It was in Belconnen shopping centre, looking for a Christmas toy for his son in December 2007 when Jeremy Hanson was gripped by what may well have been a panic attack.
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It was only weeks after returning from serving in Iraq and Jeremy's wife Fleur had asked him to pick up a toy car for Robbie.
"I went up to Belconnen mall and it's a normal environment, but what with so many people around and the lights and noise and I just sort of freaked out," he said.
"When I first got back I was fine, but then a few weeks later I sort fo fell into a big black hole into January and February and that's when I made the decision to get out of Defence."
Jeremy, a former Canberra Liberals leader and current shadow ACT Attorney-General, spoke of the likely depression he fell into on his return to civilian life.
He spoke to The Canberra Times on Friday after an unusually civil debate in the Legislative Assembly on a motion he put forward on the need for Canberra to better look after its veterans.
The debate was marked by respect on both sides of the aisle, with many relaying anecdotes of their lives and links to veterans, but Jeremy's was one of the more powerful stories told.
On coming home, the Lieutenant Colonel's life, like so many returned soldiers, had turned from living under constant threat of attack to trying to fit into a family he loved, but had so long been absent from.
For Jeremy, that manifested in "a sense of being useless".
"When you're on operations it's all about being part of a team, part of a tribe, it's belonging and having a real purpose and meaning in everything we're doing," he said.
"But then being back to the Russel offices, in the bowels of the bureaucracy and all of that goes with it, you're no longer part of a team, the work you're doing seems kind of pointless."
"We were there in [Iraq in] the middle of the surge, and so when I got back home I think I was at a point where I wasn't diagnosed, but I felt depressed, I felt sad and I had regular thoughts about taking my own life."
Looking to meet like-minded people, Jeremy joined the Liberal Party, ultimately put his hand up for preselection, where he found a new sense of purpose in campaigning.
But the black dog lingered on his shoulder, and in his mind, until May 2009.
"Where it really came home to me was that after all the time Fleur had had at home with the kids, she had planned to go overseas with her sister and her mum," he said.
"This was something she'd planned for a long time, and then she said to me ... she said I can't leave you alone here.
"That in many ways was the point that I snapped out of it, I realised that you know, being as I was was having an impact not just on me but on the whole family, that I've got to get on with it."
He did, indeed, beat the black dog, and in campaigning and ultimately spending almost a decade in territory politics, found a new purpose and meaning.
But at the time, he did not talk about it - something he urged all veterans to do, whether with friends or family, or with new friends through the RSL or groups like Soldier On and Remount.
"There might be other people out there, veterans feeling as I did, feeling isolated and I'd encourage them to get in contact with someone," he said.
"Particularly for people that, as I was staff officer, went away and we were disbanded and then we come back and there's noone there from then with that shared experience, I want them to understand you're not alone."
If you want to talk to someone, or know someone who might, contact Lifeline on 13 11 14.
