Navy SEAL Trevor Thompson on Dealing with Combat Stress

Why is it that so many team guys wind up getting into skydiving, base jumping, parachutes? What is that? It's funny shit. Is that what it is? I fucking love it. Is it, there's a thing, I mean, I don't want to speak for you, but some men, the highs and the thrills of that stuff, of base jumping and, what is it that's so attractive about that to you guys? Which of, if it's the thrill, as the thrill combined with the enormous amount of mental effort and cognitive load that's going on and focus. Because you know the consequences. Fuck yeah. Like, if you're on the edge of a cliff in a wingsuit, there's so much shit that can go wrong between the second you push off that thing and you can't turn around to the 60-ish seconds that it takes to get to the ground. That has killed a lot of people. A lot of people. A lot of people. Yeah, how many times do you wingsuit jump? A couple hundred base jumps. And I have about 700 base jumps. Is that a good thing for veterans when they come back as well, just to give them something that allows them to feel that edge again? I would never suggest somebody learn to base jump. Really? Fuck no. I don't even call it a sport. I call it a life choice. So you only want people to do it that are drawn to it. Yeah. If you're a person that is so willing to do that thing that you will do anything it takes to make it happen and go around me to learn how to do it, okay. That, okay. But I'm not going to be like, this is a great choice for you. Yeah. Oh, don't go to therapy. You should jump off a cliff. How much can therapy help veterans? I always feel like you either have the ability to handle shit or you don't, and then they can help you if you have the ability to handle shit. I agree. Does that make, is that? It does. It's a, it's a, or an arrogant assumption on my part from no experience, but the way I'm thinking of it, it's like the amount of wrestling that must be done in your mind going from combat deployment to regular society and seeing the, the petty bullshit that people think of as being like life or death or real, real issues that need screaming and fighting. And you're like, you fucking babies. Yeah. No. And you see that a lot with guys that come back is they're just like, the fuck is wrong with you? Yeah. Is this really worth it? Right. But I do think that therapy of some type, archery, technical shooting, base jumping, jujitsu, there are things that you can take up that I think help guys unpack a ties, like undo all of the shit that's in their head. You don't have to go to a therapist and talk. It doesn't happen. That's not necessarily the best thing for everybody. There's a weird thing about the mind, right? Where it has to be active. You have to give your mind tasks. Oh yeah. Like even meditating isn't being taskless, right? Right. You're focusing on focusing. Yes. There's something there. There's something going on. Yeah. That gray matter is doing some work. You got to get the engine turning. Yeah. It's, and also it's like for people that have experienced combat deployments and then they come back to regular life, it's almost like your body's accustomed to a certain level of stress and now it's not there anymore. So it might start creating it on its own or looking for it when it's not there. Oh yeah. And I think Andy's joked about it. I have no idea. I haven't been tested nor has he, if I know, but you know, so many of us are like adrenal fatigued because we're just wound the fuck up at fifth gear for years. Right. Is that real adrenal fatigue? I think so. Yeah. You know what? I mean, a lot of guys are very just like meh about so much. Right. And I don't think that that's because they don't care. I think it's because their, their hormones are out of whack. That makes sense. Well, there's also a lot of guys whose hormones are out of whack, you know, from IEDs and from Oh man, blowing down doors. I've been thumped enough where like I felt my teeth, you know, I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to be able to feel your teeth. Yeah. Jesus Christ. Well, so many guys who get back have hormone issues too, because of pituitary gland damage. From chronic brain trauma. I'm not surprised. Yeah. And that stuff that really needs to be addressed. And that's the kind of stuff like you were saying for the charity for the traumatic brain injury. Mm-hmm. That's shit that needs to get looked at. Yes. We need to be doing preventative work. Yes. Like ahead of time. Yes. And then monitoring people, making sure that they're okay. Because that stuff is degenerative and people need to know that that's out there and it can be helped. Is it hard sometimes for veterans to ask for help? I think so. Because they just feel like maybe asking shows a weakness or maybe they just, it's just too difficult to reach out. I think it's too difficult to reach out and I don't want to be the problem or there must be guys that are worse than me. I think it's usually that. It's not necessarily the fully inflated ego of I'm just going to be a hard ass about this. Which there is, you know, that's out there. But I think it's a lot of guys that are like, nah, there's probably somebody worse than me. Right. So if you come home and you're not dramatically injured, right? We didn't have legs blown off or arm blown off. You feel like you're lucky. So you feel maybe like you shouldn't be asking for help. Other people need help more. Like I don't need that seat at the table. Let me go find somebody else for it. The lack of support when veterans return is really disturbing. Like the idea that there's so much emphasis put into training. There's so much emphasis put into arming and making sure that everybody's geared up. You're a multimillion dollar machine. Yeah. But then when you get back, they don't have a use for it anymore. You're a used tire. Fuck. Now it's getting better and a lot of the outside groups do a really good job, but it's tough to realize that there's outside groups that are doing that job. Yes. Well, a lot of it's guys. Like what's the fed doing? Right. Thanks guys. It's almost like there's no pressure on them to resolve some of these issues or to help. When you come back, is there any coaching? Do they give you any sort of advice? They do. I didn't end up going to any of that. And they always tell you, hey, if you need to talk to somebody, there are people to talk to. And are the people that you talk to, are they psychologists or are they combat veterans as well? They're psychologists. Which I think is a good thing. It's a good thing to talk to psychologists? I think so. Are any of those guys veterans themselves? From my recollection, they're all in the military. They're all in the military, but did they experience action? I'm not sure. I don't want to say offhand without knowing for certain. I didn't end up talking to any of them, so I don't know. Is this something that you discuss with team leaders or guys who have deployed and have returned? Is this a common thing where you go, hey, what's it like when you get back? How hard is it to transition to normal everyday life and keep your shit together and what are the tools that you use to try to maintain? I think unfortunately that's the stuff that's getting talked about now. Just now. Yeah. And more recently. Because so many... I mean, it makes sense. Are you going to... Like with fighters, right? Do they ask each other, how do you recover after a fight? No, it's how do you prep for it? And make sure you win. Right. Because that's all we care about. We're looking at front end. Front end and action. Front end, action. Front end, action. How do I train? How do I mitigate all the risk? How do I make sure that my buddy isn't the one that's killed because I fuck up? Right. Right? Yeah. So if that's what we're concerned about, nobody gives too crap about what's going on in the back end, because you're just going to rinse wash, repeat that cycle. Right. Until you're done.