
Germans and stuff.
Like, matter of fact, I Iremember there was things I was
doing over there, I was like, Iwas afraid to do because in

(45:38):
America I would probably beslaughtered for doing that.
Like, and so it really messed upeven my relationships, some of
that racism stuff, because mygirlfriend was a German, you
know, and here I am, like stillcareful what I see and what I do
around other people.
You know, it's just, it's justit's just the life of being
brown in America, you know.
It's just kind of always beenthat way.

SPEAKER_01 (45:58):
I look at you and I wouldn't know you're struggling
with CTE or any of those things.
How difficult is it for you whenpeople look at you and don't see
your struggles?

SPEAKER_00 (46:09):
Oh, I believe that's why the doctors were ignoring my
cries, man.
Like, I think that has a lot todo with it.

SPEAKER_01 (46:16):
Other than your words saying what you're
struggling with?

SPEAKER_00 (46:19):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (46:19):
You know, you're you're uh you're exhibiting in
every other way, like you'reyou're feeling like anybody
else.

SPEAKER_00 (46:26):
There, like I said, up until this last two weeks,
usually if I go three to fiveweeks without that chamber, like
you can go look at some of myvideos.
Like I I'll struggle with trylike trying to get words out.
Some days my my speech stillslurs a little bit.
But the har the biggest part islike being able to get up off
that ground and and get thatdarkness out of your head, you

(46:50):
know, that's the hard part.
I can't even say I wasdepressed.
Like what I was is I wasstruggling with everything.
I was lost in my own community.
I'm cloudy, I'm afraid to drivemy car.
I I literally refused to uhregister my motorcycle anymore
at that time.
I wasn't gonna get on it, youknow.
And I'm just I'm gonna tell youhow crazy it is.

(47:10):
At one point, when I was at mylowest, I lived in an apartment.
Well, I refused to drive.
So what I would do, I will justwalk.
There's some stores over here.
Stores are right here, right?
Some days I say, okay, what if Igo the other way?
What's on the other side?
I couldn't figure it out, man.
Like for as stupid as thatsounds, it's the same thing,

(47:30):
idiot.
I just make two rights.
Store.
But I couldn't, some days I waslike, what the hell is over
there?
You know, and I was afraid towalk that way to figure it out.
So I just always went my way.
Once it kicks in, guys, it'slike it's it's very unforgiving.
And like I said, and it's slow.
And and I tell everybody, like,if your person you love was

(47:52):
around, he had a car accident orsports or military, and he
starts acting out of character,start to check that brain.
That's what it is.
Because it's not really mentalhealth, it's a physical injury.
Actually, yeah, that's that'sfair.
Yeah, it's a physical injurythat will lead to mental health
stuff.
But it's a physical injury.

(48:13):
I mean, there's still things Idon't do anymore.
Like, I don't work as acounselor anymore because uh I
process slower.
Uh uh like I used to be the guy,like if there was a riot, I'm
the one they sent in.

SPEAKER_02 (48:23):
So tell some of our viewers, like, I know that
there's not a lot of people thatare gonna jump on board and say,
oh, here's a hyperbaric chamberfor you, here's a hyperbaric
chamber for you, you know.
What realistically can we do toget people informed, funded, and
cared for?

SPEAKER_00 (48:42):
Well, informed is we're doing it right now.
People like you, you know, wescratch roots, we're spreading
the word.
And just the same way I foundit, like hopefully, like my
TikTok channel is dedicated onlyto people who can find what I
couldn't find when I was tryingto figure this thing out.
Like, look at this piece ofpaper.
This is what you're dealingwith.

(49:03):
I got on my knees to thank God,like all the symptoms miss me.
You know, and so nobody everfigures this thing out.
Only the loved ones can see iton you.
And the and every NFL personthat's acted out lately who's
taken his life or not, or or themilitary guys who've done the
mass shootings, they everybodysays the same thing.

(49:24):
They just weren't acting likethemselves.
They, you know, they were gentlegiant until they weren't, you
know.
Well, when that happens,something happened to them.
Aaron Powell, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 (49:31):
What do you think the connection is from CTE to
that level of violence?
I mean, obviously the inwardviolence meeting suicide, but
when we're talking the outwardviolence, that's a whole
different situation.
What do you think the connectionis?

