Ukrainian singer Vitaliy Kozlovsky has spoken candidly about how he experienced post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) after serving at the front, and how trying to escape the pain led him to abuse alcohol. He confessed this on the air of the M1 TV channel.
“ When I came from Sumy region, I had terrible PTSD. I didn’t talk about it. Drinking alcohol doesn’t help, I tried. I drank alcohol, I walked around a swollen, terrible monster ,” the artist said.
He said he tried to numb the pain with alcohol, but it only made it worse. “Emotionally, it didn’t help me at all. Zero,” he added.
Eventually, Kozlovsky decided to change his approach — and found a way out in sports. He hired a nutritionist, a trainer, and started training twice a day:
“ I started training because only through sports did I begin to drown out the noise in my head, all the pain. And I realized: when I do sports, I don’t have any noise in my head, ” he said.
The most painful experience for the singer was the hours of shelling he endured in a dugout at the front. It was then, he says, that he said goodbye to life. But having returned alive, he began to look at the world differently.
“ I can’t be different now, I can only have fun now. I appreciate everything that I have today. And I don’t need to prove anything to anyone with abs or any other shit ,” said the singer.
Kozlovsky served in the 22nd Separate Mechanized Brigade. His personal story is not only an example of courage, but also an example of the internal struggle of a veteran trying to regain peace and a normal life after the front.
