Dan LaCroix
PHOTO OR ILLUSTRATION CREDIT TK
Wendy Medolo
Frank Knestkowski
THE WAR
WITHIN
HUFFINGTON
07.01-08.12
Doesn’t matter: the amygdala still pumps out a flood
of stress hormones that make
the veteran uncomfortable and
jittery, wide awake at night,
anxious and prone to flashes of
anger. This is a neuro-chemical
mechanism, Rigg explains. And
it’s involuntary: “People don’t
decide — ‘Hey! I want to be
stressed today.’ No — it’s the
way we are wired.”
Traumatic brain injuries
usually involve a concussion
that bruises the frontal lobes
of the brain and can cause
confusion, temporary amnesia,
and a range of other symptoms
similar to PTSD — insomnia,
irritability, anxiety or depression, headaches, memory loss
— in large part because many
TBI patients also have PTSD.
“Basically, the brain’s not
working right,” says Dr. James
Kelly, a neurologist and director of the Defense Department’s National Intrepid
Center of Excellence for traumatic brain injury and psychological health.
“You can help people compensate and get better in some
ways,” Kelly says. But in severe cases, in which sophis-