PTSD haunts trauma victims

Janice Semmel, April 2011
Copyeditor

The scenario goes like this:

“Did you kill anyone?” a student asks as a veteran enters the classroom.

All activity in the classroom stops, but the veteran’s mind no longer recognizes his surroundings as a classroom. The thoughtless question sends his mind into a replay of the sights, sounds, tastes, smells and feels associated with the war in Iraq.

AP Photo by Stephen Morton

U.S. Army 3rd Infantry Division soldiers mourn 10 fellow soldiers killed in Iraq at the Warrior's Walk in Fort Stewart, Ga.

The replay unfolds into a vibrant nightmare. Bright flashes outline the building in front of him. Shadows appear on the walls. The smells of burning flesh and buildings fill the air. Moans from his wounded friends, comrades and the enemy break through the roar of the battle.
Thousands of U.S. veterans returning from war experience similar episodes. They suffer from the symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

“There are some obvious behaviors: sensitivity, noise, color, topics, things that seem to be an exaggerated emotion or reaction that, say, a typical student wouldn’t have,” says James Rubin, Ph. D., Paradise Valley Community College counseling division chair. “Those (who) are in violent, really confining situations in the war are going to have the most obvious symptoms, but many people have had sexual traumas, family traumas, economic traumas, spiritual traumas. (With) a lot of those, they’ll exhibit similar symptoms.”
 
The Quick Series Guide to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder lists symptom patterns that make up PTSD.

• Arousal Symptoms: Anxiety, either generalized or episodic, attaches to specific types of stimuli, says Fred Wieck, M.S., PVCC adjunct counselor. If an engine backfires, they hit the ground because they think it’s a gun shot. They experience hyper-vigilance, nervous ticks, aggressive, combative and argumentative behavior or difficulty sleeping, he says.
  
  
• Intrusive Symptoms: This occurs when a situation triggers the mental replay of a traumatic event as may happen when the topic of a conversation stirs intrusive memories. During a PVCC Veterans’ Day panel discussion, student veteran Jonathan Lucas told the audience not to ask, “How many people have you killed? I hate that question,” he said. “Please don’t ask that question.”
  
  
• Avoidance Symptoms: PTSD sufferers shut themselves off from situations with people, places or other stimuli that remind them of the traumatic event.
  
  
• Length of Symptoms: The Guide says, “PTSD symptoms last beyond a month. Sometimes, they appear long after the original trauma.”
  
  
• PTSD Effects: “The condition causes significant disruption to and impairment of normal life pursuits (social, school, work and home life),” says the Guide.

Unless a student confides the traumatic experience to an instructor or a counselor, says Rubin, it’s hard to know that a student suffers from PTSD.

The National Center for PTSD lists some facts based on PTSD in the United States. The facts include the following:  “About 7-8 percent of the population will have PTSD at some point in their lives, and about 5.2 million adults have PTSD during a given year. This is only a small portion of those who have gone through a trauma.”

The Center also reports that “experts think PTSD occurs in about 11-20 percent of veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars (Operation Iraqi and Enduring Freedom), or in 11-20 veterans out of 100.”

If instructors become concerned over behaviors students exhibit, Rubin suggests they tell the students about their concerns and let them know that PVCC offers free counseling services. They can go so far as to walk the student over to the counseling office.

If a student becomes angry, Wieck says, “Give people space. If people are angry, let them have their anger. Accept it. Accept the person. Validate people. If you know they’re vets, thank them for it. Say, ‘I don’t know if you had a rough time or not, sure hope you didn’t, but anyway I’m grateful for what you did.’”

Wieck says it’s difficult for men, especially veterans, to ask for help. He says as warriors, they feel “to make a confession about that kind of vulnerability, that’s a real demonstration of weakness and failure on their part.” He says, “It’s just hard for men to be weak.”

In order to deal with the pain, Wieck says, they self-medicate; they drink; they engage in self-destructive behavior, which leads to a little higher rate of suicide than the general population; they neglect their health; and they may abuse their spouses.

All counseling sessions remain confidential. In the counseling setting, students tell their stories to someone who doesn’t judge, says Rubin. Counselors listen to and understand their stories. They provide students with empathy, validation and some coping skills.

Through empathy and validation, counselors assure students that their individual experiences are real, says Rubin. They don’t minimize the experience, and they let the students know they’re not alone. Counselors also explain that the symptoms occur as the result of a trauma.

Counselors perform an evaluation to see if students need further referrals, he says. The counseling department does referrals to professional therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists and to the Veterans Administration.

“Counseling can help students stay in and be successful at school,” says Rubin, “because sometimes those symptoms can really interfere with attendance, concentration, self-esteem.”

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