“I didn’t have issues. There were just stupid people around me doing stupid things,” Eddie Black told about 50 people at Southwestern Oregon Community College on Tuesday night.

That’s how Black felt when he returned home from serving in Baghdad, Iraq, in 2005. Other soldiers from his company were getting divorced and drinking heavily. They couldn’t control their anger. But Black was “peachy keen.”

In reality, the U.S. Army Infantry and Marine Corps veteran was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. Like many veterans, however, his own perceptions of mental health and cultural stigmatisms prevented him from seeking help.

“I remember thinking to myself, ‘Is this what it’s like to be pregnant and have all those hormones?’” Black said in his engaging, emotional and often times funny presentation on “PTSD from a veteran.”

While the Portland State University psychology major and infantry instructor for the Army National Guard admits he still is prone to frequent bouts of road rage, he has learned to cope with his anxieties. After two years of therapy, not only has Black come to terms with his PTSD, he travels everywhere he can to reach out to other veterans and their families.

Between 2000 and 2006, 1,066 male Oregon veterans committed suicide. That averages about 3.7 deaths a week. Yet, PTSD only recently has been brought to the forefront of society’s consciousness.

Harry Stephens, a Vietnam veteran who sat in the audience, a row in front of another soldier Black knew from the war, went up to shake his hand afterwards.

“He said it like it is,” Stephens said. “People need to hear this stuff. It’s a bad situation.”

Black said despite attempts by the VA and others to inform the public about the signs and symptoms of the anxiety disorder, veterans don’t always relate to their approach.

“To us, it is a sign of weakness,” Black said. “They try to tell you, ‘Once you read this, you’ll be fixed,’” without recognizing our warrior mentality. There is a big disconnect.”

In simple language, Black discussed the warfare training soldiers go through, the unnatural act of killing and what it’s like returning to society.

“To survive in war you have to put yourself in a dark place,” Black said. “It’s an antisocial act. To heal, though, you have to rely on community. You have to share.”