100 The Tactical Chaplain

Well, you asked how I got connected to Sean and Chance with the collective.

And I think it's through either Mark Bouchard, who has what I think is one of the best books for first responders, but he can't market it or he could, but then he gives it away for free.

And the big difference is he's a hockey guy and was on a full-time tactical unit, really high speed.

And what happened in his story was, listen, I think something's off.

I want to get help.

So he talks to his buddies and supervisors and everybody tells him, dude, you might lose your SWAT position.

It's called ERT up there, emergency response team.

And he's like, yeah, but I got shit going on mentally.

Like I'm a danger to the team if I don't address this.

And everybody's thinking you're going to lose your spot on this coveted position.

Yeah.

So before he gets DUI, second or third divorce, gets arrested, has an investigation, which is a lot of the stories of cops that write books and then speak at the mental health conferences, including the one in San Diego.

Right.

The stories get up and it's I totally fucked up my life.

I ignored my mental health.

I didn't do for a cop my firearms, my fitness, or my hand-to-hand training.

Use of force went sideways.

I either have to quit because the job's too stressful or I have severe PTSD, in part maybe because I wasn't prepared.

And I ignored my problems and I self-medicated.

And the bottom line is it's okay not to be okay.

So that's a lot of the first responder and veteran mental health scene.

So what does a high speed or a high functioning cop firefighter or veteran do? Well, I don't relate to the guy cheating on his third wife that got a DUI that had to dump somebody because they were out of shape or they couldn't fight.

And so these resources either aren't for me or I don't want to burden them.

Like, you know, SISM incident debriefs.

I've been on dead cop ones on the West and East coast.