Rise Again

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:05):
Multiple people in my family clean my father, are veterans.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Troops that have been to war and now they're back
and think and be grateful for their service.

Speaker 3 (00:14):
Sacrifice, love for their country, just unselfishness, all that they
do for us.

Speaker 4 (00:19):
There are some people in this country who take extraordinary
steps to provide for the freedom and security.

Speaker 2 (00:25):
We forget that those people exist.

Speaker 1 (00:27):
We know them as the Army, Navy, air Force, Marines,
and Coast Guard. They call themselves soldiers, seals, rangers, airmen, sailors, devil.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Dogs, and so much more.

Speaker 1 (00:42):
We call them fathers, brothers, sons and husbands, mothers, daughters,
sisters and wives. We call them friend and neighbor. These
veterans answered the call, now we answer theirs today are
the best our country has to offer, and we love them. Today,

(01:06):
we honor them and we serve them. David Malsby is
your host and he welcomes you to this community of veterans,
as together we are building the road to hope.

Speaker 2 (01:23):
And indeed we are glad to have you along on
this Sunday afternoon. Thank you for joining us from KPRC
the nine to five oh and Amdal. Thank you those
of you listening through the magic of podcast Wherever you
listen to podcasts, just look for Road to Hope Radio. There.
We are got several years of stories, so I'm talking
about some news items along the way. Occasionally, we try

(01:44):
to stay out of the news as much as possible
and just stick to bringing some hope to our community.
Big thanks to our friends, our sponsors that make the
show possible each and every week. A great friends billing.
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constantly constantly opening up new portions of that property. But hey,
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of space. Republic Grand ranch dot com. Big thanks for
a couple of guys joining us in the studio here today, Pete,
glad to have you back. Doing well.

Speaker 3 (03:07):
Yeah, I'm doing really well.

Speaker 2 (03:08):
I want to reintroduce yourself to the world.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
Yes, my name is Christopher P. D. Peters. I'm a
mentor at Camp Hope. I've been working as a mentor
for almost two months now.

Speaker 2 (03:23):
Very much full full blown mentor.

Speaker 3 (03:25):
Yes.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
How long was the MI I t three months? All right,
so five months altogether? Yeah, but two that's it. You
got your own baby, Yes, yeah. How many guys you
have currently?

Speaker 3 (03:37):
I have ten guys and we work together every day
and I'm I'm really fortunate to you know, walk with
them in their recovery journey.

Speaker 2 (03:49):
Very cool. And we also have a veteran with us
who's currently in the program at Camp Hope, which, by
the way, PTSD usa dot org is the website TSD
post Traumatic Stress Disorder ptsdusa dot org for information on
Camp Hope, which is a interim housing facility where we
run a program for our vets that runs about six

(04:12):
to nine months. It's it's not some short trying to
make shortcuts with this is a goal of life trajectory change.
It takes a little while to do that. Everything we
do is absolutely free. But for more information on everything
that we do, PTSDUSA dot org. But one of the

(04:32):
guys in our program currently want to introduce stuff.

Speaker 4 (04:35):
Looks yeah, names Lucas Sifford. I'm one of the residents there.
I'm in a bay called Miller Bay. Loving it so far?

Speaker 2 (04:44):
How long you been here? Going on?

Speaker 4 (04:47):
Well, actually I had to restart the program, but I'm
going on about three months on this round.

Speaker 2 (04:51):
So all right, where are you from? I'm from Santa Fe, Texas.
All right, just a little south of Houston. Yeah, short driver,
those not from the Earth and your branch and word
you to deploy.

Speaker 4 (05:04):
I was in the Army one hundred and first and
I had to play it over to Afghanistan back in
twenty beginning of twenty seventeen.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
Okay, so we will get into a little bit of
your story as we go through the show. Pete. He's
hopefully going to jump in every now and then.

Speaker 3 (05:21):
In the same unit. We were both part of the Rocaissans.
Pete Seth I've heard of him, Yes, yes, he was
part of as well.

