¶ Overcoming PTSD With Positive Affirmations
The American Psychiatric Association defines post-traumatic stress disorder , also known as PTSD , as a psychiatric disorder that may occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event , series of events or set of circumstances .
An individual may experience this as emotionally or physically harmful or life-threatening , and may affect mental , physical , social and or spiritual well-being . My guest today is someone who faces PTSD head-on and is making a difference for others by what he posts daily on social media . You can find him on Instagram at Vincentadventurescom .
I'm talking with veteran Vincent Prue . As you look at Vincent's posts on social media , he is usually outdoors on a hike or a bike ride , and constantly with his dog . It's time to look ourselves in the mirror and be positive with Vincent . Welcome to Journey with Jake .
This is a podcast about adventure and how , through our adventures , we can overcome the challenges of life that come our way . While I expect you will learn some things about different adventures , this show will entertain you . Each episode will feature a different gas or gas , as they share experiences and stories from the different adventures they have been on .
Not only will you be entertained , but you will also hear the failures and trials each guest faces and what they have done or are doing to overcome the hardships that come their way . My goal is to take each of us on a journey through the experiences of my guests , with the hope that you'll be entertained and inspired to overcome your day-to-day challenges .
After all , it's not a lot about the destination as it is about journey . Welcome back to another episode of Journey with Jake . My name is Jake Bushman and I am your host for another inspirational episode today . Before we dive into my conversation with Vincent , I do want to mention that we touch on suicide ideation .
I want you all to remember three easy numbers 9 , 8 , 8 . That is the suicide prevention hotline . If you ever feel alone and have some suicidal thoughts , please don't hesitate to punch in those three numbers . There is help out there for all of us and you do matter . I'm grateful to have Vincent Pru on the show today .
I came across Vincent on social media and was just really impressed with his messages and affirmations . He also has the name Adventures in his social media handle , so I thought he would be great to talk to . I came away from this absolutely inspired . Let's get to my conversation with Vincent .
Well , I am excited today because I have someone I've been following for a little bit who inspires me every day with his affirmations that he does on social media Vincent Pru . Welcome to Journey with Jake .
Thanks , Jake . You're my first one , so it's great to be here tonight .
This is going to be fun , so I'm excited to chat with you . Like I always do on the show , I want to know a little bit about who you are . Just give us a little background on who Vincent is , if you don't mind .
All right , I'm Vincent , 49 years old , originally from Quebec City , so the French part of Canada . I grew up there until I was 18 years old . I joined the military , joined in the Canadian Navy . I did 13 years in Navy .
Then I transferred to the Army where I did another eight years in the Army , finished off with the Canadian Special Operations Forces Command for my last six years and then decided to retire because they were going to promote me and give me a desk job . So I said no , thank you , not for me . So I moved over here to Calgary , on the west side of Canada .
I became a police officer . As you can imagine , there's a lot of ups and downs throughout those . Well , I've been a police officer now for 10 years . So in those 31 years there's a lot of ups and downs and of course , my dog now wants attention right .
Right , that's the way it works .
Yeah , and battle some demons . I don't know if you want me to go into depth in that .
Yeah , without a doubt .
Yeah . So battle some demons , was diagnosed with PTSD , also battle with some suicidal ideations , and then decided to seek some help just before I was over or about to step over the edge .
Decided to immerse myself with positivity and that's where the positive affirmations came from and reconnecting with nature and reconnecting with who I really am , because I've lost that along the way .
He's got a mug there that says ignore negativity , and that's really what your social media is all about . It's about being positive and positive affirmations , and I like that because it kind of it helps me , it's a motivation to me . Let's go back a little bit , then . Do you come from like as a kid ? We'll go kind of your kid .
Do you come from big family , small family , siblings what's kind of the situation there ?
So I'm an only child , so no siblings . I came from a big family , both on my mother's side and my father's side , lots of uncles and cousins . And yeah , my father's side it was 12 kids and then my mother's side , 10 . So a lot of , yeah , big families .
Wow , so lots of uncles , aunts , that sort of thing , cousins . Wow , okay , so right , it sounds like right after school . Then you immediately went into the military .
