Manage Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder In College

This article originally appeared on U.S. News & World Report, and is republished with permission. Mike Rials needed to sit in the back, on a row near the exit, in a college class with more than 50 people. Heart pounding, palms sweaty and overcome with anxiety, he would leave 10 minutes in if he couldn’t get a back seat. "I couldn’t focus on the teacher or anything that was going on. I had to escape, I felt the need to escape. It was almost like I was back in my Humvee when I got hit," he says. Rials went into the Marine Corps in 2003, after high school. He deployed twice to Iraq and once to Afghanistan during his four-year tenure. Rials was injured and lost a friend during his third deployment, when his vehicle hit an explosive.At home, Rials struggled with survivor's guilt and family issues. Since he spent his adult life in the service, he felt like he couldn't relate to and didn't have anything to offer the civilian world. He self-medicated with drugs, alcohol and spending during the first 18 months after he left the military. When he ran out of money, he enrolled at the University of Texas—Dallas. He was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder more than a year later.Between 11 and 20 percent of veterans who served in Operations Iraqi Freedom or Enduring Freedom have PTSD in a given year, according to U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs website. But veterans aren’t the only ones who experience PTSD. In the U.S., 7 to 8 percent of the populati...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news