Security Halt!
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Security Halt!
#218 Deke Letson: Founder of Veterans Exploration Therapy
In this powerful episode, veteran Deke Letson shares his deeply personal journey of overcoming PTSD and the struggle to find effective mental health support within the VA system. He exposes the challenges many veterans face with overmedication and inadequate therapy options, highlighting the urgent need for trauma-focused, holistic care. Deke discusses his transition from traditional treatment to wilderness therapy, where he found healing through adventure and outdoor experiences. Veterans Exploration Therapy (VETx), the organization he is now a part of, harnesses the power of nature to create transformative experiences for veterans and their families. VETx offers a variety of outdoor activities such as hiking, rock climbing, snorkeling, and even shark diving, promoting mental health recovery through adventure and connection with nature. By addressing the root causes of trauma, VETx provides veterans with critical resources and support outside the conventional VA system. The program emphasizes early intervention, encouraging veterans to seek help at the first signs and symptoms of mental health struggles. With a focus on healing, happiness, and community, this episode sheds light on the importance of adventure therapy and the positive impact it can have on veterans’ mental health.
Chapters
00:00 Introduction and Experience as a Veteran
03:11 Challenges with the VA System
08:25 The Importance of Effective Therapy
12:03 The Limitations of Medication
16:17 The Impact of Trauma and the Need for Support
23:15 Stupid Shit and Brain Health
25:27 The Signature Injury of the GWOT Era
27:19 Operating in the 0-50% Range
29:38 From Nonprofit to Reality
31:31 The Healing Starts at Home
34:00 The Importance of Outdoor Experiences
36:02 Adventures in Colorado
38:31 Material Possessions vs. Experiences
41:05 Early Intervention and Seeking Help
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LinkedIn: Deke Letson
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Website: vetxtherapy.org
Email: info@vetxtherapy.org
Produced by Security Halt Media
security hot podcast let's go with an expert in guerrilla warfare, with a man who's the best with guns, with knives, with his bare hands, a man who's been trained to ignore, ignore weather, to live off. The land.
Speaker 1:Job was disposed of enemy personnel to kill period it's just great having that, that warm-up, though, and it's it's understanding that, like deke, like you, you have, you're on to something, you're on to something, and I've been searching for an organization like yours to bring and highlight and there was a few other people and after the show, I can share some information, try to connect you, because I think what more veterans, what our veterans, truly need is more exposure to the outdoors, more exposure into actually living life, rather than more pharmaceuticals and in conjunction to talk therapy. So, deke, thank you for joining me today. Secure to hop podcast. This is your episode of my man. Let's kick it off, man, like, tell me about your experience as a veteran.
Speaker 2:Hey well, I thank you so much for having me. This is such an honor and a privilege and, um, well, my experience as a veteran, um, I, uh, I got out in 2012. I? Uh spent 10 years in the army and uh did a couple of deployments to Iraq Wasn't as cool as you. I was never in uh, in group or anything like that Um, but uh, I got home and I started doing everything the wrong way.
Speaker 2:Um, not that I'm proud of that whatsoever, Uh, but uh, I started drinking. I started, you know it started, uh, because I thought that, you know, we were partying because it came home from Iraq and uh, um, it didn't take long to realize that I was drinking on a Tuesday by myself. It felt like the right thing to do and uh, you, you know, I wasn't like having two or three drinks a night. I was like getting absolutely shit-faced and uh, until I passed out drunk and, um 2012, I got into a fight and uh and uh got in trouble with the law. Um 2014, I 2014,. I? Uh, my drinking continued and uh, you know, and just not being able to be man enough to say, hey, I have a problem, or uh, you know, listen to that little voice inside me that was telling me the whole time that I had a problem. But, you know, nobody wants to admit that crap, especially when it comes to alcoholism or any kind of like substance abuse or anything. And uh, uh, 2014,. Um, I, uh I got divorced. Um, I caused it. Uh, my drinking caused it. Uh, you know, just, uh, not, not willing to, once again, just not willing to accept help, not willing to listen to anybody, even though everybody was screaming at me that I needed help and everything. Um and uh, I just started spiraling. I, I knew that I had a, I knew that I had an issue, or I knew that I had a drinking issue or whatever, but I didn't know that anything else was going on with me. And uh, even though people were telling me I had PTSD, um, I honestly thought that, uh, you know, back back then, I thought that, uh, people were using that as a crutch to uh get disability, you know, get disability benefits from the VA. And uh, I didn't.