Yeah , pretty much . So I did one year of college and kind of the . I had a little bit of a rebellious phase , kind of turned against my father because he wanted me to follow a certain path and I said , no , I want to do my own thing . So left college , walked into the recruiting center and a month later I was on a bus going for basic training .
Wow , navy army special forces all together , how many years in the military ?
21 . 21 years .
Wow , Incredible . And you said you were diagnosed . You had some demons . You were diagnosed with PTSD . When did you kind of first notice you were having some issues ? Was it after you were done with the military ? Was it during , Kind of how did that work ? I'm not really familiar with that , if you don't mind .
No , yeah . So it was long after I left the military . My decline probably started maybe four , three , four years ago , maybe three and a half years ago , and that's when I saw that I was going down a very dark place and there was nothing to be done to actually make that variable . So at that point I started making a plan to end my life .
And because in the military , all the mission planning it's always about Michigan success , so it's a no fail safe sort of planning that you're doing . That's exactly what my plan was going to be .
It was if I was going to go with it , I wasn't going to fail and it was actually going to look like an accident as well , just to make sure that my family was covered in terms of life insurance and everything else , right . So , yeah , it's during .
Like it took about six months for me excuse me , for me to plan everything and to be at the point where , yeah , this is the day . And during those six months and I mean even prior to that the image I projected , my persona never changed , my behavior never changed , always looked to be the happy go lucky guy , always positive . That's that's what I am today .
So you know , it's not like you have to worry about me , but there would have been a little bit of nuances here and there . But yeah , I was very mission focused until the day of and that's that was a pretty . It shook me to the core and that's what actually stopped me from going through with it .
My plan was to go hiking and I always I always brought my dog whenever I went for a hike .
But that one specific height that I had planned , my dog couldn't come because there's a section of it where you're leading , you're walking on on the ledge , you all you have is a chain to hold on to , so you have to shimmy yourself , maybe like a couple inches right , and so you put your feet and you just shimmy for a good like 30 feet along the ledge .
So my dog couldn't come with me because he couldn't have maneuver that section . Once at the top , I was going to make sure there's witnesses and I was just going to pretend like I tripped and fell down the mountain basically , and I mean it's a 3000 feet drop , you know . So there's no surviving that or anything . That was , that was the plan .
But the day of , I'm getting ready to go on a hike , I'm getting all my gear ready by the door and I keep going back and forth and then my dog is keeps always getting to my way , right , just trying to trip me or something , and then it's like he knows something is up , like you're leaving and I don't think you're coming back , like he could sense it .
So , yeah , I kept bringing my stuff to the door , but then , if him getting in my way wasn't enough , while he started taking my stuff from the door and move them elsewhere in the house , so he would take like one of my boot and move it somewhere else in the house , right , things like that Until it was time for me to go .
And then all of a sudden I mean while he's passed now , but he was a pretty big dog when he stood up on his hind legs , like his head was the same height as me .
So he stood up and put both of his paws on my shoulders , just like he wanted to give me the biggest hug ever , and initially I kind of pushed him off , but then he kept jumping up and jumping up and I just that's what I , yeah , that's what I realized that he was really trying to stop me , and then I just fell to the floor and broke down .
And then I called a friend of mine . We came up with a safety plan and he got me in touch with some professional help and I mean I'm grateful for him and I'm grateful for my dog , obviously , because he was my roadblock for not continuing with my plan .
Wow , because I think the moment you left the house , you're on their mission . You're going to fulfill your mission .
Yep .
That dog saved you . That dog saved you . That's . I mean , I was getting kind of emotional just listening to that story and picturing that dog with its paws on you and keeping you there . Once you realize and it's set in that , oh what am I doing ? And it kind of hit you and you broke down . What was that like ? I mean , was that , were you upset ?
Were you relieved ? Like what kind of feeling is that ?
There was so many emotions that were going on at that time Because I stopped feeling everything , you know like for so long I just pushed it down . Pushed it down . I was I would try to pretend some emotions . You know like I was faking a lot of emotions , but at that time when I broke down , like everything just came out all at once you know what I mean .
Yeah , I was just overwhelmed by everything .
And then I don't know like it felt like everything came like not just my dog , but all the good people in my life were there in spirits , like hugging me and just you know , comforting me and letting me know that , hey , you're going to be OK , we're going to take care of you , even though it was just me and my dog at that in that moment .
