Scott DeLuzio: [00:00:00] Thanks for tuning in to the Drive On Podcast where we are focused on giving hope and strength to the entire military community. Whether you’re a veteran, active duty, guard, reserve, or a family member, this podcast will share inspirational stories and resources that are useful to you. I’m your host, Scott DeLuzio, and now let’s get on with the show.

Scott DeLuzio: Hey everybody. Welcome back to the Drive On Podcast Today my guest is Stephanie Dasher, and Stephanie is a Navy veteran and the executive director of the Warrior Surf Foundation, which we’re going to be talking about more in this episode. But first, I wanna welcome Stephanie to the show. So welcome Stephanie.

Scott DeLuzio: I’m glad to have you here.

Stephanie Dasher: Yeah, thank you so much

Scott DeLuzio: for having me. Yeah, absolutely. So why don’t you tell us a little bit more about yourself and your background.

Stephanie Dasher: Okay, that makes sense. I think maybe the easiest way to, to kind of give you my background is to share how I ended up sitting in this chair.

Stephanie Dasher: [00:01:00] I’m a veteran. My dad was a veteran and my spouse is a combat veteran. And so, I joke that I’m a study of one. I feel like I kind of live the veteran experience from all the angles possible. When I was young, probably got married when I was 20 at my husband when I was still in the Navy he deployed overseas to Iraq.

Stephanie Dasher: He was there for 15 months because he’d been stopped lost. And going into that experience, I thought, thinking back on my childhood, I really believed like, oh, I have the skills to deal with this. Like this is no big deal. You know, my dad’s got ptsd, he’s got some anxiety and depression, and I thought really, I was fully prepared for what I would experience when he came.

Stephanie Dasher: Overseas. And the [00:02:00] stark reality was, in fact, I was not, I had no clue what I was walking into. And what I don’t think he and either one of us really knew what we were walking into. And so he came back from, or overseas, I was still in the Navy at the time and we had a daughter. And you know, that was a very life changing experience for both of.

Stephanie Dasher: When he first got back, the the initial after effects of being overseas were all the things you see in the movies. You know, he would hit the deck every time there was a loud noise or he would take off running. He got upset that fight or flight would kick in, you know, balloons popping. All the things that you see in TV shows and movie.

Stephanie Dasher: That’s just such a small part of that though, because after that kind of settled down, and I think that for a lot of people that tends to settle, came all of the other pieces [00:03:00] that the darker parts of the experience of ptsd, anxiety and depression the questioning of. His purpose, his value, wondering if he had made mistakes when he was over there, if he had done wrong things, you know, struggling with faith and spirituality and.

Stephanie Dasher: That kind of, it really ramped up and you know, that’s, it’s, it is really insidious and it sneaks in places that you’re not expecting it. And sometimes you have really good days and you think, oh, things are better. And then you kind of fall down into this pit again. And it’s just a bit of a spiral.

Stephanie Dasher: And. While all of that was happ...