Speaker 2 (05:28):
Secretary of War. We all were Secretary of War. I've
heard of him.

Speaker 4 (05:33):
And we get to run around and chant Rocassan a lot.

Speaker 3 (05:35):
So you were deployed together a different times, part of
the same unit.

Speaker 2 (05:42):
Yeah, well, and it's cool to get to see some
of those things happen occasionally from a Camp Hope because
it's a very small world, right when you break it
down into the veteran community, it gets real small, real fast.
So we get to see that from time time. A
a reminder follow us on social media for the show,

(06:03):
it's Road to Hope Radio. You can find us on
Facebook Road to Hope Radio and we'll have some news
items on there on occasion, share some things going on
with some of our show sponsors, some of the things
going on at Camp Hope for the foundation, just as
the website PTSD USA for that's for Facebook, the X

(06:23):
Machine formerly known as Twitter, and also on YouTube, our
YouTube channel all PTSD USA and in Instagram. We are
a PTSD Foundation of America. So a lot of ways
that you can follow along. People ask quite often how
can I help? What can I do? You don't have

(06:44):
a lot of money, and a lot of people saying
that these days, with the way the economy is going,
Like if you were on social media, follow us and share, retweet,
rex whatever you call that. I don't know enough that
it's changed to X, but follow along with what's going
on going on. We sometimes will have events going on
in different parts of the country. Just got back last

(07:07):
week from a trip to Mississippi. It was absolutely beautiful,
great fundraiser that took place over there, met some great
people and they're coming alongside to help us continue and
to hopefully grow our outreach across the country. So grateful
for those opportunities. But if you live outside of the

(07:27):
Houston area, it's a great way to see when things
are coming your direction, things that you might have an
interest in participating it. So again, PTSD USA, Facebook, X
and YouTube on Instagram. It is PTSD Foundation of America
Crisis Line eight seven seven seven one seven seventy eight
seventy three. A combat veteran will answer the phone eight

(07:49):
seven seven seven one seven seventy eight seventy three, but
take a quick break, be right back, and we welcome

(08:12):
you back. It's a reminder wherever you listen to podcasts,
just look for Road to Hope Radio. We do greatly
appreciate it when you hit that little subscribe button. Share
Road to Hope with your friends, your enemies, your neighbors,
former neighbors, your dentist, whoever, never know who might know
somebody that needs what we do at the PTSD Foundation

(08:32):
of America. Again, it's absolutely zero cost. I've told this
story a couple of times this past week with some tours.
We've had a lot of tours lately at Camp Hope,
which is always great. But I shared a story that
I've shared on the show before, but it's been a
little while. Got an email a while back from a
lady at the end of the day. She was asking

(08:54):
if we could take care of her brother's dog, and
she said in the course of the email, she said
her mind, I'm had just taken out seventeen thousand dollars
out of her four to oh one k as a
down payment for a thirty day program for her son,
a combat vet. The seventeen thousand dollars was the down

(09:18):
payment for the thirty day program I have a hard
time with. At our foundation, we firmly believe our veterans
their families have paid the price already. It's now our
turn as a community to turn around and take care
of our vets. So we charge for absolutely nothing at
our place. Everything is at zero cost to the veteran

(09:38):
of their family. So if you know someone that might
be a need, maybe you'd like to be a help.
You can volunteer, can social media, just share. It's super easy.
It's cheap. It's free, cheap, freeze real cheap. Actually, now
that think about it. Participate in some of the fundraisers.
There's a lot of fundraisers that go on throughout the
course of the year, and a lot of them are

(10:00):
really really fun. Crawfish boils in the spring, a lot
of golf events, so there's a lot of different ways
to get involved. So I hope you will check that
out and just you know, be honest. Just like every
other nonprofit in the world, we get something. We get
something in the mail every month from the electric company. Shockingly,

(10:21):
it's not a thank you note for taking care of
our veterans. It's a pretty decent sized bill. So as
every other nonprofit, donations are tremendously helpful enabling us to
take care of our veterans. PTSD USA dot org. All right,
Lucas Santa Fe, Texas, what we're use your claim to fame?