But you felt others , you felt like others were there .
Yeah .
Wow , that's incredible .
And I mean I was going to say the funny thing . It's not funny .
¶ Mental Health Journey and Affirmations
I've lost a lot of good friends to suicide prior to me making this plan and I was always a strong advocate to seek and help . You know , like , before you get too deep , go and seek help . Tell somebody you know like you're not alone in this and it's totally OK not to be OK . Yeah , I've always been a very strong advocate for mental health .
But I don't know , I just at some point I lost myself , especially in the policing world where you have to forget about your own values a lot of times , like dealing with the organization and also the atrocities that you see what some humans are capable of and you can't just ignore that .
But in order to operate and keep doing the job day in , day out , you need to be able to compartmentalize . Sorry , that's OK . What's the plan ? Enough , go , go . So yeah , you need to be able to compartmentalize and hopefully deal with it .
But I kept distracting myself either taking more shifts , taking overtime , going from one call to the next and not really dealing with what I was experiencing during those calls if that makes sense Like I kept just shoving it down , shoving it down and then eventually Just kind of going through the motions , doing everything but not really acknowledging what was happening
.
What was your family situation like at the time ? Were you married ? Do you have any kids ? Kind of what was the situation there ?
We'll back up a little bit . Yeah , when I was in the military . So I met my wife in 2002 and then we had a daughter in 2005 . We were the power couple , Like everything was going great , never , ever fought , like we would have disagreements , but it was never full blown fights , it was like the perfect relationship .
You know , for a lot of people looking in , that started declining or getting worse once I left the military and I became a police officer . Like I said , I totally lost my identity and then that's where I didn't notice it , but that's where the symptoms of PTSD started surfacing .
You know , like the burst of anger and then isolation , like I didn't want to do anything with my friends or even my family and I kept distancing myself from anything that gave me joy . Really , yeah , and then eventually we just I get it fell apart . We just parked ways .
Yeah , I'm sure that didn't help . I mean , that probably didn't add to anything .
No .
For sure .
No .
So when you went and got professional help then and it's awesome that you did that I'm glad your friend came over and I'm glad you came up with an emergency plan and you got some help what are some of the takeaways you have from that ? What have you kind of been doing since then , because I'm sure it's got to be an ongoing battle , I would think .
Oh yeah , I'm still in treatment today . That's been going for gosh like ongoing since 2020 . Yeah well , it's going to be four years in the summer . I think that's going to be an ongoing thing for the foreseeable future . I mean , I find a lot of it's very therapeutic , but it adds to my mindset .
It's a great coping mechanism for anything that happens in your life . It's not because you have mental health problems that you can't see a therapist . People see therapists for all sorts of reasons . It could just be I need someone to vent to because I don't feel like unloading on my partner Absolutely .
Or it could just be hey , I'm a competitive athlete and there's a lot of pressure on me and I need someone to talk to . That is totally removed from my life .
So I know on your Instagram page it says that , or even I think maybe you made this comment to me that part of the things that you do to deal with this is you like to get outside and then hike and bike and things like that . And then you also started this Instagram where you're doing affirmations .
When was the first time you do you remember the first time you did that and thought , hey , maybe I'll put this out on social media and give some give an affirmation ? I haven't gone way back into your Instagram so I haven't seen like the very first one , but can you kind of give a little backstory on how that all came about ?
Yeah , yeah . So you mentioned hiking and mountain biking . So initially , the mountain biking .
I got really involved into mountain biking because I did notice a huge improvement in my mental health once I started getting involved with my local mountain biking community and this group that is called Shred Collective , and they foster connection and friendships and how mountain biking also helps with your mental health . It's such a good outlet .
And then , yeah , so the affirmations it was a recommendation from my therapist at the time said , hey , why don't you ? You know ? And she gave me an app , she suggested an app , downloaded it and next thing , you know , I was doing daily affirmations for myself , not putting them on social media or anything , just practicing them daily .
And then the friend that helped me at my lowest , he was like dude , what's happening here ? Like there's a huge shift in your behavior and you seem so happy , and I mean more than Normal . And then I saw , I told him I said , yeah , I've been doing these Affirmations and I'm just , you know , practicing them Daily , just reminding myself everything's okay .
