In this promotional monologue, Dr. John A. King explains the origins and intent behind his self‑help book Deal With It. He recounts how, after appearing in the Stopping Trafficking documentary, audiences repeatedly asked about his personal recovery and why he seemed “not crazy” despite his trauma. Their curiosity and surprise sparked his desire to provide a “second half” to the story—a practical, experience‑based guide rather than an academic text. King describes the book as “duct tape for your soul,” a multipurpose, utility‑focused tool that can help readers repair and move forward. While rooted in his own PTSD journey, he emphasizes that the book is for anyone who feels they have lost everything and wants to rise again, offering a simple message: breathe, release the bad, and try again.
Chapters
I wrote Deal With It because people were coming out of seeing the Stopping Trafficking film and seeing my story, and they wanted to know what happened to him, or what happened next, or did he ever recover. Or they met me and they couldn't believe I wasn't like You know, batshit crazy. And they'd hear the story and they'd go, why aren't you crazy? It's like when I'd start to talk to them about some of the things. So that was one reason, was to give a second half to that. And I think I came out of it, and when you have— it's a little bit like Mona telling me I was resilient. When you have people telling you how they're so surprised that you seem like you've got it together, you start to wonder, maybe I've got something here. Maybe I've learned some things. So I just— we came back from that Hollywood experience with this sense of people needed some real practical help and they needed it from someone who'd been through it, not academic. So when I started to write Deal With It, it was literally like I thought, I want to write a book that's like duct tape for your soul. You know how duct tape solves all problems? You can start cars with it. run movie projects with it. If you've got duct tape and a penknife, you can solve everything in life, just about. And I thought, I want that sort of utility, multipurpose tool to be able to do whatever it is that, that could do. So this one book could be a starting place for people, you know, so they could get it and read it. And that's, that's really why I wrote Deal With It. Deal With It isn't just about having PTSD. Deal With It is for anyone who's lost it all, and wants to get up and go again. It's not a book solely on trauma. It uses trauma and my personal experience as a platform to herald a message that if you have the courage to just breathe good air in and expel bad air out and get up and have one more go at it, then, then you will make it.
