Former Teen Mom star Nathan Griffith is getting real about his struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which he says has left him “100% disabled” after serving in the United States Marine Corps. The 33-year-old father of two spoke exclusively to The Sun about combat in Afghanistan. “I guarantee you, most people who had to do what we did in Afghanistan wouldn’t survive.”ย
Griffin says it’s hard for civilians to even imagine what people serving in the military deal with under those conditions.ย
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“Who wants to be on the streets of Afghanistan picking up bodies? We were dealing with people who were blown up, and then you have to take these bodies in bags to their family members and say ‘Hey, I’m sorry, your husband, father, brother was a suicide bomber,’” he recalls.ย
He also blasted MTV for not doing more, hinting at feeling exploited from her time on the show, which often documented his toxic relationship with the mother of his 7-year-old son Kaiser, Jenelle Evans.ย
“If MTV really wanted to help people, they should focus the stories of the men and women overseas and what they go through once they come home,” he says.
Since being home, he’s dabbled in bodybuilding and tried out his shot as a model. But he says he was retriggered by the attention, specifically from the police, that came with being on the show.
“I was dating Jenelle and I was in the spotlight,” he explains.” I would get pulled over all the time, and I have Traumatic Brain Injury on top of PTSD. I would feel threatened, and any military man out there would feel this way, when someone has a gun, your life feels threatened. Especially when the cop puts his hand on the gun- it’s fight or flight.”ย
He also says that law enforcement in his former home of North Carolina makes things more difficult because they don’t respect everyday citizens.ย
“I don’t think a lot of cops do that. I don’t think they respect people as people. And they want people to respect them simply for their authority,” he says. ย
He recently experienced the death of a friend, who was also a fellow Marine. ย
Thankfully, Griffin’s relationship with his ex is also in a much better place, which helps his battle with PTSD. After years of battling, they came to an agreement out of court regarding custody in October of 2020.ย
“Jenelle is actually being a mother and she has been actively involving me in my son’s life,” adding that she’s been “extremely kind” recently and allows proper visitation and contact, regardless of him now living in Florida. Griffin has Kaiser for several weeks at the beginning of each summer, as well as every other weekend, and specific holidays.ย
