Hello! And welcome to another edition of Inside The Newsroom. A very special guest today as we welcome in Jason Kander, army veteran and former secretary of state of Missouri. Jason quickly became the darling of the Democrat Party after he lost to Roy Blunt in the race for U.S. Senate by just 2.8 points, in one of the closest senate races in the traditionally red state. After almost pulling the trigger on a presidential bid, Jason instead ran for mayorship of his hometown Kansas City, before pulling out to treat his chronic PTSD and depression. Since then, he’s joined the Veterans Community Project, an organization dedicated to making sure that no veteran falls through the cracks of the deeply broken system currently in the U.S. I had a very moving conversation with Jason about his past year and how he’s treated his health. Listen above and read below.

Presidential bids, mayoral races and PTSD

When Jason lost to Roy Blunt back in 2016, the attention on him soared. Overnight, he went from a relatively unknown army veteran and statewide politician in Missouri, to a rising star within the Democrat Party, with rumours swirling of a potential presidential bid. And he came close. Jason had a hit podcast with the folks at Crooked Media, did daily and nightly hits on cable TV, and had a growing supporter base urging him to throw his hat in the ring. But as he travelled the country, symptoms of PTSD — Jason tried to shrug them off as tiredness and just part of serving in Afghanistan — began to affect him so much that suicidal thoughts started to creep in.

He decided to return home to Kansas City and run for mayor, in part because he thought being closer to friends and family would make his chronic depression drift away. It didn’t. Three months after announcing his mayoral run and well ahead in the polls, Jason announced in a heartfelt post that he was dropping out to get himself right. It was the first time he’d gone public about his problems.

David Philips, the New York Times

The Facebook Post

In October 2018, Jason finally admitted to himself he needed help. After 11 years of telling himself he didn’t have PTSD, the symptoms grew too great. Jason was never seriously injured during his deployment, nor did he have to take another person’s life. How could he possible have PTSD when his friends had gone through much worse? But that’s a common way of thinking when it comes to depression: The person next to me has it worse so just get on with it. But a simple analogy helped change Jason’s mind. Take the hypothetical scenario that you broke one of your toes and your friend broke their leg. Your friend’s injury is worse, but both injuries inhibit the ability to walk, and a broken toe still needs to be fixed. The same principle applies to mental health and it’s important to treat it in the same way as your physical health.

Jason Kander

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