(10:44):
Growing up? Ah Man, that little town.

Speaker 4 (10:51):
God, there wasn't really much of a claim the fame
out there. It was really good, pretty much like every
sport out there, varsity everything but football. Freshman year, sophomore
it became varsity and football?

Speaker 2 (11:03):
Is that your favorite sport? Uh? No?

Speaker 4 (11:06):
I think my favorite sport that I guess I wasn't
really that great at was basketball. Gotten a lot better
since then. But the sport that I was probably top
in with soccer.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
More than anything. Is that even a sport though it's
beneath me. I'm a firm believer that running is a sin.
So that's just the problem that I had with soccer
is just yeah, it is a lot of running. Yeah,
I'm just I'm done with running. Leave it to the

(11:37):
foreign country. Those days.

Speaker 3 (11:40):
I was on camp and they actually asked me, Hey,
we got this thing called the Murph and it's push
ups and ups, and when they got to the one point,
they were like, and it's so far to run and
I was like, I don't run from anything.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
From I am not. If I have to go to
a five k for a fundraising event, I will walk it.
I will not run it. Yeah running is this thin?
All right? So you're better at soccer, yes, but you
must have been decent football if you made I was
really good at football.

Speaker 4 (12:17):
They just don't like putting people freshman's into the of
course I was. I was in the locker room freshman there.
They pretty much aready told me I made it. They
just have to wait till next year. I've been the
same exact size since like seventh grade. What years were
you in high school there? I think twenty twelve to
twenty sixteen, so this is only about ten years ago.

Speaker 2 (12:38):
Yeah. Yeah. Interestingly with Santa Fe Coorse, Santa Fe had
the school shooting. Yeah that was a couple of years. Yeah,
that was eighteen. Yeah, okay, So there's a couple down
there just that are awesome people that put on a
massive crawfish boil fundraiser slash. I don't know what you'd

(13:05):
call it, A like a small state fair. Yeah, oh yeah,
the Galveson County Fairy. Well that's not it. It's just
it's their thing. It's it's they do. It's one day deal,
all you can eat crawfish, say one day.

Speaker 4 (13:20):
They're trying to help it into Hook's Crawfish. That's the uh,
that's the place they have to. They have one that's
over heading into Brazoria County area that's more alm like Alvin.
They have like a giant food truck that's on one
end and then all the way down in Santa Fe
off of six forty six and Highway six.

Speaker 2 (13:39):
It's another place. It's sure sure. So this one is
a couple started with them and a couple of their
friends doing it in their backyard and start having a
bunch of people come over. They figured, well, I'm gonna
do this m as. We'll turn it into a fundraiser. Then, uh,
the school shooting happened. They invited us, so myself a
couple of our staff members went down to Centa Fe

(14:01):
for an event at the school, speaking to a lot
of the students and kind of just talking about trauma
and trying to help the school through what was going
on at that time. But a few years ago they did.
They now do it at the what used to be
the mall the mainland. I think that's right there on
forty five, right before you get down to Galveston. They'll

(14:25):
have twelve thirteen thousand people at it. It's crazy. And
a few years ago they brought out the Guinness Book
of World Records folks and documented and set the Guinness
Book World Record for boiling crawfish. They boiled fifty thousand
pounds of crawfish and I think it was a six

(14:47):
or six and a half hour time period and I
had my share. It was a great day. But they
do that every year. They don't try to break the
record every year. But it's a lot of fun and
it's a lot a lot of offish, but good times,
good times, great people in Santa fe al right, So sports,
you graduate sixteen, correct, and you go straight into the army. Yeah,

(15:10):
straight to basic. What'd you want to go to the
military for? Oh man?

