This is Mental Health Awareness Week, and St. Petersburg Fire Rescue firefighter and EMT Chris Gordon is sharing his personal story of asking for help to break the stigma of dealing with mental health issues.

He said he would also like to see other first responders feel more comfortable seeking support. Gordon has been with SPFR for 23 years — more than two decades of responding to calls, some of them very traumatic.

"I would have never talked about things," Gordon told Spectrum News, reflecting back to those calls earlier in his career.

The 50-year-old comes from a family of firefighters. A husband and father of two, Gordon said he wants to make sure his firefighter family knows it's OK to speak up when you're not OK.

"I had severe depression and severe alcoholism," he said. "I was neglecting my family, my friends."

Gordon said he finally reached out for help and has now found peace and the ability to be more present for the people who love him.

"Today is my third year, actually, of returning home from rehab," he said.

Gordon checks in with Dr. Brandy Benson, who specializes in first responder psychology. Her practice, Tampa Bay Psychology Associates in Clearwater, sees 200 first responders a week.

"They’re not used to feeling out of control," Benson said. "These are people that exercise a lot of control in their lives, these are people that are used to solving problems, they’re used to always being part of the solutions. So it’s a very foreign idea when they get in a circumstance — often personally related, not always professional, but also fair times a mix of both — where they can’t seem to remove symptoms."

Symptoms she said many first responders deal with include PTSD, death, marital issues and financial or health problems. Benson said it's important to reinforce to first responders that it's normal to have issues impact them.

"They’re actually allowed to be humans, and it’s OK to be human," she said. "Because humans ultimately learn how to continue surviving and how to pursue happiness."

Gordon said he finds happiness helping with the his department's Peer Support Program, making sure firefighters have the opportunity to talk about traumatic calls they respond to.

"I could see that they were hurting," he said, referring to what he saw in his fellow firefighters after they responded to a recent call. "I immediately started talking to them."

Gordon said he's helping to make sure mental health is part of his colleagues' good overall health.

"We can talk about these things and not just move on, but grow from them on a healthier level," he said.

Benson said education and awareness are also key.

"The more that we talk about first responder suicide, the more that we talk about first responder PTSD conditions, the more that we educate employers, municipalities and the general public of what our first responders face on a daily basis — whether it be on the workfront or the homefront — the more that people are inclined to see that this is something that I need to get addressed," she said.