SPEAKER_00 (49:45):
I was hearing voices tell me every day to take my
life.
Like, why would you keep livinglike this?
Why are you here?
You know, why are you stilldealing with this?
You don't have to deal with thisanymore.
You can end this now.
You heard you heard audiblevoices, like you.
I don't know if they wereaudible, but something was
telling me all the time to endthis thing.
Gotcha.

(50:05):
I I really can't say it wasn'tlike a command voice or
something like that, but it wassomething telling me just in the
world.
Something told you.
Okay.
You don't why do you want tokeep living like this?
You know.
But the uh the other side ofthat is let's say I was actually
having a decent day.
I go outside, there'severything's great weather, my
brain is telling me, okay, it'sa good day to die.
You know, and so that's whatthis thing is.

(50:27):
So imagine being a military guyand you're coming back with the
same condition.
I know it's the same conditionbecause it's the same symptoms,
and they got the same way we gotit.
Anytime something like they'vebeen around the compression
blast, it's the w it's those,it's those waves.
The brain wants to expand, butit can't because the skull is
stopping it.
So it's just you know, it'scausing concussion stuff.

(50:50):
And so when you c have that keephappening and you look at the
side effects, they're identicalto what the NFL players go
through, it's identical to whatthe hockey players are going to,
it's identical to what what theum uh bobstetters are going to
going through, I'm sorry.
And um it's the same stuff.
And so ironically, there's atons of people around the

(51:11):
country that are secretlytreating some of these people.
It's the same treatment.
It's all the same treatment.
Matter of fact, when I startedthis, this was only for
athletes, my teammates.
I said, Well, I got this littletiny house out here, it's in the
middle of nowhere, I can get acouple chambers and let people
come get this free treatment.
That's all we need, you know.
Then I saw the military people,and it's the same thing, and I'm

(51:32):
like, oh my God.
And then when I noticed we lost20,000 soldiers in three years
to suicide.
That's 20,000 that we knowabout.
That ain't the ones who probablydrank themselves to death or
who, you know, deal who whoknows what else to themselves,
but like it's well, how can weleave them behind?
And there are agencies out therelike treatnow.org.

(51:54):
You know, they're they're outthere right now trying to get
this stuff where insurance willpick it up.
Problem is insurance doesn'twant to pay for it.
My my major goal right now is toopen up the first ever American
Post-Concussion Wellness Center.
And so I'm going to get morechambers, I'm going to get uh
like all the all the differentthings that's geared toward
brain health, and I'm going totreat the military soldiers and

(52:17):
athletes for free.
So it has to be a free thing, iswhat I'm shooting for.
And uh, like if I want to opentoday, I could.
So many investors are coming,like, hey, we're gonna make a
million.
Like, no, we're not.
This is not for that.
Like you can do that somewhereelse, but this is gonna be a
free service.
If I can't provide it for free,I I won't provide it at all.

(52:37):
Because that's just not what mygoal is.
So are you ho planning to dothat grant funding?
I'm gonna do everything I canpossibly do.
Like right now, uh my 501c3, Ihad a one when I was on the
Olympic team and I stopped usingit, so it uh expired.
So it's being redone now andshould be ready any day now.

(52:57):
We also have a crowdfunding.
A crowdfunding is one man with achamber.
Uh please donate to it.
Like, that's where our seedmoney is coming from.
That's where all the money isgoing back to getting the
equipment to treat everybody.
And um, like that's really allwe're gonna be doing is just
treating and treating.
And uh I got a chamber rightnow, and uh this company they
want to do a sponsorship withme, and it holds six people.

(53:20):
If I'm open eight hours a day,that's 48 people I can treat if
I get the sixth chamber person.
From six chambers, yeah.
So that's what we're doing.
I just want to the same thingthat saved me, I just want to
pass it on.
It's it's not about it's not ait's not a business for profit
type of thing.

SPEAKER_02 (53:36):
Uh are there any people interested in the
research that might fund you tobe able to do the research on
the people you're serving?
Because if nothing else, it kindof helps in two ways.
If you're getting funded, butyou're also proving efficacy in
larger and larger numbers,because I mean that that's what

(53:58):
that's what it takes to makechange.
Yeah, I mean, being a part ofthe behavioral health system,
you yourself know that everyyear there's going to be
different research that comesout and evidence-based practice.
We all gotta adhere to what thethe science of the day is.
Maybe you could find somepartnership there.