And he goes oh , wow , that's awesome . And said you know what you should share , that you should , you know , share that . So he goes Put down your Instagram . So that's how this started .
So the very first one and I mean , if you go back to my Instagram when I first started like it's totally different than what I do today it's there was a lot of rambling , but my very first one and I put on social media was May 13th of last year 2023 .
That was my very first one so just a year and a half , for a little over a year and a half .
¶ Impactful Affirmations
No , no , not even a year .
Oh , I mean 2023 . You said , yeah , not even a year . Okay , yeah , 2023 , not even a year . And you pretty much post . I think you post almost every day , if I'm not . I think you put out a cool story today that you're gonna be on my podcast and I see , couldn't do in today .
So like , oh , I feel I feel pretty special about that , but otherwise , yeah , you're putting them out every day , kind of walk us through it . It is cuz I mean I can kind of explain it from my end , but I love how you kind of you do a little greeting and you know kind of explain what it what you do on these , these posts most of them .
I have them planned already . I know you know , tomorrow this is what I'm gonna talk about . Unless Something happens during my day or an interaction with someone online , or you know a friend of mine where there's something that clicks , hey , this would be a very good Store to tell , along with the affirmation that relates to it .
So initially , that's how I started Making these affirmations Relatable to my story and I would share a little bit of my story with the affirmation and how that relates to me .
At the beginning it was a lot of rambling and you know Instagram doesn't like anything more than 90 seconds , so I wasn't getting a lot of exposure , so I started cutting that down a little bit , yeah , and make it a little more relatable to everyone . Like my intro is always a friend . Thanks for dropping by .
Now people are telling me you should start getting Merchandise made up with a friend , you know , yeah , my ending and I'm getting , I'm getting flack for that , because my Not my last affirmation , but this my second last affirmation I ended it differently .
I always end with state positive , stay inspired and , as always , make it a great day and We'll talk to you later . And then my bye , right , I don't know for some reason people love that feel of how I say bye and yeah .
And then the last , or my second last one I ended with because I was sick , I was having a hot toddy and and instead of saying bye I just said cheers , you know , to the camera and yeah some reaction out of that .
Where's the bye ?
Yeah , yeah where's the bye ? Exactly , they wanted me to redo Clip or the whole real I .
Think I love that because I'm you do , start you always . I love how you say hey , friend , you know . But when you say that and here it is interesting , this is the first time you and I have seen each other face to face I feel like I'm a friend of yours , like when you say that even though you've never even met me .
You know , I think a lot of people feel that way . I don't know if you realize that , but I people probably reached out and told you that .
But that's what , that's the effect you're having initially I didn't see it until Someone actually Mentioned that like reached out to me , you know , send me a DM and said you know what , like you , really , your message that you're putting out is really calling , calling me , and I feel , every time you talk , I feel like it's very personal to me and you , you seem
to be getting into my head and whatever you say is Exactly what I'm feeling at the time . It has you Opened up so many new connections .
People from all over the world are reaching out to me and sharing their stories , some incredible shifts that happen , since they've been following me and all people that have been in a very dark place where I was , and now they can finally see the light and come out of their dark hole . So it's . I didn't .
Initially I didn't believe I could have such an impact , because when I first started doing this , so on May 13th , only had like 800 followers Six months after yeah , it took six months I made a gratitude post or gratitude affirmation after my six months and , hey , thank you for still being here with me , and at that time only had I had doubled , so I had 1600
followers at that time , so I made that gratitude post the next day , I know actually that day , so I made the post the day before , not normally . That's what I'll do is like , so I'll record today for the post that is going to be posted tomorrow .
Right so , on November 12th , yeah , I recorded the gratitude post , posted that on November 13th , six months after my first affirmation , and that on November 13th is when I went to do this hike in the middle of a snowstorm .
It's pinned on my profile but it's like , as of today , I think I got 1.8 million views on that , on that post , and then it just blew up from there . I also I do a lot of manifestations . So you know , the things that I want to die see for me and the things I see in my life , where I want my life to be going .
