Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
He is a retired assistant fire chief. Not Zach.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
I'm talking about my next guest, retired assistant fire chief
and the twenty twenty five Ohio Fire Officer of the Year,
and I'm talking about kJ Wattson. kJ is joining me now. kJ,
welcome for the first time to the Mark Blazer Show.
Thanks for jumping on with me today.
Speaker 3 (00:19):
Thanks Mark, Thanks for having me. Man. I'm excited to
talk to you.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
Absolutely, Man, thank you for joining me. And so you
were tell us about this. You were one of the
first Central Ohio first responders to receive the ETMS treatment,
and the two words I see when I was reading
about this were life changing for you and e t MS.
The TMS is transcranial magnetic stimulation.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
I think I'm saying that.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
Right, correct, Absolutely, Yes, That's why we abbreviate it to
the TMS because it's a lot as a mouthful, right,
try to explain.
Speaker 1 (00:55):
Right, right?
Speaker 2 (00:56):
So, yeah, I mean, you know a lot of you know,
the substance abuse disorders, sleep disorders, mental illness, post traumatic
stress disorders, and this is a real thing and Ohio
veterans and first responders unfortunately have to deal with this,
and this is something that you know, I'm sure at
the very least is making the Ohio veterans and first
(01:19):
responders feel like they're not alone.
Speaker 1 (01:22):
And this is a wonderful thing from what I'm reading.
Speaker 3 (01:26):
Absolutely, I mean, I had a career in the fire
service of over you know, twenty six years and a
lot of those experiences and shift work, you know, the
sleepless nights and you know, all the zero two hundred
miles an hour at the drop of the tones that
weighs on you, and it affects your sleep and affects
your way of being and your attitude and comes with
(01:49):
anxiety and all that stuff. And the ETMS treatment that
I experienced a little over three and a half years ago, absolutely,
you know, change that for the better for me. It
allowed me to fleep through them where I would frequently
get woke up from nightmares and you know, recalling traumatic
experiences that I had when you know, serving my community,
and this this the science behind it is real and
(02:11):
it just absolutely, you know, change everything for me.
Speaker 2 (02:14):
You know, that's one thing too, with regard to you know,
not just veterans, the first responders. I have many, many
officers who are friends of mine, and you guys unfortunately,
and even some friends who you know worked fire as well.
You guys, unfortunately, in the process of your gigs, you
are and first of all, takes a certain it takes
(02:36):
a certain special kind of person who runs toward chaos
and toward a life threatening situation as everyone is running
the other way, which you hear that I'm sure all
of the time, kJ, But you know, it takes a
special kind of person. You guys have a front row
seat for what is just absolutely can be I mean,
(02:56):
just no other way to describe it other than just horrific.
And this is something that you unfortunately, once as they say,
you see it, you can't unsee it, and you experience
things and you see people at their absolute worst, and
they're looking in your eyes and maybe they're they're saying,
you know, please help me, and you know that maybe
(03:17):
it's a situation where you can't you know that they're
on their way out, and all of those kinds of things.
That stuff is, I mean, we're human before we're anything else.
And unfortunately, this is something that can help with this
and is helping currently.
Speaker 3 (03:31):
Correct absolutely and you know, I mean the first responder
field and the veterans, and it's been around for a
long long time, right, And I think that this issue
with our sleeplessness and you know, all the trauma that
we see has also been around for a long long time.
But there was a period where it was you know, hush, hush,
you can't talk about it. And what happens when that
(03:52):
occurs is we kind of go internally and we try
to pack it away. And you know, after a long
career of that, it doesn't stay away, right, And so
when when you know, I always say, the bravest thing
that we can do others than running towards danger where
everybody's running the other way, is is raising our help,
our hand up to help ourselves when we see things
in our lives that you know aren't working well, whether
(04:14):
it's you know, lack of sleep or you know, lashing
out at our significant others or having issues with our
children or whatever that may be. Is is kind of
raising a hand and saying help me. I'm the helper
that needs help. But this, this program ETMS absolutely showed
up at the right time for me when I was
having struggles in my life on a lot of different levels,
(04:36):
and it absolutely kind of opened the doors for me
to a lot of other great things that happened.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
Do you find too, kJ, I mean all of and
I'm sure your life is just full of people that
are friends that you know, maybe we're colleagues, co workers,
and you know of the like because you guys share
a common denominator there. I know you you tend to
have a lot of friends who do this. But do
you find like the type of guy who does this
(05:03):
for a living? And I'm talking first responders, even veterans
and so on. You guys are you're a man's man
to just no other way to put it, And you
find a lot of them might say, you know, they
suppress it or they're like, yeah, I'm weak if I
let people know that I need help or whatever, but
that I feel like that could be a tough barrier
(05:23):
just to kind of get through there.