SPEAKER_00 (54:18):
Well, uh, I'm definitely open to suggestions.
But the only thing that I won'tdo is take private money where I
have to charge.
That's the only thing that Iwon't do.
It's just too expensive.
People, people won't show up,you know, and it's too
expensive.
If you have to make a decision,if you're gonna pay rent or pay
for this hyperbaric oxygen, I'mpretty sure you're gonna choose
rent because you don't want tobe sleeping.

SPEAKER_03 (54:39):
You have to.

SPEAKER_00 (54:39):
Yeah.
You have to.
Like the first two times I triedit, they let me do it for free.
And like, now I know this thingis work.
I know it's not a placebo.
I know I'm clear as a bell.
Now I don't have$20,000 layingaround to buy that machine.
So I literally laid back down onthe floor until my girlfriend at
the time, she uh started talkingto my dad, and the next thing

(55:02):
you know, this money shows up.
But I hit that same thing happento me.
I knew this thing was work, somy medicine was this machine,
and now I can't afford it.
And um, my dad saved my butt,and uh I I just couldn't have
made it without it.
You know, thank God for thankGod for some parents for good
dads.
Yeah, I'm in that right there.

(55:22):
He had been offering to pay forit, and I was just telling him
no, I said no, I'll move somemoney around eventually, and
I'll, you know.
But think of this thing is sosneaky, and it's like I said,
it's it's progressive and it'sslow, and when it gets you, you
never see it coming.
You never see it coming.
And that's why these guys arestruggling so bad.

SPEAKER_02 (55:39):
And I think that needs to be a big part, a the
message we're at least gonna putout there is that it's the
people around the people thatare suffering with it that you
really need to be the ones towatch for this because you
yourself are saying, I wouldn't,I wasn't gonna see it.

SPEAKER_00 (55:57):
No, well, I I don't know, dude I don't know if we
talked about this, but when Ibought the lake house, I bought
it because I was confused andcloudy and and I was praying for
death.
Like I couldn't take myself out,so I was like, yeah, I'll get
this place in the Midwest andI'll just go there and that'll
be my spot till I go, right?
And so I came back to LA, Iclosed out my apartment.
It was a young lady who was inmy life at the time.

(56:19):
She's still in my life now.
Um just in case she's listening,I'm not saying I got rid of you.
She'd be mad at me.

SPEAKER_01 (56:30):
Gotta cover your bases, man.
Yeah, I gotta cover them.

SPEAKER_00 (56:32):
Yeah.
She's from New York, put it thatway.
And her and her family, they'reon the phone a lot and they talk
so loud.
Like, and so right now, I'mlike, I'm sensitive to noises
and bright lights and smells,like perfume, it makes me puke.
So she's on the it's duringCOVID.
So she's on the phone with herfamily so much, and I'm just

(56:53):
going nuts.
I say, okay, babe, I'm goingback to the lake house.
I need some peace and quiet.
And I said, we probably shouldjust think about maybe moving on
from each other, because who amI to tell you to be quiet in
your own place?
You know, and so I go back tothe lake house and I'm just
sitting over there.
This article shows up calledSledhead, written by the New
York Times, and that's thearticle that diagnosed me.

(57:14):
But when I read it, I was like,man, all the symptoms miss me.
They ain't talking about myteammate, they ain't talking
about me.
I literally got on my knees andthanked God that they all missed
me.
And so when I sent the articleto her, she circled some things,
and the first thing I noticedwas noise sensitivity.
It was the whole reason why Iwas over there in the first
place.
And then I went, oh my God, Iwent and looked at that list.

(57:37):
I checked every box exceptParkinson's that I can remember.
And then I was like, oh my God,like, no, this is not diabetes.
My doctors were right.
And at the same time, my umteammate who took his life, who
called me speaking gibberish,his autopsy report came out.
And that's when I found out hewas in stage four of CTE.

(57:58):
Now this thing has a name.
This thing has a name, and weknow what it is now.
And that's when I started beingable to do more research and
then find Joe Namath.
But until I could startunderstanding what it really
was, I did, I just thought itwas diabetes.
I didn't know this was slidingrelated.
I had no idea.
Every time somebody dies, if Ihear about it, we just be like,

(58:20):
oh, poor guy, and then we justkind of move on with our life.
But I didn't know where all ourdays were numbered.
Every athlete I spoke to, andevery athlete that they spoke
to, we all deal with the same,same stuff.
It just depends on how bad itis, you know.

