OKEECHOBEE — "Who is helping you carry the bricks?" asks veteran Gregg Maynard. You can't build a solid foundation without a lot of brickwork. "Who is helping you carry yours?"

Maynard is known around Okeechobee and the surrounding area as the man to go to if a veteran is in need. Whether it is a physical need or a mental need, Maynard is always willing to help. If he doesn't have the answer, he will find someone who does.

Recently, Maynard has become more and more concerned about his fellow veterans and first responders who suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). He has posted multiple times about the subject on Facebook recently and many worry that he is talking about himself in these posts. "It's not about me," he said. "I want to bring awareness, so more people know how to recognize PTSD and how to help someone who has it."

Trying to explain PTSD to those who do not have it is difficult, he wrote. "When trauma is complex, multiply what is felt by the total number of events, which can exponentially increase the emotional trauma experienced. For many who battle PTSD, they can wind up living in the past, unable to move past the pain and struggle to heal from it. They feel trapped. It can be very difficult for people with PTSD to talk about their traumatic experiences. For some, it can even make them feel worse. PTSD episodes aren't always exact replays of the event. Sometimes they replay the emotions you felt during the event, such as fear, helplessness and sadness. The mind replays what the heart can't delete.  If they try to talk, just listen. This is an eternal battle fought by many every day."

Maynard goes on to say that PTSD can happen to anyone at any time. He explains when a person experiences trauma every day, they can compartmentalize it, but over time as life happens, raising a family, paying bills, navigating life, that gets more difficult. What makes it even more difficult is not being able to talk about it with anyone. If you do, you might be thought of as weak. People might decide they cannot depend on you. It is not safe to talk about your feelings and your problems.

"PTSD is your body's automatic reaction — a sort of self-protection mechanism. Every human has a self-protection mechanism. For example, if a ball is thrown at your head unexpectedly you are going to automatically do something without hesitation. You are either going to try and catch it or block it or you are going to duck. You are not going to have time to think about it.

"Now that you have that picture, let's pile more bricks on the wagon. Imagine being in that constant state of alert all the time. Put depression in that wagon and add anxiety along with it. Let's move that stuff around to make room for the self-hate, the many failed attempts at help, the hopelessness, the broken family, the self-blame and 1,000,000 other things that come with a PTSD brain. In our mind, it is our burden, our punishment our embarrassment.  After a while, it slowly eats away the person you once were.  Now imagine trying to pull this wagon daily for many years and trying to function somewhat normally day to day."

Maynard said he has found he is unable to completely shut down these reactions, but there are some parts he can handle better than others. “It's a survival mechanism that every person has, but in a person with PTSD, that mechanism is engaged full time.”

When you have PTSD, you are constantly on the verge of fight, flight or freeze. Being in that constant state tends to wear you down, he added.

Maynard has help from his service dog, Lucas. He said Lucas may look like your average happy-go-lucky dog, but he is trained to pick up on Maynard’s PTSD symptoms and alerts him when it is time to leave a situation. Lucas helps carry Maynard’s bricks. Who helps carry yours?