Speaker 2:In uh, 2017, a couple of things happened to me. I was running the security program for the federal police and you know, I'm out of the military at this point and one of my employees ended up murdering his spouse, which, yeah, just kind of threw my world into. You know a whole lot of shit. And then I also went to Panama for a wedding, and in February of 2017. And what was supposed to be a fun time and everything, well, where we were at, they burn all their trash. And so there were big billows of smoke coming up all over the place, and, and it was Valentine's Day and they celebrate everything with like black cat fireworks, all their trash. And so there were big billows of smoke coming up all over the place. And, uh, and it was Valentine's day and they celebrate everything with like black cat fireworks. So there was pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop, pop pop going off all over the city. And, uh, I've lost it, man, I absolutely lost it.
Speaker 2:And uh, you know, while everybody, uh, while everybody was having fun inside and partying, and uh, I mean, we were staying at a place that was Pablo Escobar-esque, it had a pool in the living room and, um, I mean just one of the most immaculate places I've uh gotten a chance to stay at, um, but uh, while everybody was partying, I was patrolling the perimeter of the, of the of the place that we were at, and I was finally able to put two and two together after a little while, that the only time I had ever felt fear like this was when somebody was literally shooting at me, when somebody was, you know, just kind of uh, having my team back in Iraq and you know the army and everything, uh, you know feeling like, uh, you can tell people anything, or or, you know, I mean I guess I really just needed, I needed some help, I needed my team, I needed my people around me, or whatever. And so we were with a group of about 14, 15 people, um, all civilians, and uh, I told him what was going on. We were with a group of about 14, 15 people, all civilians, and I told them what was going on. I said, hey guys, I don't know exactly what's going on inside of me, but I think I'm having flashbacks.
Speaker 2:Just like I said a second ago, the only time I've ever felt fear like this was when somebody was trying to kill me. That was not the right thing to tell that group, because they lost it being a bunch of civilians. They uh, absolutely freaked out. They made me call the uh suicide prevention hotline, even though we're in Panama, and uh and um, not the right way to handle it at all. No, and uh, well, and you know, I can only speak from my experience with that, but uh, it was absolutely worthless.
Speaker 2:The person that I got on the other side of the line, I mean, he made things worse, he didn't know what to do, he it w it was like, oh, my gosh, I've got a live one. And uh, you know, like, well, I'm me the person, I'm in crisis. And uh, I don't know what the hell is going on. And uh, while while I was outside calling the suicide prevention hotline, uh, everybody inside, um, they snuck out the back and they went and stayed elsewhere. They left me home alone to go do whatever. What are you going to do? And uh, so, luckily, my girlfriend at the time she stayed with me and, uh, and she made sure that nothing happened to me.
Speaker 2:We still had a couple days left in the trip and so, uh, you know, like, we just tried to stay on the phone. Uh, you know, try to call as many people as we could, just try to calm down and relax. And uh, we ended up flying back to the States a couple of days later, just hoping that, uh, you know, just being back in the States would do something and, uh, you know, calm me down. And it didn't, you know. I mean, uh, it had already, uh, you know, I was already full blown at that point.
Speaker 2:And so, uh, about three hours after we got back to the States, it was like let's go to the VA. And so we went to the VA emergency room and they really didn't have anything for me. They monitored me for a couple hours and then they gave me enough prescription medication I think this was on a Friday night, if I remember right. They gave me enough prescription medication to, uh, to get to primary care or to get to mental health, uh, first thing Monday morning. And so, uh, so I mean, I'm just, you know, I'm a grown ass man.
Speaker 2:I'm 36 years old at this time, I'm 42 now, but, uh, I'm 36. I'm, you know, I'm crying like a little, you know, like a little girl or whatever. I have no, no reason why I can't like get off the couch, why I'm in the fetal position, why I'm absolutely just crippled by this going on. And so my best friend in the world, who was also, who was also in Iraq with me we were roommates at the time my buddy, dave, him and my girlfriend. They brought me to mental health that Monday morning and VA mental health, flat out, wouldn't see me because I didn't have a claim for PTSD, and yeah, and so I mean I'm losing it.
Speaker 2:And I mean that, like, right there, it was just like, well, no shit, people are blowing their freaking brains out Like they've got. You know, they've got all this going on and you know you're absolutely losing it. I didn't have health insurance. I didn't have, you know, I didn't have. Uh, I couldn't just go to a, a civilian. But not only that too. You know, like, when you're experiencing a mental health crisis for the first time, I mean hell, what are the two things that uh, you know veterans are most scared of? You know, getting put in, getting thrown in 72 hour mental health hold and getting their guns taken away, and and, uh, you know just all the other things that uh go along with it.