I believe in manifestations and that's every day I'm getting new proofs that , hey , it's working for you . You know , things are just lining up exactly the way you're seeing them , the way you're feeling your , your life to become . You know , I don't think it's coincidence that the day of my gratitude post , six months into doing this , I go on this hike .
I record the clip to be posted the next day and all of a sudden that thing just goes viral just like crazy . November 13th 1600 followers . And now what if we're January 18th ? I got over . I think I might have 42,000 today . Wow , it's incredible . Yeah , it's just nuts . Yeah , on December 1st , december 1st , I had 10,000 .
I just couldn't , couldn't believe it . How ? And I ?
made another gratitude post .
I cannot believe that 10,000 people actually want to hear what I have to say and , you know , join in and engaging with me on a daily basis . It's pretty remarkable and so grateful Because of that
¶ Finding Happiness and Sharing Adventures
.
The people that I seem to be helping on a daily basis , and what I'm hoping is I'm trying to bring a little bit of positivity and kindness in my circle of influence and hopefully and I made an affirmation about that about the ripple effect you may drop one little pebble into a pond and then it just goes out and out and yet you never know who it's going to
touch and how far it's going to end up , right ?
Yeah , it's incredible . I love what you're doing . You talked about manifesting . What are you kind of manifesting for you moving forward ? What do you kind of think ? Where do you want things to go ? What's your thought ?
I just want to be happy and be able to bring that to everyone around me . I never realized that I was so unhappy for so long . Now I've found happiness , but I want to share that with everyone else and I want I have pretty big plans in terms of where I want my life to go and I don't want to be stuck in one place .
I want to be able to travel and share my experience with whoever I come across with . So I'm looking at doing van life . I already have a van on order and it should be ready , hopefully in May . It should be ready . My partner , valerie , and I should be on the road by , hopefully by the end of June , july .
Yes , everything lines up just the way it should .
And I've talked to a few van life folks on the podcast and , wow , what adventures . I mean this is an adventure podcast and you're hiking , you're doing affirmations , you're posting on social media , you're going to deliver the van life For you . When you think of the word adventure , what does adventure mean to you ?
It's everything outside the norm . I want to say , you know , like the , what society sees as being successful today is you go , you do you nine to five . You come home to your family , your nice house , and I mean that's totally OK for a lot of people .
At the end of my road , you know , when the Reaper comes and gets me , I want to be able to look back and say you know , that's exactly like no regrets You've accomplished . And right now , this is my adventure is to go and see the world . And for some , for someone else , it could be I want to be CEO of this company and that's their adventure . Right ?
So someone's adventure it's very personal . It changes from person to person . But , yeah , my adventures do meet as many people as I can . Travel everywhere .
I want to travel and immerse myself in different cultures , even though in the military I was fortunate to travel a lot , especially in the Navy , and on a professional level I've been to 32 different countries , so I want to see more .
Cup's not quite fully yet for you More to see , more to do as a veteran that you are . What do you say to some of those other veterans who are maybe out there struggling and having issues ? What do you tell them ?
That there's no shame . There's no shame , you're not alone . I mean it's getting better nowadays than it was 20 years ago . Depending on the unit that you're with , it seems the message is getting out much better . Is veteran used to ? Yeah , you're not alone . We've all gone through those struggles and again , there's no shame . There's no shame .
Just like you wouldn't be ashamed of having a broken arm , you walk around , your arm is in the cast . You got a pretty cool story out of it , more than likely , and whatever A week later cast comes off .
So mental health injuries like PTSD I don't like that term I like to say it's a post-traumatic stress injury and not a disorder , and I mean it's not because you can't see it . It's the same as a broken arm , broken leg . If you get your in Afghanistan , you get blown up by an IED and you're missing a leg . A fear is the same same sort of injuries .
Right , and that can be . It can be healed .
There's hope . I like that .
There's scars that are left behind , but still , yeah , there's a healing process and the first thing that you need to do is actually speak about it , and that's always the hardest part is to actually open up and say , hey , realize that you need some help .
Taking those steps to actually tell someone that you need help , saying saying I need help , is probably the biggest struggle .
Yeah , it's funny that we're kind of wired that way to not want to , you know , ask for that help , even though we know we need it . And I obviously I'm not a vet I can't relate , so I don't , I don't know what goes , goes on , and I think that's great that you can .
