but their loved ones who they said have fallen into queuing on conspiracies are very much alive and in order to protect their privacy we aren't sharing their last names wheeler is a 28 year old army veteran who said he now struggles to connect with his parents because of what he described as their fascination with conspiracy theories it's been a very slow death of the people that i once knew now i don't recognize them and in a way that's been more painful because i haven't been able to fully grieve at any point wheeler served as an
army medic for two years he was stationed at fort hood in 2014 when a gunman killed three of his fellow soldiers and injured 12 before turning the gun on himself it was frightening it was traumatizing in a way wheeler was discharged in 2015. he told us he didn't open up to his parents right away and only over time gave more details about what he said he'd experienced during the shooting but he said the parents he returned home to had become more paranoid as they started being influenced by conspiracy theories and they began to doubt his
account of what he'd endured that day when i told them i was there for that shooting and i told them what i had experienced it was whiplash to me because i was met with a distant icy neglect so the q anon conspiracies that he started following made him degrade into more of an angry more abusive more distant person who now doesn't even really believe i don't think anything that i've said about my military service how does it feel to have your parents not believe it happen a betrayal it feels like a betrayal wheeler connected us
with his parents who firmly denied their son's account of their belief in qanon wheeler's father said he doesn't have enough information to verify his son's experience at fort hood that day and was skeptical of what he saw as changing accounts by wheeler he said the two haven't talked much in the past year the six people who joined us came from alaska kentucky georgia maryland north dakota and canada they all had different stories with a similar theme the devastation of families caused by q anon it's been over a year since i've talked to my dad so
like elizabeth said her father was her main support when she was struggling with depression anxiety even thoughts of suicide like he was the person that stopped me from going through with it all in the end um and from about 16 to 20 20 was about the last one that i really was sitting there contemplating this and ultimately pulled myself back thinking about my dad getting the phone call that his daughter had passed away and that was also about the time that everything started to get really bad so bad that elizabeth said a year ago she
had to cut off communications with her father she said he inundated her with facebook messages and text messages peddling conspiracy theories although she told us she later connected those conspiracies to qanon she said her father denied knowing what q anon is you talk about in a sense when you're going through depression and anxiety and some of these really scary thoughts the idea of your dad saved your life and he's now not a part of it how does that feel absolutely terrifying that moment of cutting off contact with him was the hardest thing i ever had
to do like to to just walk away and realize that he's not there anymore it's he's he's not the guy who you know held my hand through everything who essentially saved me