SPEAKER_01 (58:36):
What it seems like is you may have drawn a
connection between CTE and youmay have drawn that connection
better than physicians and andand and people who were studying
these things.
Is this kind of a uniqueconnection that you've drawn,
would you say?

SPEAKER_00 (58:53):
Well, another article came out last year, um,
another New York Times article.
It talked about all the militarypilots who got the same
condition as us.
He didn't say it, but eatingthis thing.
I was like, it reminded me ofsomething.
When when I was racing, um, weused to take VIP people down the
track sometime.

(59:13):
One time we took Bob, we tookthe um fighter pilots.
And because we pulled five G's,I thought they were pulling 15
or 20 G's, they only pulled six.
And so now this story makes moresense to me because we took them
down.
I did six rides that day.
They did one and they wererattled when they got out the
sled.
And I was thinking, I'm like,wait a minute, these guys are
the best.

SPEAKER_03 (59:32):
They're the best.

SPEAKER_00 (59:33):
Yeah, they should have been able to take a nap on
this thing.
But no, they were rattled.
And so this article actuallyoutlined everything they're
dealing with, and it'sidentical.
I think it's the G-forces.
Now, fast forward, if you goback to that New York Times
article written about us, foundout we were pulling 84.5 G's or
spikes on that track of 84.5 G.
On the sharp track.

(59:54):
Yeah, those terms, yeah,absolutely.
Absolutely.
And so that's why everybodybrain is mush.
Spikes of 80, and that trackthey tested it on is one of the
milder tracks from Calgary.
Like now, now put that on LakePlacid or Aldenburg, Germany.
Like those man, I cracked ahelmet on that track.
We didn't even crash, just fromthe pressure.

(01:00:14):
And that's why these athletesaround the world are dropping
dead.
And so now that I'm I'm shiningthe light, like, hey guys, this
is a global issue, this is notAmerica.
Americans.
Now they they're doingeverything they can to kind of
keep this stuff quiet right now.
You know, and now then theystarted trying to threaten me.
Well, I say bully me, more bullythan threaten.

(01:00:37):
And so uh yeah, and some of thatstuff is just coming from my
lawyers, my own personal lawyersthat I hired.

SPEAKER_02 (01:00:42):
Anyone in the World Health Organization that might
be able to put you in touch withpeople who are studying this on
a more global No.

SPEAKER_00 (01:00:52):
Um I just know of people that's already doing it.
There's a lot of studies outthere already.
Just the regular people don'treally know about it.
But I'm definitely opening opento sharing that information with
anybody who wants to come in andhelp.
That's what it's about anyway.
Yep.

SPEAKER_02 (01:01:08):
Getting that network together of of people
cross-discipline so that you canshow, hey, look, this is a real
issue that happens because ofthese brain injuries.
You now run the risk of havingsomeone either commit suicide or
go on mass shootings or murder.

(01:01:28):
In trying to put this together,it just seems like you mention
it being a global issue.

SPEAKER_00 (01:01:35):
Like that's the article I just mentioned to you
about the military, it'sactually been scrubbed from the
internet.
Like, I could send you a linkbecause I get it directly from
the people who wrote them now.
But when I first put it out, Itook that article to my lawyers
to show the connection.
Like, help us find theconnection.
This is the connection.
There was also a documentaryproducer from Hollywood who

(01:01:55):
wanted to do a story about me.
He normally just takes thatcontent, he goes to these big
money people, and they they theywrite a check for these stories,
right?
I warned him.
I said, I I'm I'm not sure ifI'm being paranoid or not.
I said, but whistleblowers inAmerica don't live long.
But I said, I don't know if mylife is online or not, I'm not
sure, but just be careful youknow where you go with this

(01:02:16):
information.
So he we signed a contract, hewent to pitch this thing, and I
I still have the email.
He said, uh, Will, uh there's alot of big forces up there
trying to keep this informationfrom coming out.
Um he said only way we're gonnado it is gonna have to use
private funds to do it.
Because you know, anybody who'sattached to the Olympics or

(01:02:37):
sponsorships, they don't wantthat's the money kind of, they
don't want to mess with it.

unknown (01:02:40):
Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 (01:02:41):
The next paragraph and quotations, he was like,
this is not safe material.
And so everything that I toldhim, I'm sure he ran into the
same stuff.
Um so I really watch what I do,where I go.
Where I'm at, I don't post whereI'm at until I leave.
Um because I really thought thatum once the other athletes spoke
up, I was safe.
Because I'm the lead plaintiffon this case.
Everybody spoke up, so Ithought, okay, I'm safe.