Speaker 2:And, um, so, uh, uh, luckily, uh, luckily, uh, actually somebody one of the patients in, uh, overheard what was going on, that was sitting in the waiting room and he says dude, go to primary care, go to primary care, they'll at least see you. And uh and uh. So, sure enough, I did. I made an appointment with primary care. It was like a couple of weeks later, but I was able to go in, walk in the door and, uh, I you know there was one amazing VA doctor, um, rebecca Almeida.
Speaker 2:This lady saved my life. Um, she, uh, just started doing her normal checkups and everything and uh and uh, going over questions and she finally got to the question about PTSD and I just lost it. I just started crying, um, just nonstop. And uh, her nurse knocked on her door every 30 minutes when her appointment showed up and she just said cancel it, cancel it, cancel it. And I sat in her office for probably four or five hours, um and uh, until I, literally until the end of the day she had to go home and um, that's, that's a great provider right there man.
Speaker 2:Oh my gosh, yeah, um and uh. So she continued to uh, to see me, just, uh, like every other week, just until I could get some sort of help. And it finally took eight months to walk through the door of mental health at the VA. And, um, once, once, once I was finally able to walk through the door of mental health, you know. Then, all of a sudden, you know, they give me some mental health provider, therapist that, uh, you know, this lady's got a different color hair every time I see her.
Speaker 2:Uh, she's 22, 23 years old, you know, fresh out of college, and, and you know it, first thing we do is we've got to work on a safety plan, and it takes us 10 weeks on top of this eight months that I've already waited to come up with our safety plan. And finally, after week 10, I finally lost it on her and I was like, when are we going to start working on anything, anything like I'm having active flashbacks here, like I'm I'm losing it, I can't function, and uh. So finally we start working on it and it took about 10 minutes to get into the phone call or not phone call. Uh, 10 minutes to start getting into my trauma and everything that, uh, that uh. I could see the fear in her eyes that she realized that she was on level three as a therapist and I was on level 76 as a freaking um patient, uh, but, uh, you know, and then they started, uh, they started reducing my uh. Uh, they started reducing my uh. I'm sorry.
Speaker 1:No, you're good here at security hall. We are very familiar with that. This episode is brought to you by TBI. Tbi, you're welcome for GY, dude, don't, don't, don't worry about it, don't even apologize.
Speaker 1:There's so many times that I've experienced the same thing and in the back of my mind, if you are listening and you've seen my YouTube videos, you can probably realize the look in my face when, like dear God, I zoned out and I don't remember what my guest was just talking about. Thank you, it happens to all of us. Man, right, I love that, but it's true. Man, oftentimes and and it's not look, I, I get it everybody has to. Everybody has to graduate and start somewhere.
Speaker 1:You're a mental health provider, you're eager and in the va hires a lot of these young providers, but they're not the best. You were part of we had the surge in that time period. So the vast majority of our veterans from GWAT and it doesn't matter what MOS, it doesn't matter what you did, if you experienced something traumatic and it changed you at your core and you're carrying this trauma when you sit down in front of somebody, they have to be trained, they have to have some ability to be able to help, guide, coach you through this experience and using the right techniques with the right procedures to help you.
Speaker 2:That's it right there. And you know, like, as I'm going through all this stuff, you know personally and everything you know I, I just couldn't help but to think over and over and over no shit, veterans are freaking. You know they're trying to get it to stop. You know, like they can't get it to stop. And you know, um, like they can't get it to stop. And you know, and then just exactly that you know there's so much bureaucracy with the VA, there's so much turnover with the VA.
Speaker 2:You know, like I was just about to start saying, you know they started shortening my appointment times from an hour to a half hour and then you know, my weekly appointment started to be biweekly and then it started to be monthly. And you know my weekly appointment started to be biweekly and then it started to be monthly. And you know like when you're going through mental health issues, you don't need help tomorrow, next week, next month, you need help right now. And you know, like now, if you start reducing appointment times and and start scheduling them farther out, you know it looks great on statistics when the VA sends it up to Washington DC and it says, oh, you know, we're serving four times more veterans, but the quality of care has actually dropped dramatically. Everybody gets 15 minutes now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. And after you do your inpatient arrival intake forms, you've got five minutes.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, absolutely well, and then not only that. Then they're like, all right, let's get into this. And you know, they make you start talking about some shit that you really don't want to talk about. And then they're like, well, time's up, yeah, we'll see you next month on the way out.
Speaker 1:Please press the button and get your pills, yeah exactly, exactly.
