I’m gonna talk to someone.” And I’m like, okay? Maybe I should. “Maybe you should go talk to somebody, Chef. It was then when my older colleagues approached me and suggested, ‘Hey, there are professionals here who can help.’ The entire experience was deeply traumatic. Tragically, we lost some of our comrades at the DOD gym. I was a young soldier then, working with the Department of Defense police and some squad teams. When I initially sought help, it was because of a rather traumatic incident. When I say stigmatized, it was like ‘that’s a touchy subject, let’s not talk about that.’ It gets into your head. I’ll be honest with you, PTSD was something that wasn’t talked about. No one’s ever asked me that question before. With your own battle with PTSD, what was the thing that made you realize you needed to ask for help?

I asked Chef Rush to talk about his mental health journey during, along with his advocacy work for veterans in their own battles with PTSD.īelow, we discuss Chef Rush’s experience with PTSD, how he sought help, and how he leaned into cooking as therapy. It’s a totally new approach.” Chef Rush’s Personal Journey With PTSD We come hand in hand and say, “Hey, are you okay?” We do buddy checks, are you okay? That’s what this initiative is about. Because when you get it together, we support each other. I get emotional about this one because it is near and dear to my heart, not only as a veteran, but as a father, but as an American, as a soldier, and so many things,” Rush adds about working with Face The Fight as an advocate and spokesperson. Sometimes we wait for our buddies to say it, but they won’t say it and come look at each other.” Sometimes we personally take on that persona, and we start thinking that internally for ourselves, knowing that we are messed up or something is going on with us, but we can never say it out loud. We’re planets, we’re rocks, we cannot be breaking.

And we understand that people look at us like we are just unbreakable. He tells me that, as a big guy in the military, he felt like there was a stigma associated with showing vulnerability. I stigmatized myself because I was a big guy.” Rush continues. “But I was also one of those guys who was stigmatized.

I always emphasized that it was okay to have PTSD, but it wasn’t okay not to seek support,” Chef Andre Rush tells BroBible during an interview about the initiative. “I have PTSD, and I have been open about it for a long time. All in, the group has raised over $41 million in philanthropic grants for the cause, working closely with the VA and the Department of Defense (DoD) on veteran suicide resources and initiatives. The group was established by USAA and The USAA Foundation, with the Humana Foundation and Reach Resilience, an Endeavors Foundation as founding partners. Suicide rates for male veterans between 18-34 years old nearly doubled since 2006.įace The Fight is a new coalition with a goal to cut the veteran suicide rate in half by 2030.Suicide is the second leading cause of death among post 9/11 veterans.Over half of service members who die by suicide do not have a mental illness.The veteran suicide rate is currently 1.5 times the rate of the general population.Over 120,000 veterans have died by suicide since 2001.The veteran suicide rate is 57% higher than the national average.Just look at the troubling statistics listed on the website of Face The Fight, based on data from the U.S. The Alarming Statistics on Veteran Suicides in the United States Those 2,222 daily push-ups are how Chef Rush honors and remembers veterans who lost the fight with their mental health on the home front. Since going viral in 2018, Chef Rush has repeatedly stated that he does 2,222 push-ups a day – an important and symbolic number.Įvery day, 22 veterans tragically lose their battles with post-traumatic stress. Sometimes he goes by the nickname “the world’s strongest chef,” for good reason.

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