(01:03:03):
But the one thing I forgotabout, I'm the only one who can
sign off on this case.
So if I something happens to me,they'll get away with writing a
check for$2.1 million that wouldonly go toward evaluating
athletes, not toward treatingthem.
Now that target's kind of backon my back, because the last
three court hearings, my lawteam is now standing with the

(01:03:24):
defense law team.
They're together now.
And uh I'm by myself now, man.
Yeah, I'm by myself.
It's just public record, guys.
Well, next court hearing isDecember 17th.
Please come out and support ifyou can.
But yeah, I'm the last manstanding between the athletes
getting help and no help.
But I'm like, this is there'sno, there's no care.
And they tried to make it thinklike I'm crazy.

(01:03:45):
They was like, well, we're juston this case was only ever about
medical monitoring.
So at the last court hearing, Iproduced the email they sent me.
It says medical monitoring andcare for life.
I said, Your Honor, there's nocare in this package.
They just want to evaluate us,evaluate us like lab rats and
not treat us.
How could you not treat us?
Would you take your child to adoctor who won't treat them?

(01:04:05):
So that's what we're dealingwith.
And if you look at the military,the last three shooters we had
that were military-based, theysaid the same thing.
Their family said the samething.
They tried to get help, butthere was no help.
They wouldn't help them.
They all said the same thing.
We're all saying the samethings, guys.

SPEAKER_02 (01:04:22):
It's standard operating procedures.
Yeah.
Mental health.

SPEAKER_00 (01:04:27):
Yeah.
But the sad part of it is it'snot really a mental health.
If you just it's only one way toyou gotta do something to get
that fluid away from the brain.
And for me right now, that'sthat's what does it.

SPEAKER_01 (01:04:41):
Yeah, I I see what you mean, that it's not
technically a mental healthproblem.
It's an it's the genesis thatare the energy that Hey, I had a
question for you.

SPEAKER_00 (01:04:53):
What you how were you when you got got um
diagnosed with your mentalhealth issues?
19?
13.
13.
I was young.
They give it to you at 13?

SPEAKER_01 (01:05:02):
Very young.
Um my psychiatrist went out on alimb with this practice, and uh
he uh got me diagnosed and I gottreatment really young.
And that's I think honestly whatallowed me to be as successful
with managing as I have been.
Uh part of it.

SPEAKER_00 (01:05:17):
A lot of times they don't they won't give that until
18.
They always try to do the most.

SPEAKER_01 (01:05:21):
Yeah, yeah.
I was a rarity in that.
Um and it was in so many ways.
One of the best things thatcould have happened.
One of the best things thatcould have happened to me was
that I don't fully understandwhy they don't do that more
often.
I mean, I know some of thetheories, I do, but to me, it it

(01:05:42):
is absolutely a hindrance totreatment for it.
And it's added, yeah.
And sometimes they don't make itthat long.
So anyway, wow.
Powerful stuff, Will.
I mean, truly.
I did not know a lot of that, soI'm so glad that organically
came up.
Um is there is there anythingyou want to leave our audience

(01:06:08):
now, your audience?

SPEAKER_00 (01:06:09):
Yeah, man, we we really we just think we need
seed money.
We need to get started.
We need the funds to be forstarting this thing.
All the money's going back totreating the people who need it.
Please come join us.
I see we're watching ourathletes do these awful things,
they're hurting themselves,they're hurting other people.
I said, but this is not thepopulation I fear.
The population I fear is ourmilitary because I know what was

(01:06:31):
being said to me in my head.
I know what these other athletesare being said to them because
they're killing themselves.
Military are now, they have thiscondition and they're the best
killers in the world.
So they know on the courthousesteps.
I said the same speech I said toyou guys.
I said, there's gonna be a waveof military veteran shootings,
mass shootings coming, and wegot to get ahead of this thing.

(01:06:51):
And I also know how I got up offthat ground and switched this
stuff around, and we got to dosomething different other than
just ignoring them.
And if you start putting themmeds in them, the meds don't
work for what they're givingthem.
No, it's not.
And all the founders it is not,it is not.
It's made for people like youwho have ahead of an imbalance

(01:07:11):
and they need, yeah, it's notmade for this.
Matter of fact, even when Itried those those meds they gave
me was a simple Zolop.
I had a small prescription and Iwas ready to jump off the
nearest bridge.

