{"id":895580,"date":"2026-06-27T03:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-06-27T03:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/895580\/"},"modified":"2026-06-27T03:30:15","modified_gmt":"2026-06-27T03:30:15","slug":"national-ptsd-awareness-day-houston-area-combat-veteran-shares-story-of-struggle-and-hope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/895580\/","title":{"rendered":"National PTSD Awareness Day: Houston-area combat veteran shares story of struggle and hope"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\"><strong>HARRIS COUNTY, Texas<\/strong> \u2013 Chris Fahey served our nation for 18 years. In that time, five deployments, including Afghanistan, commanding more than 100 missions. But when he left the service, he wasn\u2019t the same person.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">\u201cMy transition out of the active duty military was traumatic in itself,\u201d Fahey recalled. \u201cI felt unprepared, I felt unworthy, felt unloved.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Saturday, June 27th is National PTSD Awareness Day designed to shed light on post-traumatic stress disorder and erase mental health stigmas. While the day highlights the struggles of all PTSD patients, a bulk of the research has focused on helping military veterans heal and recover.<\/p>\n<ul class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 etvbxt font_openSans articleList\">\n<li class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Stack-vJ7SwH7U__StackBase-sc-1m5bkhd-0 evEXvX dsnUCb\"\/><\/ul>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Chris Fahey said he struggled with a high level of hyper vigilance &#8212; even after returning from war. After seeking counseling he knew more was wrong when he lost connection to the feelings of love and trust for family and close friends. That is when, with the help of the PTSD Clinical team at DeBakey VA Hospital, he realized he was struggling with PTSD.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Dr. Deleene Menefee, a psychologist, is the team\u2019s program director. She says advances have been made in PTSD treatment as the nation has become more aware. New methods keep in mind that there is no \u201cone-size-fits-all\u201d approach.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">\u201cSome are time intensive. They require practice outside of the session,\u201d said Menefee. \u201cSome of them require people to be able to write and not everyone wants to do that. So we\u2019re going to tailor it to meet the needs of that individual.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Fahey says it was multiple methods, and the guidance of his specific counselor that made the difference. It came down to answering a question asked by his counselor &#8212; during each session.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">\u201c\u2018Okay Chris, but what\u2019s next? Okay Chris, I get where you\u2019re at but what\u2019s next,\u2019\u201d Fahey recalled his counselor asking. He said he would also ask, \u201c\u2018What are we doing next, because we\u2019re not giving up today? Today\u2019s not the day we give up.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<ul class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 etvbxt font_openSans articleList\">\n<li class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Stack-vJ7SwH7U__StackBase-sc-1m5bkhd-0 evEXvX dsnUCb\"\/><\/ul>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">Fahey said he has restored all of the relationships that were damaged during the most intense days of his struggle. He has since earned a degree in psychology and is now working on a master\u2019s. Most importantly, he has rediscovered purpose and hope.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">\u201cThere\u2019s one fundamental truth that I\u2019ve learned,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it doesn\u2019t matter what we\u2019re experiencing as the course of our mental health issues that you can recover. There\u2019s absolutely nothing we can\u2019t recover from.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Box-_wrDxHtU__Box-sc-10sa3ie-0 Text-nO2aZ44r__TextBase-sc-s2hv5x-0 jJNfBD fSvavs article-text\">If you are experiencing a mental health crisis, regardless of veteran status, you can call or text the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline any time, day or night, by dialing 988. If you are a veteran in crisis dial 988 and then press 1.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston &#8211; All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HARRIS COUNTY, Texas \u2013 Chris Fahey served our nation for 18 years. In that time, five deployments, including&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":895581,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5130],"tags":[6802,6386,4345,362872,3811,358,3187,2512],"class_list":["post-895580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-combat","tag-harris-county","tag-houston","tag-national-ptsd-awareness-day","tag-ptsd","tag-texas","tag-tx","tag-veterans"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116819959951672734","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=895580"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/895580\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/895581"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=895580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=895580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=895580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}