Speaker 2:Well, and I mean now let's talk about that. You know, because I was that veteran that was carrying that, you know that was taking, you know 20, 25 pills a day, and I mean I know a lot of veterans are on even more than that or whatever and uh, you know all that's doing is masking the pain. You know all it is doing. It is not treating the root cause of the pain whatsoever. All it's doing is putting a band-aid on it. That you know that trauma is still inside, it's still, it's still festering inside and all it takes is, you know, just like my experience in panama just one, you know just one thing to bring it right back out.
Speaker 1:It's so true and it's so true, man. It's for those that haven't experienced it. There's a lot, and we were all there. I've said ignorant things in my youth. I was there as a young man saying this doesn't exist, this is stupid. Whatever, I'm harder, I'm better than this, this isn't going to happen to me. And it's that young man hubris. We all sit there and we all downplay it, we all talk bad about it, until you experience that one thing, that one incident. All it takes is to have that one situation that throws you off your rocker and then you realize oh wait, I'm a human being.
Speaker 2:You tell, it runs over you like a freight train and you know, like me, personally, I found out that you know there's something so much bigger than me going on right here and I can't do this myself. You know I can't do it myself, it is and I can't do this myself. You know I, I can't do it myself, it is. I can't fight these demons, you know, and, um, you know it kills me hearing about all my brothers and sisters that are taking their lives out there and, like I can't, it sucks getting those phone calls. You know, it's like son of a bitch and you know like you can see it. You know, like, now that I've experienced, experienced it, you know like you can see it. You know, like, now that I've experienced, you, experienced it. You know you can see it in your brothers and sisters and you know that that, uh, saying about, uh, you know you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink, is, uh, I'm finding that, uh, you know to be the absolute truth, um, but you know that's why.
Speaker 2:Well, and you know, I just wanted to say something about medication as well. You know, like they're putting all of us on medication and they're just masking the pain. But you know, this medication that they're putting us on it's not like an aspirin, it's not like something where you just take it and the pain goes away to build up in your system. For you know, months at a time Sometimes. You know a lot of times that you know your doctor doesn't tell you. You know you can't just quit this cold Turkey. You can't. You know you can't. You have to be weaned off of it. So you've got all these people that are going up on this big medic medication rollercoaster and then, whatever happens, you know like you just can't get your refill renewed because it's the VA and nothing goes easy.
Speaker 1:You know there's a shortage in medication.
Speaker 2:I absolutely, Absolutely and yet now you just fell off this medication cliff and this isn't. This isn't like an aspirin, like we just said. You know these are hardcore psychoactive drugs. What did we all learn? How did we all learn how to cope in the military? You know these are hardcore psychoactive drugs. Well, what did we all learn? How did we all learn how to cope in the military? You know, with alcohol. And so you know, and not only that, it's so socially acceptable, and I'm not trying to get on my high horse or anything like that.
Speaker 1:No, it's true, You're speaking the truth, brother.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, alcohol is a depressant and you know like you're trying to treat depression with a depressant and it doesn't work, you know, so you're crashing off all this medication. You're trying to cure depression with a depressant and it only takes it one bad day of really feeling bad about yourself and, uh, you know like we've all been wasted and feeling sorry about ourself and you know, just those intrusive thoughts about suicide start coming up and you know, I'm so sick and tired of hearing about, you know, another veteran doing it, and you know like there's always some sort of substance abuse involved. You know the the amount of substance abuse involved, but, uh, that's like what I'm trying to do as an organization. Um, I I had some amazing. Well, so, after I uh hit rock bottom, um, you know, and my uh employee murdered his spouse, and I'm going through all this stuff, it was, uh, it was February 6th 2018. Um, super bowl Sunday, uh went out and had a couple of beers and, uh, I got pulled over and I got DUI. Um, however, that was the absolute best thing that ever happened to me in my life. Um, I woke up February 7th in a jail cell, uh, which February 7th also happens to be my alcoholic dad's uh birthday, who died a couple of years ago. Um, he was not a good person, but uh, uh, but uh, it was also the day that, like the morning that I woke up and I realized that, uh, I can never have a drop of alcohol again. Um, I, I lost everything. I lost my job. I, uh, you know, I was about to be homeless because I didn't have a place to live.
Speaker 2:Uh, uh and uh, you know, I walked into red rocks community college here in Denver and, uh and uh, I had no clue what I. I had my GI bill. That's all I had. And I thought they were going to make me do something horrible, like become an accountant or something like that. But they were like what do you love to do, man? And I'm like I love the outdoors. And they're like, well, do you want to be an outdoor guide? And I'm like yeah.
