The war inside
By Katie Burford
The Durango Herald
June 30, 2012
As a Marine stationed in Ramadi, Iraq, in 2007, Christian Warren spent his days and nights living among the Iraqis the Americans were trying to help. This meant delivering aid like a humanitarian but being ready at any moment to respond like a soldier should an attack occur.
That state of hypervigilance that served him in Iraq isn’t so useful now when Warren is studying for classes at Fort Lewis College, where he plans to major in adventure education.
Memories, flashes, sensations all flood in unbidden. Sleeplessness, anxiety and resignation result.
“Some days it becomes overwhelming, and I just break down for a day,” Warren said.
He has done counseling and group therapy and briefly found himself approaching dependence on painkillers. These days, his medicine is the outdoors, where he hikes and climbs.
The term used to describe this reaction, post traumatic stress disorder or PTSD, has become part of the mainstream vernacular as vets like Warren stream home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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