Mike Jernigan Again on Living With PTSD

Earlier this month I posted a link to the NYT's Homefires series on Mike Jernigan, a US Marine who wounds in Iraq included the loss his vision in Iraq. In this piece he speaks more about coping with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Jernigan is an amazing guy and well worth reading to understand what wounded veterans are living with. MP+

The New York Times
October 25, 2009, 9:00 pm
The Minefield at Home
By Michael Jernigan

In August 2004, while on patrol with my Marine unit in Mahmudiya, Iraq, I was severely wounded by a roadside bomb. My wounds included a crushed skull and right hand, traumatic brain injury and the loss of both my eyes.

I am not alone. In the past eight years, many of the 35,000 American soldiers wounded in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have returned home. But many of us have also returned with deep emotional wounds, and those are harder to see.


In fact, they’re often invisible, which is why so many returning soldiers feel so lost back home. Those of us with post-traumatic stress disorder — I’m one of them — feel like strangers here, carrying around a burden many people are unaware of or just can’t understand. The possibilities for misunderstandings, collisions and alienation are great.

Read the whole piece here.