Speaker 4 (15:18):
You know, growing up with my uncle after I was
born to Jack's, Mississippi, so I moved over. There was
a lot of complications there, so I moved in with
my uncle who was military. He was in the Coast Guard,
and I kind of grew up in a military household,
which was you know, just a great look, I guess,
and if you don't really have any.

Speaker 2 (15:37):
Idea of what you're doing.

Speaker 4 (15:38):
It's it's great to go into the military because they
can kind of, you know, level you out for the
for the real world and all that fun stuff, kind
of just take you out of your childish environment, throw
you into a grown up situation.

Speaker 2 (15:52):
So it can grow up real fast. Oh especially yeah,
Floyd too, erect or Afghanistan for you? Why the are Army?

Speaker 4 (16:02):
I wanted to do infantry. It would have been Marines
or Army. I just kind of talked to the recruiter.
I enlisted junior year of high school. Glready knew I
was going in and I've won that for a while
and there was mainly army recruiters there. So I just
started talking to them and build a kind of relationship
with them while was, you know, doing the end process.

(16:23):
And yeah, I knew I was going infantry either three
eleven with the Marines or eleven bravo with the army.
That was that was a dream. So p d you
find out when he comes in. You guys served in
the same you know, right.

Speaker 3 (16:38):
Yeah, So we have this thing on camp where whenever
we see each other, we say, how you doing? Roci
San you know like I'm doing pretty good, Rocissan.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
How are you?

Speaker 3 (16:48):
I'm doing good, Rocsan Rocaissant.

Speaker 2 (16:51):
And along what years did you deploy?

Speaker 3 (16:57):
Oh? I I deployed in two thousand and one after
nine to eleven and uh then in two thousand and
three the invasion Iraq, deployed one more time and seven
eight did a year route clearance in Anbar province. So yeah,
at that time, though I was part of the reserves,

(17:20):
I did four years active and that's while I was
with the one hundred and first.

Speaker 2 (17:25):
All right, very cool, All right, we are coming up
against the news break. Just a reminder if you would
put our phone number in your phone. You never know
who you may come across that needs somebody to talk to.
When you call our phone number a combat that's going
to answer the phone. That will mean the world to
that veteran who is in a crisis situation. Eight seven
seven seven one seven seventy eight seventy three. Please please

(17:49):
please put this in your phone. You could be part
of saving somebody's life. Eight seven seven seven one seven
seventy eight seventy three. Would take a quick break and
be right back with more of Road to Hope Radio

(18:14):
and we welcome back Road to Hope Radio. Glad to
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You can listen to it anywhere, anytime, and it's all free,

(18:35):
just like everything else we do. Look for Road to
Hope Radio wherever you listen to podcast All right, so
Santa Fe, Texas don't need to go into clearly some
issues in Mississippi. Whatever that was is fine. You come
to Santa Fe live with your uncle Coast Guard encouraging

(19:01):
for you when you were talking about joining the army.

Speaker 4 (19:04):
Uh No, it was more just of an interest in
my own and kind of like take after him because
I didn't have, you know, the best father figure at first,
and then he kind of grew into that position. So
I just kind of wanted to take after him, and
he was really just pushing us to do the best
we could.

Speaker 2 (19:20):
Yeah, just be the best person you can, gotcha. So
you join up in sixteen twenty sixteen, deploy in seventeen. Yeah,
so move pretty quickly. Oh yeah, we weren't surprised that
you were deployed in our position, especially the UN and
I went to Yeah, that's what you were looking for.
What were you doing in Iraq or Afghanistan? Sorry, Afghanistan.

(19:44):
So we were really doing.

Speaker 4 (19:47):
What do you call it, like pretty much pulling guard
for like special forces out there while they were doing
their their missions and everything. So we were just kind
of just watching over them most of the time, sometimes
going out and kind of like surveying areas and stuff
like that. It was over in Nangahar specifically, trying to

(20:10):
think of the place we went to specifically had where
it was like Aerosmith Riverside and we were out there
with third crew.

