THE WAR
WITHIN
A ‘LIFETIME
SENTENCE’
PHOTO OR ILLUSTRATION CREDIT TK
Mark Nystedt
HUFFINGTON
07.01-08.12
brain, according to Rigg, the
TBI director at Fort Gordon.
Many of the symptoms of
post-traumatic stress — nervousness, insomnia, anxiety in
crowds, jumping at a sudden
loud noise — are primitive, involuntary instincts necessary
to survival in a combat zone.
“I don’t use the term ‘posttraumatic stress disorder’
because I don’t consider it a
disorder,” Rigg says. “I mean,
you’re in a situation where
people are trying to kill you!”
When the instinctive, unthinking part of the brain, the
amygdala, senses danger, it
reacts instantly with a flood
of stress hormones that raise
blood pressure and heart rate,
dilate the eyes to sharpen
sight, and squirt adrenalin
into the bloodstream — the
hyper-arousal that prepares
the body for “fight or flight.”
That’s appropriate in combat. But back home, the brain
may misinterpret danger signals: all strangers are not the
enemy; trash along the Interstate probably doesn’t contain an IED; an explosion may
be harmless fireworks, a bad
dream may be just that.