Speaker 1 (05:25):
And then once they begin.
Speaker 2 (05:27):
To kind of experience what this could do or help them,
that's where I think you probably are turning a corner
and maybe you get some of those types that are,
you know, the man's man, or the ones that are
like I don't want to I don't want to ask
for help or I don't want to let people know.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
It's a weakness. Or whatever. But it's completely it's completely
okay to do something like that, but you got to
get through that barrier, I would think to kind of
get this going absolutely.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
I mean, that's primarily one of the reasons I was
one of the first ones in this area to do
it is, you know, I recognize early on I'm a
second generation fire so I've been around public service and
the safety forces all my life, and so I've seen
the different generations come and go. And I saw my
dad suffering and the men's men, like you explained kind
of world that he kind of came up in. And
(06:13):
I started in the late nineties to where, you know,
we got into the pandemic and the twenty twenty era
and it was like, you know, what are we doing here, guys?
I mean, there's not much masculinity in suicide and the
suicide epidemic and the veteran community and the first responder
community is just mind boggling. And it had a lot
to do with the embarrassment or you know, not being
(06:36):
that strong man to stand up against and talk to
people about what's going on for you internally. So you know,
one of the things I thought I needed to do
was to help break the stigma and as an assistant chief,
you know, executive officer and the Fire Service, and you
know also like you had mentioned the twenty twenty five
Fire Office of the Years, let me put this out
there and let everybody know that I struggled and you know,
(06:57):
be humble about what my approach was, what I tried
to reach out and get help for my issues.
Speaker 1 (07:03):
So take me through. We're talking to kJ Watson.
Speaker 2 (07:05):
He just told you basically about him and himself and
the ETMS transcranial magnetic stimulation. Take me through what it
was like you went in and take me through the
process of getting started and then the treatments and so on.
Speaker 1 (07:21):
What exactly is it?
Speaker 3 (07:23):
So I found out about the program from a couple
other veterans and first responders that were working for the
company to kind of put this on and they said, hey,
it's completely free, which worked my ears. Anything that's free, right,
I'm like, oh, I'm in. But and then they started
talking about the science behind it. It's been around a
long time. It's FDA approved to use for migrains and
(07:44):
medication resistant depression, so it's states, it's non invasive. There
was a location right there in Worthington that I was
able to go to on my lunch break every day.
But ultimately you start out with an EEG. So that's
like an EKG for your heart, but it's for your brain.
And they they read your brain wasves and for folks
that experience post traumatic stress symptoms like anxiety, depression, sleeplessness,
(08:08):
all those things, your alpha wave in your brain gets
out of coherence, so it gets out of line a
little bit. And what they found through research and technology
that use magnets and it clicks in front of your
forehead for about twelve seconds at a time and then
it stops for about five seconds, but the whole treatments
about fifteen minutes and you do that twenty times. So
(08:30):
over a period of a month, I went Monday through
Friday every day at lunch for a month. And what
they found is the magnet kind of retrains your brain.
And in first responders and veterans that have symptoms of
post traumatic stress, their prefrontal cortext is either not firing
or overfiring. And so this magnet, that transcreen that goes
(08:52):
through your cranium your skull read kind of wires the
you know those synapses to fire the right way so
that you're awful wave comes into more coherence. And for me,
within the first week of treatment, I felt relief immediately.
And I always tell folks that, like, I felt a
little bit different, but I wasn't one hundred percent sure,
(09:13):
and I wasn't going to tell anything. But my wife
on a Saturday morning woke up next to me and
she said, you slept really good, didn't you. And I
was like, well, I don't know, did I? And she's like, well,
you know, for the past ten years we've been married,
you've always woken up about four or five times every
week with screaming nightmares, and you haven't had those for
the entire week. But that was enough for me to see, Wow,
this is really doing something. And I just kept on
(09:34):
doing the treatment for the remaining three weeks and it stuck.
