ST. LOUIS — Former Missouri Secretary of State Jason Kander was in town Thursday to promote his new book and further the conversation about PTSD and mental health.
Kander said as a former Army captain, he left his issues with PTSD unchecked for more than a decade.
“I went 11 years with not knowing, or at least not admitting to myself that I had PTSD,” Kander said.
Kander said he stepped away from politics to focus on his mental health and has now written a book — "Invisible Storm: A Soldier’s Memoir of Politics and PTSD" — to try and help thousands of others dealing with the same issues.
“I wasn't gaining perspective, I was delaying my opportunity to heal by telling myself a lie that what I experienced was no big deal. It doesn't really matter why you feel off, why you feel traumatized; doesn't matter. You just deal with it and get past it. You can't rank it out of existence,” Kander said.
Stacey McMackin said Kander is doing a great thing for others; she even called him her hero.
“There’s so many people that go for years and years and years not realizing that if they had a little bit more self-awareness they’d be so much happier and getting help is not a thing to be shameful about,” McMackin said.
Kander said thanks to therapy he’s now in a post-traumatic growth phase of his life.
“I had to go through therapy to get to a point where I can sit in a restaurant and be OK, not facing the door. But like, probably not a lot of us feel that way right now. Which is really messed up,” Kander said.
Through his organization, Veterans Community Project, he hopes to help nearly 1,200 homeless veterans in Missouri and Illinois, many of which are in their situations because of PTSD.
“We do tiny transitional houses for homeless veterans. I’m a veteran myself and I know how important mental health and supporting our veterans is and getting them the help that they need that’s one of our goals is to connect them to the resources that are out there and make sure they’re getting help,” Rebecca Tallman with Veterans Community Project said.
Veterans Community Project has already started building 20 of these transitional homes for veterans that they hope to open this fall.
