-My name is Kelly,
and I served in the United States Marine Corps.
I completed two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan.
I was an intelligence specialist.
And then, when I was stationed in Omaha, Nebraska,
I actually did nuclear targeting at the Air Force base.
When I first got to MOS school, I was in a class every day.
Came back from Christmas break,
and the Marine that sat next to me
wasn't there, and nobody could find him.
And it ended up being
that a Navy personnel on the base had murdered him.
I had been in the Marine Corps for 6 months.
It molded me to believe that it was always going to happen.
I was always going to lose people.
I had an anger issue from that point,
and that's how I dealt with my feelings.
Instead of mourning a death, I expressed it as anger.
Over the years, it was,
everything that I couldn't control in my life,
I reacted in anger, and I became very much OCD.
I had to control every aspect of my life.
I came home from Afghanistan, and I'll never forget it.
It was about 5:30 in the morning.
I had my daughter in the back seat,
and I was taking her to daycare so I could get to work.
We got in, and I pulled out of the garage,
and I told her to put her seat belt on,
and she couldn't get it buckled.
And I had gotten so angry that I put the car --
I slammed it in park, and I got out,
and I snapped her seat belt in.
And I wasn't until I got to the stop sign,
and I looked in the rear-view mirror,
and she had her head down, and she was crying,
and I looked at her, and I said, "What's wrong with you?"
And she said, "I'm sorry that I made you so angry.
I just couldn't see."
And it was at that point I knew my actions
and how I was dealing with things were affecting her.
And that's when I knew I really needed to do something
to not be so angry,
because I didn't want to hurt her.
I called the clinic and asked to see Mental Health.
And I went back, and I had spent 6 weeks with a counselor,
and throughout the time, every week that I saw him,
he said, "I think you should go to group therapy.
I think you should go to group therapy," every time.
I just gave in. "Fine.
I'll go once, but I'm not going to promise
that I'm going to sit through all of it.
And it was a women's group
for individuals who had gone through trauma,
for active-duty women.
And I had went, and I just kind of sat.
And so I went back a second week just to see,
give it a little bit more of a chance,
and it turned out to be the best decision that I had ever made.
Being around other people who want to better themselves
pushes you to want to be a better person
and work through your issues,
so they have been definitely my saving grace.
I've come out a happier person,
and it reflects in the way that my daughter is now,
because now she has a happier life
because her mom is happy.
And I have the tools that I've learned through therapy
to be able to help guide her
into being a better person, as well.
Whether you have a mental-health issue or not,
I like to think of counselors as a life coach,
someone to help guide you through life.
The first thing you try may not work for you.
The first individual that you go and say, "I need help,"
may not be the person that you feel truly connected with,
that can help you,
but once you find that person, you always feel so much better.
I think that it's very important for people to seek help,
even if they feel like they don't need it,
because you never know how great you can feel
once you've talked through all your trauma.