Speaker 2:And they're like, well, have you ever heard about wilderness therapy? I'm like no, and uh, yeah, I did. And uh, I did the same exact thing right there and I was like wilderness therapy, what the hell is that? And um, yeah, they had a whole program, and so I was signed up for by the end of the day and uh. So here I am, 36 years old, I'm about to go back to college. Um, I'm experiencing all kinds of things inside that uh, uh are uh completely new and foreign and um, you know, uh, but like I started going to school and I started uh having some incidents, you know, I think a lot, a lot of us uh college, you know a lot of us veterans do, when we're thrown back in with kids and college professors, oh, I know I'm still in school and I deal with it every frigging week.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, well, I may have talked to you. I feel like Billy Madison every day. Yes, yes.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. I had to talk to six deans while I was in school. I think I set the record for the college, I don't know if they have any official stats.
Speaker 2:But I want that record, I want my plaque. But so I had a couple incidents and so I'm telling my therapist about this and she's like, have you ever been treated for brain injury before she was? She was my therapist for PTSD and I'm like I was like, no, never been treated for it. And she's like, well, you've had them, right. And I was like, yeah, I had some blast go off next to me in Iraq, and not to mention just all this stupid shit that we did when we were drunk, like you know, kick each other down down the stairs in a wall locker filled with pillows because it seems like the right thing to do on a Friday night.
Speaker 1:Or you know the stupid. Well, you have four brag. Maybe this sounds oddly familiar right.
Speaker 2:But uh, she turned me on to this place called uh, the marcus institute for brain health at the university of colorado, and shoots and um, and so I called them up. They do their interviews and they say, hey, could you come in and do some testing? Yeah, and I do. And so, right off the bat, they said hey. They're like hey, we're finding that the left side of your brain is no longer communicating with the right side of your brain anymore. The neurotransmitters have been broken in there.
Speaker 2:And it was like okay, um, rad, and they're like I win, right, yeah, but they were like uh, when you're walking down a hallway, do you like run into the wall, like you're drunk? And I'm like, yeah, but I haven't had a drink since 2018. And um, they're like well, that's because your vestibular in your ear was also jacked up and your balance is a foot and a half to the left of the rear and rear and um, and you know, even like the, the uh questionnaires on uh, on the forms they made you fill out, you know, I always remember one question was like are you an impulse buyer? And it's like yeah, why? Um, well, come to find out.
Speaker 1:These are all symptoms of tbis, exactly yes, and I want to pause right there because this is something that I'm absolutely passionate about, because you don't realize how far the human you can, as a human being that have lived with this stuff, you adjust to it, you think you're fine, you think you're operating at normal levels, but you're not. And that's one of the hardest things I have when speaking to other veterans and telling them to get themselves checked out. Going to the Marcus Brain Institute, going to all these other facilities, all these other great providers are out there. I'm telling you it's been written, it's been studied it. Every single day I talk about this with somebody, whether it's on this show or one of the other shows that I produce.
Speaker 1:The signature injury of our g watt era is traumatic brain injuries. We think that, oh, I didn't have anything penetrate my head, they, I didn't get shot in the head, I wasn't involved in an actual IED blast, I wasn't in a rollover. Hey, that's great. You were a mortar man. Were you an artillery man? Were you in combat? Did you shoot your rifle? Did you shoot a Carl Gustav? Did you shoot an AT-4? Were you near anything that went boom? Or even then, were you part of a special operations community? Were you part of some some operational group that deployed downrange and saw combat, and was your brain rattled at some point? And you have to take account your exposure as a kid yeah, in football and wrestling and all those other things, and that's why, like when you, you probably never even thought that there was anything wrong with your head.
Speaker 2:No, just like all of us, absolutely, absolutely, until you know, like I started realizing that none of my friends and no, just like all of us, Absolutely, Absolutely, Until you know like, I started realizing that none of my friends and family wanted anything to do with me because I was an asshole and you know, you know I would just snap at them for no reason. But that was another thing that was amazing about this Marcus Institute for Brain Health is they were like hey, Deke, your brain is just like bandwidth with the computer. Normal person has a hundred percent, you have 50%. You operate just fine in the zero to 50% range. But when you cross over that 50% range, when you start getting overwhelmed. You know that's when you lose it. That's when easy tasks become hard, that's when, that's when you know that you used to be able to do these easy tasks, but it becomes even more frustrating because you can't do it anymore um I will.
Speaker 2:That's gonna be a clip.
