NAVY CHIEF PETTY OFFICER JASON MILLER OF LISBON, WIS., served three tours in Iraq as an explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) technician, one of the most stressful and dangerous jobs in the military. Over the course of his service, he lost sev- eral buddies to enemy bombs and was blown up a couple of times himself, resulting in hearing loss and traumatic brain injury.
Miller also developed post-trau-
matic stress (PTS), though it took a while for him to realize it. During visits home between deployments, all he could think about was return- ing to Iraq, and he often found him- self feeling anxious and irritable. Miller’s PTS had a detrimental eff ect on his relationship with his young daughters, the second of whom was born just two weeks be- fore his second tour. “When I returned home, she had colic and would continually cry for no reason,” Miller says. “I couldn’t stand to be in the same room with her. When you can’t even hold your own child or tolerate the sound of her cry- ing, there’s something wrong.” Other times, Miller says, he sim- ply checked out. “I was present [with my children] physically, but not mentally,” he explains. Miller recalls one incident in which his daughters were taking a bath and pouring cups of water on the fl oor at his feet. “It didn’t even faze me,” he says. “I was a million miles away.” As a result of his emotional issues,
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Miller says, his older daughter began pulling away emotionally and re- mains somewhat distant today. When he started waking up feeling angry and required more and more alcohol to fall asleep at night, Miller knew he needed help. Through an Air Force psychiatrist, he tried a number of therapeutic modalities and found cognitive processing therapy, which requires him to write about his most traumatic events over and over, to be most eff ective. At around the same time, Miller’s
parent command stepped in, pulling him from EOD and instructing him to work on getting better. Miller re- tired from the Navy in 2013 after 16 years of service. Though he still experiences symp- toms of PTS, Miller says things are much better for both him and his family. Miller continues to journal as needed and published a book about his experiences in Iraq and after- ward titled The Coffi n. (See “Related Resources,” facing page.) “Cognitive processing therapy is a way to help suppress the anxiety,” he
says. “I still become anxious, but now I know how to deal with it. And that has defi nitely helped my relationship with my kids.”
A common issue Miller is far from alone in his struggles with PTS. The National Center for PTSD estimates that be- tween 11 and 20 percent of veterans who served in operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom will experience related symptoms in any given year, and the condition aff ects a signifi cant number of Gulf War and Vietnam veterans as well. The most commonly reported
problems associated with PTS in- clude intrusive memories or night- mares of a traumatic event, feelings such as numbing or guilt, and symptoms of hyperarousal, such as hypervigilance, irritability, and sleep problems. Understandably, these symptoms can have far-reaching ef- fects on a veteran’s children, mental health experts note. Dr. John A. Fairbank, a psycholo- gist and codirector of the UCLA-
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