I mean that was three and a half years ago,
and I still feel it, like cleared up the morning
brain fog that I always had going to work and
having to suck down a bunch of coffee to try
to wake up, and you know, any kind of chatter
that constantly was going on in my brain about you know,
whether it was you know, the person chipping on your
(09:56):
shoulder saying you're not good enough or you're not gonna
be able to do this. That all kind went away
and I was able to kind of be in the moment,
in the present. I was able to fall asleep quicker.
I woke up feeling refreshed, you know, and again I
go back to This entire thing was completely free. And
thankfully for the Stay of Ohios that they recognized this
as a good treatment and they paid for ahead of
time for all the veterans and person responders in the state.
Speaker 2 (10:18):
That is amazing that, especially when you cited literally a
week into it, you started turning a quarter or seeing
a huge difference, life changing, to say the least. Is
this something that you have to you said, it was
a couple of years ago when you went through this
and it stuck with you. It's not an ongoing thing
(10:39):
that you're going to have to do the rest of
your life.
Speaker 3 (10:41):
No, it isn't. Now they offer different treatments for you
to go back and get a boost. They call it
a boost, and it's also free. But for me, I didn't.
I haven't found that I've really needed it.
Speaker 2 (10:53):
That's incredible. Does somebody have to qualify. I mean if
they are a veteran, if they're a first responder. Is
that the long and short of the qualification for it
to go in and get the treatment.
Speaker 1 (11:04):
That's you know, no charge, basically that's it.
Speaker 3 (11:07):
Now there are physicians involved that will qualify you medically,
right cancer, metal in your head, or you know, different
epileptic disorders, things like that. But for the most part
of the first qualifier is you know, you served our
country and you served our communities. You qualify. But again
you do the EEG and then they get you in contact.
(11:28):
A neurosurgeon reaches out and talks to you about and
reviews your EEG and talks to you about the specific
protocol treatment for you. See, TMS has been around for
a long time, but ETMS, putting the E in front
of it, is more of an individual protocol that they
designed based off of your EEG. Because the TMS in
(11:50):
the past, like in the eighties and nineties, they just
put it on a certain setting and hope to work
for you. But with this program that they're doing in Ohio,
they're using the EEG to kind of develop a specific
individualized program for each person. So what might work for me,
may not work for the next guy as far as
like the volume that they use on these magnets, so.
Speaker 2 (12:10):
They do like it's that's what you're saying, is it's
like a specialized thing.
Speaker 1 (12:13):
It's not one size fits all kind of thing.
Speaker 2 (12:16):
Absolutely absolutely makes complete sense. How does somebody get started? kJ,
I mean somebody listening right now is I'm thinking I
qualify or I could qualify, or I have a family
member I need to let know about this, And how
does somebody begin this whole process?
Speaker 3 (12:32):
So, first of all, I would direct into our website,
which is etms Ohio dot com, or there's a phone
number the six one four six six five seven nine
zero five, And we have folks that you know, there's
a form to fill out on the on the internet
if you go on the website, and folks will reach
right out to you and start talking about you know,
(12:55):
we have five different locations all throughout the state of Ohio,
two here in Central Ohio, Pickerington, and one in Worthington.
So we're very accepsible for folks. We recognize that Monday
through Friday for a whole month is a commitment. But
you know, I try to tell everybody I can. It's
definitely worth it. It's definitely worth it.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
On the other end of it, et ms ohio dot
com and then six one four six six five seven
nine zero five kJ Watts, what an incredible story sounds
like here you are a couple of years later and
it's life changing. It's made a big difference for you,
and I think that's what you know. Everybody who is
suffering from them this is looking for no question, So kJ,
(13:38):
thanks for jumping on and sharing your story. And I'll
make sure that I get this to where I'm sure
I'll have people call and going, hey, I heard that
thing on that was all yeah, yeah, And I'll make
sure and pass on this this information.
Speaker 1 (13:51):
This is fascinating stuff. Man. I'm so glad it's helping you.
Speaker 3 (13:55):
Beautiful and thank you for the opportunity. And again, I
just retired last June, and had I had not gone
through this experience and did this treatment. I know a
lot of firefighters and cops and when they go and retire,
they kind of lose themselves and lose their direction. But
I've found a whole new way of living afterwards. And
it's just been pretty beautiful.
Speaker 1 (14:14):
Man.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
That's awesome, INCREDIBLEJKJ watch. Thanks very much for jumping on today.
Appreciate you. Man continued luck a good success to you.
Speaker 3 (14:22):
Thank you, Mark, I appreciate you.
Speaker 1 (14:24):
Thank you. Thanks,