You can relate and you were there , you were at that bottom , you were thankful for your dog . You know that pulled you out of that . Speaking of dogs , you have a dog kind of in the room there with you and I know that's a big . That's a part of your healing too and a part of your adventures is is with your dog .
What's it like having that that friend in your , in your dog ?
I can't see myself without a dog , especially ever since the dog . So Chase , is the dog that saved my life .
Oh , there you go , you got the paw print .
Yeah , that's his paw print right there and he passed away . And he passed away . My birthday is August 5th . August 5th , on August 6th , 2022 , day after my birthday and that was probably .
I was well into recovery at that point and it was , it was noticeable that was doing well and it's like and he was not even five years old , not even five years old and all of a sudden , I'm in the living room just watching TV and he starts walking towards me and he's like wobbling a little bit , not like he's not stable , and then you just fell on the
floor and started seizing and he seized . He had a seizure that lasted 45 minutes and , yeah , by the end of his heart just couldn't keep going and so you just passed away , right there in my arms , wow .
And then the day after my birthday , yeah , that was like obviously I was so , so upset , filled with sorrow , and it took about like it came to me maybe a week later , where I was like , oh my God , that was your mission . That was your mission was to keep me alive .
And now that I'm back on my feet and I'm doing good , mission accomplished and my time here is done .
Bravo , Bravo . That's awesome Wow .
Yeah . And then , yeah , this little one , obviously always being with a dog , and my dog has always accompanied me in all of my adventures mountain biking , hiking , everywhere I went like if I go paddle boarding , my dog is with me . When he passed away , that left a huge void in my life . Like that , like my lifestyle was always .
The dog was part of the lifestyle , right ? So that left a huge void . So I started fostering dogs for the human sighting here . And then this , this one arrow . She was a foster . I got her . I was her fifth home , so she was a puppy . So when I got her she was eight months and already I was her fifth home . She had been moved around from foster homes .
She was adopted twice , returned back to the shelter and then two other foster homes and she just didn't have the proper outlet . I think I want to say like she didn't . She's very high energy , she's a border collie , blue healer cross , super smart , high energy , high drive . They need to be stimulated all the time .
Yeah , so I think she just wasn't in the right environment , she didn't have proper lifestyle that suits her needs . And then I ended up fostering and then I became a foster fail . I decided to adopt her because I wasn't going to put her through a sixth home again . Yeah , that's totally unfair . I mean she's , she's been amazing .
Vincent , this has been eye opening for me . I feel lucky . Like I said , I feel like you are a friend . When you say hey , friend , I feel like hey , that's me , and here I am talking to you . So I feel very fortunate that I had the chance to speak with you . Where can everybody who's looking for you ? Where could they find you ? What's your Instagram ?
Where can they look you up ?
So my Instagram is Vincentadventures underscore .
Vincentadventures underscore . Don't check them out . You're not going to be upset with that , because he's got great messages , fun personality and yeah , it's , it's a ton of fun , vincent , thank you so much for for joining me on journey with Jake .
Well , thank you no , thank you for having me . This has been amazing . It was great talking to you and , yeah you , you're definitely a friend .
Awesome , thank you .
And remember , stay positive , stay inspired . Nice always Make it a great day . We'll talk to you later . Bye .
I love that . Thank you so much to Vincent for coming on the show talking with me today . I really appreciate how vulnerable he was and telling his story , what he's gone through . Just remember , if you need help , there's help out there . Again , remember the numbers 988 . That's the suicide prevention hotline . Special thanks to Vincent .
I'm glad that Vincent is a friend and I can count on him as a friend . I appreciate that . Thanks to each and every one of you for tuning in and listening to Journey with Jake Each and every week . It means the world to me . I want to invite you to check me out on Instagram at Journey with Jake podcast .
It's a great way to get to know my guests a little bit better . I post daily some snippets from some of my previous guests and my current guests . You kind of see who they are , what they look like , what they're up to . I also like to post a lot of stories about me personally and what's going on in my life . So check it out .
It's kind of a good way to get to know me a little bit better as well . Thanks again to each and every one of you . I really appreciate it . Just remember it's not always about the destination as it is about the journey . Take care everyone , thanks , bye .