SPEAKER_01 (01:07:20):
I was gonna say I better throw you off.
I bet that the other thing.

SPEAKER_00 (01:07:22):
Oh man, it was wor it was my problems seemed worse
than they were, and I wasalready begging for death before
that.
So I'm just saying, we're justtrying to get ahead of this
thing, help me do it, help meprovide this treatment.
I promise you, I was indementia.
I guarantee you, some of yourparents and your grandparents
are in it.
There's studies around thisstuff for that too.
Like, it brought me out of it.

(01:07:43):
And if it brought me out, guys,this I'm opening to the public.
This is a free service.
I'm not accepting investorsbecause I don't want to put a
bill on this thing.
It's gonna be free.
So help me, help me do it.
Just help me do it.
And follow me.
Yeah.
Well, and it's ready now, like Ican open tomorrow.
I appreciate you guys for doingthis.

SPEAKER_01 (01:08:03):
Like, thank you so much for sharing all of that.
And I will um I'll share thearticle and do my part.
And uh hopefully our listenersdo the same.
Absolutely.

SPEAKER_02 (01:08:16):
Uh we'll have to keep an eye on your account.
Let us all know if you do getsomething up and running.
Yes.
I mean, there'll be some leadtime before we can put the
episode out, but you know, maybewe add the addendum that you
know you are up and running andit is at such and such place, or
or maybe you get a fleet ofbuses and you just drive them
all over the place.
So let's get this shit outthere, man.

SPEAKER_00 (01:08:38):
And it's so crazy.
You can't go to kindergartenwithout the fear of being shot
these days.
Kindergarten, uh, movies, uh,you know, I it's all related,
guys.
It there, you know, it's andit's so simple.
Like everybody should haveaccess to it.
Just doesn't make sense.

SPEAKER_01 (01:08:55):
We just love to know if this actually took off this
treatment.
If we have to draw and it will,I'll guarantee it.

SPEAKER_00 (01:09:05):
I just know where I was at, and I know I had the
same condition as the rest of myathletes, and I know what they
same thing as the military.
We all know it's the same thingnow.
They even admit it it's the samething.
I'm gonna send you an article soyou'll see it.
So it's the same thing, it's thesame treatment.
It's that simple.
Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 (01:09:23):
Yeah.
Thank you so much, Will.
Um, this was really powerfulstuff.
Truly, it was.
And I really appreciate youbeing willing to put yourself
out there like this and and putthe word out there.
So, from the bottom of my heart,thank you for what you're doing,
and thank you.
We'll do our part with what wecan do.
So thank you so much.

(01:09:43):
Appreciate it.
Good luck.
Yeah, good luck.
Yeah, and we follow you onTikTok.
Um, we'll we'll be keeping aneye on Albion.

SPEAKER_00 (01:09:50):
Just so you know, I'm I'm already doing it.
Like, there's I haverelationships with different
people around the country wherepeople I can send people for
treatment.
So I've already started.
This is not like a we just nowgetting started.
This is the first time we'regonna open it as a wellness
center where people can justflock in and get the treatment
now.
Now I won't have to depend onthem sending them out and try to
find people who can treat thesepeople.
People are getting up off thatfloor now.

(01:10:11):
We've been doing this.
This is not new.
We're already doing it.

SPEAKER_01 (01:10:14):
Well, again, thank you, thank you so much, Will.
Um we'll be keeping track ofthings and post all of this and
and get the message out there asmuch as we can, too.
So thank you for joining us.
Good luck in your ventures.
We'll be keeping track.
Guys, I I hope you got a lot outof that one.
Very powerful stuff.
So anyway, this is Bottom Hui,aka Beat the Mental Health Out

(01:10:36):
of It with your host, Nick, akathe defective schizo effective.
This is Tony Indypocket.
And we're gonna tell you don'tlook to the bottle of the knife
or the gun.
Look to the soul you'll become.
Thanks for joining us.
Thank you so much, Will.
Thank you, Will.
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CTE, Hyperbaric Therapy & The Hidden Toll Of Olympic Bobsledding | William Person

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}CTE, Hyperbaric Therapy & The Hidden Toll Of Olympic Bobsledding | William Person