In this live discussion, the host and veteran Terrell Jones examine the deep‑rooted stigma surrounding mental‑health care in the U.S. military, especially for personnel holding high security clearances. They describe how cultural expectations of masculinity, pride, and ego discourage service members from seeking psychiatric help, often leading to silent suffering and career jeopardy. Jones stresses that personal well‑being must outweigh pride, urging individuals to be honest with themselves and to pursue professional care. He also highlights a leadership lesson: commanders must recognize their own limits, especially during acute panic attacks, and seek immediate mental‑health tools beyond standard box‑breathing techniques. The conversation concludes with a call for humility and proactive help‑seeking as essential for both personal health and effective leadership.
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especially if you have emotional issues, for those of us who have high security clearances, back in the day, I've been under it, so I'm not joking, they would get rid of you for going to speak to a psychiatrist or having some emotional troubles that you are working through. So instead of helping you here, it's like shame, you know, taboo, and they want to kick you out. So therefore you keep your mouth shut and you don't say anything. So you suffer in silence. And, uh, that's not good. And then you also mentioned being a man, oh, I'm a man, I'm strong and all of that, Rambo or whatever. So you get courage, you don't want to go see a good doctor, you just keep it yourself. That's really silly because there's a lot of program, a lot of benefit for you. So really my advice is for people in the military right now to really be true to themselves and to seek help when needed. What would you add to that?
Um, I would say that pride goes before destruction. And sometimes in the military, we're too prideful. Um, pride will humble you. And also ego. Ego is evil going on. So you have to be able to manage that and understand that your life is more important than this pride that you have. Because you blind yourself, you're blinded by that pride. And there might be some underlying issues that are life-threatening that you need to address. And so don't be afraid to go get seen by the medical professional. Um, it's important whether it's physical or, uh, mental. You need that help. I think most people need to understand that they need help. Now, one of the things in leadership too is, you don't know something, ask the question. You don't ask, you don't get. And I'm not afraid to ask anybody anything. And if it's going to help me, I'm going to ask for help. Now, it sounds counterintuitive to be a tough leader. I will tell you, when you're in the middle of a panic attack and you're used to commanding 80 men. In a room and then you, you, you lose all your faculty in the middle of the panic attack, you're not in leadership of anybody at that time. Yeah. So you're gonna have to rein in your sympathetic nervous system fast. And then no amount of box breathing the Navy SEALs teacher is gonna help you at that point. You're gonna have to do some corrective measures and you're gonna need help doing it. You're gonna need the tools and the mental tools to do it.