Speaker 2 (20:18):
I can't remember which group it was. They're really cool.

Speaker 4 (20:20):
The first time I ever got to see uh, you know,
Special Wars guys out there and the natural habitat doing
the thing. They were having, beards goofing off.

Speaker 2 (20:31):
Yeah, they're grabbing lending in right, Yeah, yeah, did you
blend in well? P d Well.

Speaker 3 (20:39):
Funny story, we had a mustache growing contact, but I
couldn't grow facial hair. Until I was thirty. So right
after two weeks they were like, give it up, PD, just.

Speaker 2 (20:51):
Now throw a towel. Yeah, I grow the hill billy beard,
try something else. Okay, So how long were you in
the army? Man?

Speaker 4 (21:06):
I did right at I didn't do my full contract
because when I came back it was a lot of alcohol,
but about eighteen months out of my three years because
it was.

Speaker 2 (21:16):
Literally just basic.

Speaker 4 (21:18):
Shortly after Basic, I went Overseas for you know, seven
months on that, and then after that it was just
I was underage still with drinking, and they caught me.
And that's kind of like how it started. So I
kept getting thrown the programs, kept filling the program, so
they eventually they gave me a general and honorable because

(21:41):
I wasn't a bad guy.

Speaker 2 (21:42):
I just was drinking way too much. Where were you
at when you came back? Where was I when I
came back? How about like that from your deployment? Oh?
Fort Campbell Okay, yeah, Kentucky, Kentucky. That's a beautiful spot
over there. I love it. Yeah, it's absolutely it's beautiful
in there. Okay, So alcohol, what what was driving that?

(22:03):
What was driving the uh? Just you know, while we
were we were over there.

Speaker 4 (22:10):
There was a lot of instances that happened, but one
that kind of froze me up a little bit. Talking
to some buddies and uh as they were just kind
of changing out of their uniform. Uh we were walking back,
me and a buddy of mine, nag, and then those
four guys that were out on that little post area

(22:30):
were struck by a mortar blowing Smotherens and it stunned
the hell out of me and.

Speaker 2 (22:37):
The guys you were talking with.

Speaker 4 (22:38):
Yeah, like I walked away, I got like kind of
pushed on the ground. I didn't get aft up or
anything like that.

Speaker 2 (22:44):
So they.

Speaker 4 (22:48):
They were just a man yeh, screaming a lot, and
I kind of just froze. And it was kind of
like a highlight. Not a high light and not a
good highlight, but like a highlight. And sure a lot
of my memories and trying to help them out was
a you know, I was getting scolded by one of

(23:11):
our corporals because I just kept just in disbelief. So
you'll find out who you are real quick when something
like that's happening, whether you freeze up or whether you
kind of snapped too. Eventually, I snapped too. I just
took me a second register which just happened.

Speaker 2 (23:25):
Sure, what are you like, eighteen, nineteen years old or nineteen? Yeah? Yeah, yeah,
that's not that's not typical for a nineteen year old
kid to have to experience. Yeah, okay, so you had
the issues after you came home. I'm sure drinking was
a part of that. I assume, yes, to try to

(23:48):
help you get to sleep, what was going on, or
just just that's what you did. That's just i't matter
which is what you did.

Speaker 4 (23:55):
I man, it's you go from that big of like
a jumping and adrenaline to down to messing with people
on the civilian side, and people were just frustrating the
heck out of me. I couldn't get along with nobody.
I isolated like no other. Chose probably the worst women

(24:17):
to be around. I'm not going to get in specifics
what sure I was doing, but pretty much every bad
choice you could think of alcohol, drinking alone, drinking all day,
drinking while I was at work, and it's cheap stuff too.
Get some Tako vodka and eleven dollars drunk right there,
real fast, passing out. Started having some real issues with

(24:40):
that thathn't really too much with drugs yet though not
until I got back here.

