"That's the smile I've been looking for for a year."
While others recognized veteran Morgan Luttrell's depression and emotional struggles he had difficulty seeing them himself. Only after going through treatments and seeing the changes did he realize how much he'd been struggling.
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So I had somebody tell me, when I came back from one of my stints to one of the facilities, like that’s the smile I’ve been looking for for a year. If you had asked me if I was depressed, I would say no. If I had some sort of emotional instability, I would have said absolutely not. But was it there and I didn’t want to recognize it? Probably. You know, I heard it. I mean, people actually - damn, you’re moody, what’s your problem? But it’s not something that drug me down in a way that I recognized it. And it is, looking back, was that a bad thing? Maybe. Like hey, you can’t stop - what I do for a living, this doesn’t come into my community. We don't get affected by this. As I said earlier, we spend a lot of time giving it to other people. So probably for sure, but not now. I am 100 percent. This video was produced by BrainLine thanks to generous support from the Infinite Hero Foundation.
This video was produced by BrainLine thanks to generous support from the Infinite Hero Foundation.
About the author: Morgan Luttrell
Morgan Luttrell is a Navy SEAL veteran. He sustained back injures including major damage to his spinal cord and suffered a traumatic brain injury in a helicopter crash during training. When he got out, he said he traveled the country trying to figure out how to “fix” his brain. He earned a master’s degree in applied cognition and neuroscience and a Ph.D. focusing his studies on helping veterans with PTSD and other traumatic brain injuries.
![Morgan Luttrell Morgan Luttrell](https://www.brainline.org/sites/default/files/author/morgan_luttrell.png)