Iraq War veteran speaks college students about PTSD

A hero's message
Iraq War veteran speaks to PTSD, mental health awareness
Pocono Record
By RICARDO MORALES
October 09, 2013

During a deployment to Iraq in 2004, Bryan Adams, a Purple Heart recipient, was performing reconnaissance in Takrit when he was spotted by two children on the sidewalk.

"They had this terrified look in their eyes, like they were seeing a ghost," Adams said. Seconds later, the children had run away and Adams heard gunshots all around him.

"I was in the middle of an ambush," he said. "They opened up on us from across the street, three guys with AK47's ... I could feel the heat from the bullets going past my face."

Adams ran as fast as he could, barely making it around the corner of the street, oblivious to the pain of a gunshot wound in his leg. "I was certain I was going to die," he said.

It was one of the incidents that gave rise to Adams' post-traumatic stress disorder.

Speaking to students and community members at East Stroudsburg University's Keystone Room, Adams recounted the story of his tour in Iraq and subsequent struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder Tuesday night.

Detailing his personal experiences first rejecting, then finally acknowledging and accepting help for his mental health condition, Adams called on students to treat mental health seriously and assist in changing the conversation surrounding mental health disorders.

"Suicide is the second leading cause of death among college students," Adams said, adding that one in four college students has a diagnosable mental illness. The same way people should see professionals after breaking an arm, they should also seek help for mental health, he added. "It's not going to get better on its own."

Adams used his own life as an example of how isolation and shutting others out was not the answer.
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