Copyright Boulder Daily Camera
For anyone dealing with a challenging moment in their life, United States Army veteran Shaun Forbis has some advice: Don’t go through it alone. “If somebody asks you how you’re feeling, tell them,” said Forbis, who lives in Longmont. “It’s OK to not be doing all right.” On Tuesday, Forbis joined fellow Colorado residents Richard Shock and John Evans in a candid discussion about overcoming drug and alcohol addictions. The three men, who are all veterans, talked about their journeys to sobriety and how their military backgrounds shaped their recovery efforts. The conversation was recorded in front of a live audience at the Longmont Moose Lodge and moderated by Longmont native Vic Vela. Vela’s podcast and YouTube show “Back from Broken” explores how people have battled addiction and mental health issues. For Veterans Day this year, Vela wanted to shine a light on Colorado veterans with those experiences. Forbis was in the Army for 12 years, spending most of his service in Iraq. After leaving the military, he struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder and drug use. In Longmont, Forbis took advantage of the local resources available to former military members, including getting housing assistance from the Veterans Community Project of Longmont. Now sober for 18 months, Forbis enjoys sharing art projects on his YouTube channel. For Shock, who lives in Aurora, the back injuries he received during his time in the U.S. Navy led to an addiction to painkillers. When he couldn’t access his pills, he would turn to alcohol. Shock found a way forward through journaling about gratitude and positivity. He is also a member of The Phoenix, a sober community for people living active lifestyles. “Recovery is freedom,” Shock said. “We’re never trapped.” Evans, a Denver resident, entered the Army as an alcoholic. Coming home after his service as a combat medic in Iraq, he had a hard time adjusting to civilian life and dealt with intense feelings of isolation. “As a medic, I saw mostly the product of war, which is the human toll,” Evans said. “The thoughts of suicide were just daily, and then I was just trying to drink that away.” Evans has been sober since 2007. His desire to help people brought him to a job as a peer support specialist for Veterans Affairs. Evans also writes and performs music about his healing journey. “The best moments of my life have come after the darkest periods of my life,” Evans said. Vela thanked the three panelists for opening up about their hardships. For Vela, hearing people talk about their times made him feel less alone when he was experiencing his own challenges with addiction. “The thing that really kept me going was listening to people who had been in my shoes tell their stories,” Vela said.