Speaker 1:That's right there pause clip that that's gonna be on social media for an entire freaking week because guys don't understand. And now on the back side, just like me and anybody else.
Speaker 2:But you can recall all the times where you're like, holy shit, no wonder when things got a little bit elevated, I was just a fucking asshole yeah, oh, yeah, heck, yeah, well, and you know so, uh, so I went through that marcus institute and this is january of 2020, this is right before covid actually all of my classes. I went over Christmas break and so I'm about to go back to school, all of my classes canceled and, uh, it was either figure out something to do for the whole semester or just suck it up and take that class. So I was like, fine, I'm just going to suck it up and do it. And, uh, first day of this class, they uh, they uh, get in there. It's a business class. So they make you make a fake business.
Speaker 2:So, uh, I made veterans exploration therapy and, um, it wasn't long after I started getting pulled aside by the instructors saying, like dude, you need to do this. Like you, like we get all kinds of businesses coming through here that there's just no legitimate way that, like, they don't have funding for it, they don't have anything for it. Um, but uh, like you need, like you need to do this. And so, um, of course, I'm making every excuse in the book for why I can't and telling myself you know, I can't do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's not realistic. No one's gonna be able to be. No one wants to do this.
Speaker 2:Yeah, exactly and so I said, well, you know what, what if I just follow along while they're teaching us how to do all these business filings and write business plans and everything Like if I just did it for real? And uh, you know, see what happens? And so, as I'm going through the semester, I did, I got all the uh, but this is a business class and it was a nonprofit. Uh, to start, um and uh, and then I class classes over, you know, and uh, you know, I keep telling my friends and everything, oh, I'm going to start this awesome nonprofit up, um and everything.
Speaker 2:But you know how many of your friends told you they've got this big grand idea and then they never do it, um, and so it literally started getting to the point where it's like, well, I better put up or shut up. You know, like I've been talking about this for a minute or whatever. And so I, I like I said I've tried, I tried to make every excuse for why I can't do it. I literally went out and got a job in the outdoor industry when I got out of school to, you know, I thought I was going to be an outdoor guide and I also used to think that everybody who said that the universe told me to do something. I used to think that they were batshit crazy until it started happening to me and, like every time I turn a corner, somebody would say well, what if I did this? Would it get you going? Could you know with?
Speaker 2:this help out and it's like yeah, yeah, yeah and. But so I guess I should talk about, like, what we're doing as an organization. Yeah, absolutely, you know. It's funny that you know, before the show started, we were talking about your sister and her starting a business from the ground up, and you know, this is exactly what happened here. This is literally the American dream. I borrowed the $50 filing fee for for the organization because I didn't have it. I I'm poor too, I come from nothing and everything, but you know, I just realized that.
Speaker 2:You know, like us veterans, you don't need it when you're having an emergency. You don't need help tomorrow, the next week or, sure as hell, next month. You need it right now. And so many of us have fallen through the cracks of the VA, the system, the. You know, here's a pill, hope you're better. You know, and, all that being said, you know, since 2001,. 125,000 plus veterans have committed suicide. 125,000 plus veterans have committed suicide. You know, that's more than the Vietnam war. Uh, gulf war, iraq and Afghanistan, somalia, you know, all of these conflicts that we've had, uh, you know, since the Vietnam war, that's more combat. That's almost double that combat related deaths, and um. So what we're doing as an organization is, we're using adventure as a catalyst to reach those veterans.
Speaker 2:Just like we were saying a minute ago, like I didn't come from money, I didn't, you know, could never afford these rad things to do when I was a kid. But there were so many things that like I wanted to do and everything, and not only that, like so many rad things that we used to do as a kid. And then life happens. You know, we become adults, you, we get married. And then life happens. You know, if we become adults, you, we get married, we have kids, and you know, next thing, you know you don't have the means necessary to go skiing anymore. Whatever, it's stupid, expensive.
Speaker 1:It becomes all the things, all the things you used to love and use for your own, like recreational therapy, just gets shuffled to the back burner and then from the back burner gets cooled off, and then you forget about it, never get back into it exactly, exactly, and so, uh, so we're using adventure as a catalyst, we're to reach veterans and their families.
Speaker 2:You know, I really, really believe that, uh, the healing starts at home. And just, uh, from my experience, what I've done unintentionally to my own family, just you know, I've given them trauma. You know our depression is contagious and it it wears off on everybody around us and and there's so few resources out there for them and they get burnt out after dealing with our shit over and over and over that, you know, at some point they say screw this, I'm out. And you know, and then, and, and a lot of times. Then you know divorces, and then you've got the government and every like, don't get me going about the divorce process, yeah, you know. And then, especially like, if there's kids involved, and uh, and there's, uh, you know, and, and then now you've got child custody issues and you know the they always say it's the most dangerous person, is somebody with nothing to lose. And when you take everything away from somebody, you know that's when, you know that's when it's so socially acceptable to. What do you do when you have a bad day?