Speaker 2 (24:46):
Okay, that's when the drug part. Okay, so curious. While
you were in they obviously recognized, okay, your drinkings, and
you mentioned they put in some programs that you were failing.
But was it just for them? Was it just an
alcohol problem? Did they look at the mental health side
at all? What happened there? As far as the.

Speaker 4 (25:02):
Army was concerned, They thought it was like me just
being an underage, got drunk and I just kept failing
the programs, and I did have mental like issues since
I kind of came back. I probably had a little
bit of issues before I left, but I was pretty
outstanding as a person, never really had drinking problems or anything.
But I got into this program called ASAP, which is

(25:22):
I guess Army Substance Abuse program is what it stands for.

Speaker 2 (25:25):
I don't know. So I I'm talking to my Who
was I talking to? Was that one of our lieutenants?

Speaker 4 (25:36):
I forget what his name was, but he was like, hey, man,
we could we could send you to a rehab which
is Army kind of rehab, domicillary kind of thing. But
this was more of a hospital is for Gordon Eisenhower.
That place was absolute, you know, trash. That threw me off.
I only stayed there one week out of a month.

(25:57):
Told him I wasn't taking my med So that was
a bad thing. It was an inappropriate referrals what they
called it, and that's that could go against them. So
they booted me out of there, and then they took
me back into the aside program. They were telling me
that if I mess up again, then well, actually I
went through the program. I did mess up again. So

(26:18):
they threw me into another place called Cumberland Hall, which
was only thirty minutes away, which was funny to me
because it was six hours over Eisenhower and it's only
thirty minutes down the road at this place. I should
have just sent me there in the first place. I
don't know why y'all did all that, but so I
go there. I stay there two weeks out of a
month because I'm like, I cannot be locked down in
a place like that, and that they don't They didn't

(26:39):
allow you to smoke cigarettes, so you know, my.

Speaker 2 (26:43):
So when they discharge you, uh you come back to
Houston area Santa Fe. Okay, So I wasn't discharge it.

Speaker 4 (26:52):
But when I got when you did, okay, Oh yeah,
I came back down here and came like immediately back
to Santa Fe.

Speaker 2 (26:57):
All right, so pike up a job or what were
you doing? Yeah? I started working at this place called
Fries Electronics. When I remember those, yeah, those were awesome
and the yeah were massive and head literally everything you
could ever dream of in the electronic world. Those things
were awesome. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (27:13):
I worked in a section loss and prevention. So all day, man,
I'm telling you, I got in trouble so much, young.

Speaker 2 (27:21):
Man, because I would not want that job there. No, okay,
So dating, what was going on in your personal life
was a good bad in different man.

Speaker 4 (27:37):
At first when I came back, it's god, I kind
of heartbroken over a high school relationship that happened before that.
And then like so like the date, dating wasn't hard
for me. It was just kind of oh, there you go,
a little macho back the watch Man. But nah, it
was really just kind of just hanging out with the girls. Yeah,

(28:00):
do your okay thing, We'll keep it there. Oh that's fine,
and yeah, not a problem. Reminder ptsd USA dot org
for information look.

Speaker 2 (28:13):
Camp Hope is not the only thing we do. We
run support groups across Texas, a few cities across the country,
and we also do one through Zoom or some type
of technology similar to Zoom that type of deal, so
you can literally be anywhere and jump into one of
our support groups. We also run support groups for the
family members. It is extremely important for the long term

(28:33):
success of the veteran that the family come alongside, and
first of all, they need to understand what PTSD is,
what it is doing to their loved one, and how
they can support them and not enable PTSDUSA dot org
for all the group information. Also information on Camp Hope
for those who need something a little more than a

(28:53):
weekly support groups. So PTSD USA dot org. We'll take
more more. Break can be right back with more of
Road to Hope Radio and we welcome you back Road

(29:22):
to Hope Radio and KPRC nine five. Oh those of
you listening through podcasts wherever you listen to podcasts, just
look for Road to Hope. There we are eight or
and I forget where we're at. It's been a while,
it's been several years now. Lots of stories there, so
please listen share. You never know who might hear it.

