Post-traumatic stress disorder plagues veterans

Post-traumatic stress disorder plagues veterans
Seda Terzyan, Bruin senior staff (Contact)
Published: Monday, July 28, 2008
Gripping her steering wheel and driving at high speeds with knuckles clenched so tight that the circulation of blood to her hands was cut short, Diana Rider, 33, glanced down and noticed her fists were white and numb.

The U.S. Army veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom later realized that her intense panic response was caused by the dead animal she passed on the street while driving.

Rider has experienced many violent flashbacks since she returned from the war front, causing her to relive multiple traumatic events she bore witness to in Iraq.

She served in Iraq at the start of the war in 2003 for 14 months and was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder following her service, and still suffers when subtle reminders at home pull her back into the battleground.

“I was almost killed many times – in a lifetime, people do not have to deal with death in their face multiple times,” Rider said. “I was in the middle of a riot where groups of people were attacking me trying to steal my weapon, and another time a bomb exploded only 50 yards away from me.”

The intense stress of multiple traumas and near-death experiences are trademarks of PTSD, a stress disorder that follows an experience in which one believes that they may be killed, said Judith Broder, psychiatrist and founder of the Soldiers Project, a volunteer group of mental health professionals who treat combat veterans free of charge.

“It becomes complicated since troops are deployed and placed in potentially life threatening situations all the time, putting them in a state of hyper-vigilance,” Broder said. “When they come home from battle, they realize something is wrong and what was normal in danger becomes pathological at home.”

Many soldiers who are currently serving in Iraq say that the transition back to home after months of intensity is difficult.

“The reason PTSD is rising is not only due to more awareness about the issues, but due to the longer and multiple separations from the community which are protective against PTSD,” Broder said. “The normal human connection is necessary.”
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