Speaker 1:Go have a couple of beers or whatever, and it's part of us, like it's part of the warrior culture and it shouldn't be. But I wasn't a huge drinker prior to getting in the military, but I mean, once you're at Fort Bragg, that was it, that's what you did. It was so like you're off work, well, we're gonna drink, and then there's a pause and you don't have to be, let's all go out and it's just looking back. It's like man, we could have had greater outlets, yeah, but you know what, like now, the beautiful thing about living in the moment and being in this present moment right now is we can advocate for for a different, uh, type of life. We can advocate for everything else but drinking. And that's what I love about your program You're getting people outside to experience, like we said before we started, experience awe in a healthy way, in a new environment.
Speaker 1:What better state to do it than Colorado? I mean a lot. Yes, I get it, not everybody's going to agree with the politics, but regardless of that, colorado is one of the most beautiful places, where adventure is literally literally a drive away. Whether you're going skiing, where you're going skydiving, where you're going in the Rocky Mountain National Park, there are so many things you can do in the outdoors, and that's what's beautiful. You open up your windows and you're staring in the Rocky Mountains doors, and that's what's beautiful. You open up your windows and you're staring in the rocky mountains and it's just like man. Like what are some of the things you guys are doing out there with, uh, with your program?
Speaker 2:so we're literally doing anything from hiking to skydiving and everything in between. Uh, we're going skydiving on september 8th uh week and a half away, or whatever. Um, but you know, back in february we went snorkeling in the denver aquarium. No way, yeah, oh man, it was epic and uh, in november we're uh going shark diving there too. We don't have a beach here in colorado, so gotta improvise a little bit well, you got an amazing aquarium.
Speaker 1:I still remember from uh visiting when I was a younger guy out there.
Speaker 2:But man, yeah, that's, that's one hell of an outing, oh, and it's so cool too, because you're literally swimming in the exhibit and people who are going there to visit you know, it's like the zoo. They're waving at you and you're waving back at them while while you're cruising around in there, Um, you know, we've been doing rock climbing all summer, paddleboarding Uh, oh gosh, I'm trying. Uh, we've got a whole list of things that, uh, we're constantly doing. Of course, my mind is drawing a brain about blank brought to you by TBI.
Speaker 1:Um, so it's fair to say that within, uh, the area, you're getting a lot of support from organizations and individuals, right? You know we're doing our best.
Speaker 2:We're doing our best. You're getting a lot of support from organizations and individuals, right, you know we're doing our best. We're doing our best. You know now that we're actually starting to become something. We're starting to make a name for ourselves. We're starting to get some sponsorships coming in. We're starting to uh, we're starting to um, bring more veterans in. Uh, you know, last year we served, uh, we ran 16 programs and we served 156 veterans Nice. This year we're already, we've already run 25 programs. We're on pace to run. We're going to run over 40 and we're going to serve over 400 veterans this year and their family members Nice.
Speaker 2:And you know, that's just, and that's why we're not just focusing in on, like, survival skills or rock climbing or something like that, because I'm fully aware that I'm never going to get some people on the side of a mountain, but I'm never going to get them to go rock climbing, but I may get them to go hiking or I may get them to go paddle boarding. You know something that, hey, if you, you know, like, if, if you have mobility issues, you know, like hiking or like hiking or just getting around can be very hard, but paddle boarding, there's so many awesome things that you can still do to get out. And not only that, just by getting outside it releases all kinds of endorphins and oxytocin in your brain and it literally makes you happy orphans and oxytocin in your brain and it literally makes you happy. Like we were talking beforehand, before the show started. You know, studies are finding that it's not material possessions that that bring us happiness. You know, especially all of us veterans, who you know are all gear guys and gals. You know, I mean, we all have our gear room, but you know, like, yeah, all that stuff is rad and it makes you feel all good inside, but, uh, it's, it's uh, the memories, it's the experiences that bring happiness when it comes to, uh, your mental health and um, and so that's what we're just trying to do.