(29:43):
Maybe it's the first time or maybe it's the twelfth
time that gets their attention, but can can help change
your life. PTSDUSA dot org is our website. Okay, so
you trouble, you get a job. Now you get to
camp Hope. So somewhere along the way, either something happened
or did you did you go go to the VA

(30:05):
when you came home? Just curious or no?

Speaker 4 (30:07):
Yeah, because there was something that we had that where
we were still allowed to go see maybe had like
five years of care afterwards, because.

Speaker 2 (30:19):
I don't forget what it's called. Last I forget. Did
they diagnose you? Did the VA to diagnose you?

Speaker 4 (30:24):
Yeah, we just checked on my healthy vet too. I
got about like fifteen hundred and thirty four documents and
I have like three different doctors with diagnosis individually BTSD
just since abuse disorder.

Speaker 2 (30:41):
Relatively soon after you got home.

Speaker 4 (30:43):
Yeah, well we didn't we When I came back, it
was I drank every day, but for some reason I
decided I would only drink from eight o'clock until I
went to bed every night. But I drank every day
for like the last ten years since you know, I
came back. So I it progressively got worse. I'd say

(31:05):
within the last three years. I started seeing the hospital
a lot. Twenty eight I got fatty liver now ulcers
that are ginormous for my age, apparently pancreas destroyed, and
uh yeah, I've been to the hospital probably about forty
times in the last couple of years.

Speaker 2 (31:26):
A few years. It's just progressibly got worse. What caused
you to look at it, even consider a place like
Camp Hope, Whether it was us or you're looking around,
just what was it that drove you to this is
the time? It's something's got to change.

Speaker 4 (31:43):
It's really just family looking out for me, because if
I didn't have them, who would know if I'd be
here today?

Speaker 2 (31:49):
You know? Were they the ones that found Camp Hope. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (31:52):
So I went to a place at the beginning this year.
It was actually called Serenity Light Recovery over in Angleton.
I give a good shout out to the place. They're
good too, but this place is a lot lot better.

Speaker 1 (32:03):
It.

Speaker 4 (32:03):
So this whole year I've been in there, I was
going to stop after that. I was going to go
straight from there, because that was from February fifth to
April fourteenth. I was going to go from there to here,
but I ended up screwing up, so I had to
go to West Oaks from April twenty seventh to May
twenty seventh until I came here. The first time around,
I ended up having to leave because, you know, causing

(32:25):
shenanigans on over at Camp Hope. But luckily let me
come back. So I'm a lot better this time around.

Speaker 2 (32:33):
So you've been back since since August twentieth, yeah, or
August nineteenth. August it's close enough.

Speaker 4 (32:46):
Yeah, Yeah, there we go, because it's right around two months.

Speaker 2 (32:50):
So yeah, over a little bit over two months August nineteenth.
So you've been in other programs. I'm not trying to
gauge who's better, how much better, how much worse than
anything like that, but just you've been here a couple
of months after having gone into at least for some
point in time other programs. What's what's different, I guess,

(33:15):
And again I'm not trying to put someone up or down.
Just what's different about Camp Hope versus anything else you've
been a part of.

Speaker 4 (33:20):
Other places are specific on a like addiction and an
addiction alone and like how it's affected you in like
you know, whether it's genetic or like how you grow
up with your family environmental this one here you have
people that come to Camp Hope that aren't even you know,
having problems with alcohol or drugs, but they're coming because

(33:42):
they're having real bad mental issues to the PTSD. And
it's a really good program because what it's doing is
breaking down, you know, all the all the problems that
come along with PTSD, things you didn't notice at first.
So like with your family, your spouse, your kids, you know,
the aggression, the you know, turning into alcohol or drug abuse.

