Firefighter with PTSD Lives Changed After Attempted Suicide

Local firefighter says PTSD a big, unspoken issue
DL Online
By Paula Quam
Today at 5:45 a.m.

That’s when the mechanic and firefighter locked himself into his shop with his gun and in a single misfire moment, got a second chance at life.

Geiselhart believes divine intervention saved his life that day, and he was determined to find out why.

Nearly a year and a half ago, longtime Frazee Firefighter Scott Geiselhart locked himself in his auto body shop, pulled out a gun, put it to his head and pulled the trigger.

“But I heard the click….it didn’t go off,” he said, shaking his head in amazement. “I know that gun. It works fine. It fired every time before that and every time after.”

Geiselhart was left baffled and scared. For years, he had progressively gotten short-tempered, angry and verbally abusive.

“I was yelling at people, yelling at my family…” said Geiselhart, who feared he had a split personality, and it was his family who took the brunt of it, including his two sons.

“I mean, it was bad...not physically, but the yelling and the things I said...it was so, so bad.”

Geiselhart says he was having horrible nightmares every night.

“All the stuff I saw with car accidents and extractions, I’d put way back into my brain and never bring it out, but when I went to sleep the nightmares would come through and flash in front of me,” said Geiselhart. “And I’d just come unglued.”

“They’re not training firefighters about PTSD, and the’re not debriefing enough,” said Geiselhart. “We see a lot and go home after that, and we’re supposed to go to sleep next to our kids and family and put it away and not bring it up. We’ve got to unload, and not on our families. We’re supposed to be tough and absorb all this, but it doesn’t work; the macho stuff’s gotta go - it’s not cool to wreck your family.”
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If you are a Firefighter or Police Officer, this video may help you understand it better.  I did it for National Guardsmen but it ended up helping more than I thought it would. There is no real "cure" for PTSD but there is healing, reversing and tools to help you with what you cannot change.