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Scars of life: post-traumatic stress disorder By Philip Jankowski It is like a nightmare lived over and over again. Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) comes in all shapes and sizes, and can be caused by a bevy of scarring life events. But the outcome is the same for most: terrifying nightmares, panic attacks and extreme agitation prompted by seemingly benign events. It is most commonly associated with military veterans, who after a trying service of combat have difficulty shaking the horrors experienced while involved in a military conflict. “You see them 50 years later and they’ve spent a half a century avoiding talking about these events,” Steve Reed, a psychotherapist that specializes in PTSD, said. “When they actually talk about it, they are just as emotionally distressed as when they got out of the service.” While military service is at the heart of post traumatic stress disorder, the disorder can stem from any traumatic event in which a person is either caused serious, life threatening harm or believes their life is in danger and are vulnerable to harm without the ability to control it. The disorder is most prevalent in adolescent victims of car accidents, victims of rape and other violent crimes as well as people whose occupation involves exposure to horrific events, such as police, firefighters and EMS responders. After the distressing event subsides, its drastic nature leaves a deep imprint on the brain, Reed said. Sudden small cues can bring back the panic of the event. “They feel like their life is in jeopardy,” Reed said. U.S. Marine Adam Coleman served three tours in Iraq between 2003 and 2006. When he returned to the states, members of his unit began to notice similar behaviors: lack of sleep, nightmares, fear of driving and an inability to turn their backs toward doors or people. “A good 80 percent of us were on Ambien,” Coleman said. “We couldn’t sleep, we’d have nightmares, we’d be real jumpy over time. The lack of sleep would really get to you.” Those reactions were conditioned on the brain because of the deep stress. Reed equated what happens in traumatic circumstances to a deep wound. When violent, traumatic experiences occur, they are like “a deep cut to the bone from your knee to your hip.” “It exceeds our natural physical capacity for healing,” Reed said “There are emotional equivalents.” When a traumatic event leads to PTSD, it makes an impression on the amygdala, a portion of the most primitive portion in the brain — the mid-brain — Reed said. Once a connection is made between a traumatic event and a sensory trigger like a smell, sound or shadow, it is hard to unlearn. For Coleman, things like driving a car brought back memories of roadside bombs. Sleep brought vicious nightmares. The best therapy was pure avoidance. A trip to Alaska with a war buddy helped ease him back into regular life and he now is functional he said. His symptoms still exist and he averages about two to three hours of sleep each night. Up until recently he was unable to watch the news. News coverage on Iraq still agitates him, as do war movies.
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