(34:03):
You know, it really breaks down why and what are
the symptoms you should be looking for, and they can
and they kind of walk you through on how to
recover from that, and they give you a good time
for hims six to nine months, which is really smart.

Speaker 3 (34:17):
If you ask me, you mentioned substance abuse disorder earlier.
The BA actually lists substance abuse disorder as a secondary
to PTSD, So if you have PTSD, there's a good
chance you're going to have the other.

Speaker 2 (34:32):
You know. I was definitely on there. I got a
lot of documentation when I pull up on my healthy
bed alone. Well, Peter, how long were you in the program?

Speaker 3 (34:40):
I was actually in the program for eight months. I
I graduated in April of this year, and I was
seeking mental health peer support training because I saw what
the mental words did for the veterans there, and I

(35:04):
knew I always wanted to help other veterans. I just
didn't know which direction to go. And I got some
information from the mentors on what training they were provided with,
so I sought that training out myself, and then a
position opened up for an MIT on camp and I applied.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
And so between the time you were in the program,
time you've been an MIT, time now that you've been
as a full blown mentor at Camp Hope, you've seen
it's not everybody, but almost everybody that comes into Camp
Hope has some sort of addiction issue. Almost everyone.

Speaker 3 (35:39):
And it doesn't It isn't just drugs and.

Speaker 2 (35:42):
Alcohol, no, no, no, There's a long list of things. Yes.

Speaker 3 (35:45):
And one of the things that I've also noticed is,
you know, as a mentor, I have to see whether
or not the resident I'm working with underunderstands that what
they're dealing with is a type of addiction like gambling.

(36:06):
Like there are some people that gamble habitually, but they
don't feel that it's an addiction, right.

Speaker 2 (36:11):
I mean, there are a thousand things that that could be. Yeah, Lucas,
it's something Obviously, you made the decision. I'm going to
go to camp, Hope, I'm going go do this. What
are you looking for, whether you when you made the
decision or what are you looking for now? What? What
do you want to get out of this program?

Speaker 4 (36:34):
So truly and honestly, I kind of want my emotional
stability back, because that has been a big problem with
me regulating, you know, showing empathy, understanding it. You know,
when you drink and do drugs for so long, a

(36:55):
lot of that kind of fades away. And that's a
lot of reason people kind of go back to it
is because they don't really know how to regulate properly.
So that's why I really, I think what I've wanted
I am getting out of the program, which is nice.
I'm getting that that reassurance that like you know, I'm
handling things better with my girl back at home with

(37:17):
my daughter, many many other things, like my stability is
so much better. The way I could think is better,
problem solving is better, life shifts all around, getting better, honestly,
and I just want to stick the program out and
as long as I can, because I think the longer
I'm sober, the more I I'll just stick to it.

Speaker 2 (37:41):
That's the hope. Yeah, I held your daughter by the way.

Speaker 4 (37:44):
She's good. You know how old, how old she's one.
She turned to one on a September twenty sixth, Eliana rains.

Speaker 2 (37:52):
That's awesome, very cool, just to remind her. PTSD USA
dot or work for information on everything at the PTSD
Foundation of America. And again, everything that we do is free.
It is a peer to peer based program. It is
faith based program, christ centered. In our curriculum that we use.

(38:16):
We add a lot to that. We have licensed counselors
that are veteran c at least once a week. There
are a number of things that we add. We have
equine therapy that a lot of our guys get a
lot out of that. So you're going to be exposed
to a number of things while you're here. PTSD USA
dot org. Lucas Madam, super happy for you and for

(38:39):
your girl, your daughter. Keep doing the program, finish it
out the best thing you can do for you, for
yourself and for your family. HEDI love you, Bud, so
thankful for what you do each and every day. Appreciate you.
Wherever you listen to podcasts Road to Hope Radio, listen, subscribe, share,
We appreciate it. Look forward to being with you again

(39:01):
next week for more of Road de Hooper