I have only recently started listening to the podcast, but it has inspired me to share what I have been through. I grew up in a family that has had someone in each generation serve in the military, so at 18 I decided to join the Pennsylvania Army National Guard. I deployed to Afghanistan in 2010, and volunteering for that was the thing that changed my life. When I returned home I went down a bad path, started drinking every day, literally isolating myself , there were so many times between 2010 and 2016 that I just wanted to give up and not go on, carrying so much guilt and shame that it was literally tearing me apart.

I got out of the Army, had a good job, yet it wasn’t good enough, that’s when drugs became attractive, I finally found something that filled the void. After getting into some legal trouble in 2015, I tried getting sober. The consequences were still not bad enough. I ended up trying to kill myself in 2016 by swallowing 30 pills, I woke up 2 days later with my mom sitting beside my bed saying “I didn’t know what to do.” I finally put drugs and alcohol down in October 2016 and have not picked anything up since, and I live by something I heard, “never out of the fight.”

I am finally able to look myself in the mirror and be comfortable in my own skin, and in the little time I’ve been listening to the TNQ podcast, you guys have made a huge impact on my life and I am now working to pass along the message of “never out of the fight” to people like myself who thought drugs and alcohol are the solution. Thank you for all you guys have done.