Speaker 2:We're just trying to uh get vets out into the wilderness with their family, creating new memories, teaching them how to recreate properly and safely in the wilderness. Because if you don't know how to do it you know there's so much it can be dangerous. You know, of course, recreating in the wilderness could be, can be dangerous, but you know, hey, that's that's why you have professional outdoor guides that mitigate the risk, you know, and teach you how to do it properly, you know. So we're teaching them how to recreate properly and safely in the wilderness and then, once we get them out in the wilderness, that's our, that's our opportunity.
Speaker 2:I understand that therapy is in our name, but you know we're not doing any one onone or group therapy or anything like that. But what we're doing on the back end of things is making sure that our veterans that are in need of any kind of care are getting to the proper resources in the community that aren't necessarily the VA Like. For me, it's the Marcus Institute for Brain Health. Those people absolutely changed my life. They can't fix those broken neurotransmitters that were broken. However, they can create new ones and it's it's life-changing.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know they're doing amazing work and they're literally bringing guys and gals back from the brink of death. That's not an exaggeration when you're I mean, just look at your own journey, how long you were dealing with that out there in the world with no guidance, no information, nobody championing the idea that, hey, go get your brain checked out, because we don't think of it. We tend to think that a brain injury or anything going on in here can only get damaged if there's a bullet or a blast impact. That's notable and huge, and the reality is is no. A vast majority of our veterans from GWAT are experiencing the same things that we're talking about right now and they need to get their head pieces checked out. And there's nothing. There's nothing scary about it. You're just reaching out, asking for information.
Speaker 2:That's it, 1 million percent. And the second that you can pinpoint what's going on is also the second that you can come up with a plan of action to fix it. You know, like the second that they told me, like, hey, your vestibular in your ear is messed up and this is why you do this, it's like, oh, I'm not a freak, you know.
Speaker 2:And you've got some answers yeah, well, and you know, especially when you're going through mental health crises, and you know like, you do think that you know it's it's incredibly scary, it's the most scary thing in the freaking world. Um, and you know not only that, uh, there's a stigma on ptsd and other people are scared about it. They think you're going to go shoot up a high school or something like that. And you know it's like anything, it's like hey, if you wait till, if you wait till stage four cancer, you know like it's going to be pretty devastating and everything like that. But if you, if you reach it, if you reach it early, there's mitigation techniques.
Speaker 2:You know like let's not try to put the forest fire out when it's at 500,000 acres. That's why I think that these nine, nine, eight, eight numbers suck. You know these suicide prevention hotlines suck because if you have to wait until you're all the way up here to get help, you know like it's like trying to put a wildfire out when it's reached 500 000 acres. Exactly why don't you try to attack the fire when you see the smoke rising above the trees, when it's when it's just, when it's just starting? You know when we can see the signs and symptoms, opposed to waiting until it's just a all-out raging wildfire and now we just have to it takes out the entire front range exactly exactly and hope that it burns itself out.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which?
Speaker 1:you see every year in Northern Colorado, absolutely.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. We just had a couple weeks ago where the state caught on fire again.
Speaker 1:Oh, I know I get the messages from my sisters like well, pray for us. Where can we go to find out more about your organization?
Speaker 2:where can we go to find out more about your organization? Um, wwwvetxtherapyorg. Um. Google veterans exploration therapy. We're on, uh, we're on social media, uh, instagram, uh, facebook. Vet x there. Vet the letter x therapyorg. Yeah, it's a small organization. Please like us, share us, please come out with us If you're a veteran. If you are, you know we very loosely word family members as well, because we all learned that you don't have to be blood to be family. So you know, if you have a good friend that that wants to come out with you on one of these trips, all of them are free. That's what I do behind the scenes is I hustle my ass off trying to make these free Because, yeah, as soon as you put a price tag on it, there's a whole lot of veterans out there that may not be able to afford it or may not be accessible to them. So everything is free. All you got to do is sign up and show up.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we love that man. And if you guys pause, go to the episode description, all the handles, all the, all the information for how to get a hold of Deke and his organization, veteran Exploration Therapy, will be there. And if you just pause and see right here on the screen on YouTube, you'll see the links. So please go there, donate today, because there's nothing better than being able to get veterans outdoors to experience some amazing real world. Ah. So please do your part, support Deke and the rest of his crew. Brother, thank you so much for being here today. I am excited to see where this is going to grow and I look forward to amplifying and sharing everything you guys post, and I can't wait for this episode to air man hey, thank you so much for this opportunity.
Speaker 2:This has been such an honor and uh, yeah, thank you so much.
Speaker 1:It's absolutely, brother. Yeah, to all y'all listening. Thank you for tuning in and we'll see you all next time. Until then, take care, if you like what we're doing and you're enjoying the show, don't forget to share us, like us, subscribe you, thank you.
