Firefighter battling PTSD: 'I didn't want to shut my eyes'

Scott Geiselhart is now traveling to fire departments across Minnesota speaking about suicide prevention and awareness education

FRAZEE, Minn. — A volunteer firefighter who tried to kill himself has made it his personal mission to save lives by talking about suicide, depression and PTSD.

Valley News Live reported that Scott Geiselhart said the challenges of the job started to get to him. He started struggling with drugs and anger toward his family.

"The nightmares would come back, and I would see my kids falling out of the sky on fire, and falling into the water and drowning while they are on fire, and I was paralyzed and I couldn't help them and that was the worst dream," Geiselhart said. "I had that many, many of nights, and it got to the point I just didn't want to shut my eyes anymore."

In July 2014, he thought the only way out to get some relief was to put a gun to his head and pull the trigger. But instead of going off, it just clicked.

That’s when he realized he had been struggling with PTSD and he didn’t even know it.

"Why couldn't people see that?" he said. "It can happen to anybody, PTSD, depression, suicide, it's all hand in hand and it's not being talked about enough."

He’s now traveling to fire departments across Minnesota speaking about the taboo topic. He also raises money with a group, called Never Give Up, for suicide prevention and awareness education.

"Now I just want to go back and try to prevent this from happening to anyone else," he said.