The fight back from PTSD

From The Times
January 5, 2008
by Martin Fletcher
The fight back
Times Online - UK

On the front line in Iraq and Afghanistan, British soldiers are losing legs or arms, their sight – but the loss that each sustains goes far beyond the physical. On the ski slopes of Colorado, they begin rebuilding their shattered lives

Watch the audio slide show of British soldiers skiing
Adam Nixon pauses briefly to admire the breathtaking view of the Colorado Rockies, with their icy peaks and forested flanks. Then the young British soldier launches himself down the mountainside, carving long arcs in the snow. He is not the most graceful skier, but no matter. Joy lights up his face, and with good reason.

In March 2004, in the heat and dust of faraway Iraq, a pipe bomb exploded during a riot in Basra. Fourteen British soldiers were injured, but none as badly as Nixon. A week later, he regained consciousness in Birmingham’s Selly Oak hospital to find both legs shattered. He spent the next two years in hospital, undergoing more than 20 operations. His doctors finally amputated his left leg in May 2006, and they are still fighting to save his right one. Nixon, 24, once ran ultra-marathons of 70 miles or more; now he is in a wheelchair and constant pain. He suffers from flashbacks, panic attacks and insomnia – classic symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He plies himself with painkillers and anti-depressants, had a breakdown earlier this year and has, at times, been suicidal.

In skiing, however, Nixon believes he has finally found salvation. Strapped into a bucket seat spring-mounted on a mono-ski, he has discovered that anything is possible if he is sufficiently determined, and that life is worth living again. He has reached a turning point, he says. “This is the most fun I’ve had in years. Until now, I’ve pretty much been a bum. I’ve just stayed at home and festered, but I’ve had enough of dwelling on the past. I want to get going.”

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