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Joshua Gibbs reached for his rifle in the dark and stumbled out of his bed onto the floor.He began ripping apart the room, frantically searching for his rifle until his father walked in and asked what he was doing.”Son, you’re not in Iraq anymore,” Gibbs remembers his father saying. “You don’t need a rifle.”Gibbs, U.S. Army officer and political science junior, said he looked around for several seconds before realizing he was safe at his parents’ house in Louisiana and not in the midst of Baghdad near the shores of the Tigris River.Gibbs said his case of post-traumatic stress disorder was mild, and the veteran was willing to discuss his episode dealing with the struggles the anxiety disorder — caused by experiencing a traumatic event — brings. Ranging from cases mild to severe, between 6 and 11 percent of Afghanistan war veterans suffer from PTSD, and about 12 to 20 percent of Iraq war veterans suffer from it, according to the U.S. Department of Veterans affairs.GIBBS’ STORYGibbs enlisted in the Army and started basic training in 2001 two weeks after his high school graduation. Months later, after 9/11, Gibbs said the ball game changed, and the training became more intense.Three years later, Gibbs headed to Kuwait for one more month of training before heading to Baghdad.”We crossed the border at night,” Gibbs said. “I can remember I had my night vision on … I was so nervous.”His company began patrolling in Baghdad, and less than a week later, they were hit with a road-side bomb. The bomb left a hole in the ground next to one of his friends before it exploded around the men, Gibbs said.”It blew up right in his face … and he didn’t get hit,” Gibbs said. “To this day, [we] don’t know how it happened.”After the first hit, Gibbs said he was scared. But by the third hit, the fear was gone.During his year in Iraq, Gibbs said the stress from the attacks weighed on the soldiers, and they had to fight their biggest fears.”We never had a fear of ourselves dying,” he said. “It was a fear of doing something wrong and getting one of your buddies killed. It’s something you would not want to live with.” When an enemy soldier gets in the line of fire, Gibbs said the soldiers had to shoot and not think about the action. Soldiers are trained to react quickly. If not, someone in the unit will die, he said.”What it comes down to is the individual presented itself as a threat. I neutralized the threat,” he said of having to kill in combat. “I made it home that night; all my buddies made it back that night.”But at the end of the day, Gibbs said the images can be haunting.”You know it’s a human being but … I guess that’s why we call them the target or a threat,” Gibbs said. “Because if you really think about the fact that it’s a human being at that moment.”
His voice softened. “You would probably go crazy.”Gibbs said at the end of the day, the men reassured one another there was no other option than to protect their unit, and it was their job as soldiers.He said he tried not to think about that part of the mission after returning to the States but considers himself fortunate no one in his unit died. PTSD AMONG VETERANSThe term PTSD was not identified until after the Vietnam War, but when veterans returned from World War I, people began to discover soldiers were traumatized, and the term “shell shocked” was coined, according to psychology professor Thompson Davis.When veterans come back from fighting, they have a hard time adjusting to civilian life and fight depression and anxiety, Davis said. In response, people began to study the effects a war could have on a person and realized PTSD was a real threat for veterans and people who experienced rape, natural disasters and other traumatic situations. PTSD can occur after someone has experienced a situation in which they thought their life was in danger or there was a sense of extreme hopelessness or helplessness, Davis said.”Typically, we find the risk [to develop PTSD] increases for most people depending on how vivid or how violent the experience is,” he said.According to a U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs report, 86 percent of soldiers in Iraq reported knowing someone who was seriously injured or killed, and 68 percent reported seeing dead or seriously injured Americans. Also, 77 percent of soldiers deployed to Iraq reported shooting or directing fire at the enemy, while 48 percent reported being responsible for the “death of an enemy combatant.”When diagnosing a person with PTSD, psychiatrists look for three signs — the person re-experiencing the painful memory, then avoiding anything to remind them of the traumatic events, which then results in a hyper-arousal when reminded of the trauma, Davis said.David said no one knows exactly why only certain people develop PTSD after trauma.”It’s a combination of your past and your present and what happens after your trauma,” he said.American Psychiatrist Association board member Mary Helen Davis said the most common types of PTSD occur after combat, witnessing someone die or doing what they’re trained to do — kill.TREATMENTS FOR PTSDVeterans and other sufferers of PTSD can get help, Davis said, and one of the most effective treatments is cognitive behavioral therapy paired with exposure, which allows the person to expose themselves to the traumatic memories in a controlled environment.”You’re going to have the memory, but our goal is going to be … to try and have that memory not be so vivid for you,” Davis said.Capt. Jason Copeland, Marine and University graduate student, said PTSD is a real and normal consequence after being involved in combat.”Unfortunately, a lot of people that go [to Iraq] are young,” Copeland said. “[About] 90 percent of my platoon were in between the ages of 18 and 22.”Copeland said many of the younger Marines have a difficult time handling the hardships and traumas of war, and one of the best remedies is leaning on other people who have similar experiences.As a leader, Copeland said it was crucial for him to be aware of the symptoms and be available to talk with other Marines. He said he spent many hours in Iraq just listening to fellow Marines describe experiences.”For every war, for every battle, everyone has their own piece [of memories],” he said. “It’s different for every person.”Coming back to the States is also difficult for Marines because the support group is no longer available, Copeland said.Separating from the people with the same shared experiences sometimes contributes to depression, he said.Julie Buckner, psychology professor, said PTSD left untreated could lead to depression or even suicide. And one factor that could lead to deeper cases of PTSD for veterans is lack of moral support, she said.”Whether or not we support the war, we should show our support to [our] soldiers,” Buckner said.—-Contact Joy Lukachick at [email protected]