I joined the Ohio Army National Guard at 17. My first day of advanced training was September 11, 2001.

Two years later I was in Afghanistan as a light-wheel vehicle mechanic, serving with the 82nd Airborne and 10th Mountain Division on multiple missions. I came home in one piece, or so I thought.

It didn’t take long to realize something was off. I’ve spent the last 20 years trying to get my footing back: figuring out what was happening in my head and my body, trying what worked and dropping what didn’t, and slowly building a life that feels steady again.

Most of what helped, I had to find on my own. Nobody handed me a manual. So I wrote one.

The PTSDIY Field Manual is everything I wish I’d been given on day one: practical, plain-language tools for living with post-traumatic stress, free for anyone who needs them.

This past September I ran 100 miles at East Fork. Somewhere past mile 60, I realized the race was teaching me the same lesson PTSD had: you don’t get through it all at once. You get through it one mile marker at a time.

That’s what PTSDIY is about.

— Joe Maiocco, Founder, PTSDIY Network