Street roots., March 06, 2015, Page 7, Image 7

Street Roots • March 6-12, 2015
Review
Page 7
Two books take a fresh look at PTSD and its treatment
BY JOHN BARKER
C O N T R IB U T IN G W R ITE R
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DAVID j. MORRIS
The Evil Hours: A
Biography of
Post-Traumatic
Stress Disorder
by David J. Morris
irritable Hearts: A
PTSD Love Story
by Mac McClelland
F ■ ^h ere are those victims and their
families who live with and Suffer from
■A. it, those professionals and institutions
that fund studies for and treat it, then the
rest of us who’ve heard about i t PTSD: post-
traumatic stress disorder. We, in that latter
category, need to catch up.
Two books published this February provide
us that opportunity, both written by
journalists:
“The Evil Hours: A Biography of Post-
Traumatic Stress Disorder,” by David J.
Morris, tells the story of a Marine veteran of
Iraq as a soldier and later a reporter
embedded with troops. “Irritable Hearts: A
PTSD Love Story,” by Mac McClelland,” tells
the story of a female journalist whose work
focuses on covering natural and human rights
disasters around the world and, occasionally
at home. Her journey includes a trip to report
on earthquake survivors in Haiti, her own
escape from Katrina and return to New
Orleans, time with the gay community in
Uganda, reporting on a warlord in the
Democratic Republic of Congo, and spending
time with those coping with the Deepwater
Horizon disaster.
Both books are very readable, written by
highly educated, thoughtful people — and
there the similarities pretty much end. Read-
together and, ideally in serial fashion, one
feels that the ‘catch up’ on understanding a
mentalhealthm alady th atis tb e ^ W tfrn io s t,
common psychiatric disorder in our country
has at least begun.
Morris’ story opens during his fourth visit
to Iraq, third as a journalist, sitting in a
Humvee with members of the Army’s 1st
Infantry Division preparing to head out on a
routine patrol. The young soldier next to him
' asks “Have you ever been blown up before,
sir?” He hasn’t, but he will be soon.
McClelland’s “Irritable Hearts” opens with
her arrival in Port-au-Prince, Haiti in 2010,
nine months after the earthquake, in a tent
city housing survivors and many of their
rescuers, where gang rape is rampant and not
discouraged by the remnants of the local
police. She is housed in luxury in the local
tourist hotel. Neither the tent city nor the
hotel is a ‘safe house.’ The ‘PTSD Love Story’
in the title is her encounter with a French
peace-keeper in Haiti who, with the
perseverance of a honey badger, stays with
their long-distance romance. Eventually they
marry in San Francisco.
“The Evil Hours” has the feel of a course
of study presented in an interesting narrative
form, though a bit draggy in the first third.
We learn little about Morris’ personal life. He
suffers with his PTSD, its most obvious origin
being ‘blown up’ when the Humvee runs over
an IED the day after the question has been
put to him. He gradually drifts off the rails,
into the land of dissociation where time is
fragmented. He learns that none of the
treatments work for everyone. In fact, some
have the potential to trigger severe reactions.
Suicide is not uncommon among vets and
others dealing with PTSD in its severest
forms.
Morris uses his travels searching for
effective treatment to discuss the history of
what is now known as PTSD - from the
Greeks assimilation of sufferers into the
community, to the World War II veterans who
arrived home ‘shell-shocked’ unless they had
the misfortune to be recovering in an Army
hospital visited by Gen. George Patton, who
slapped a young patient, calling him a coward.
The review of treatments is fascinating,
from Prolonged Exposure where a triggering
event is discussed over and over and o ver. .
. to the use of propranolol, now a generic
drug initially used as a beta-blocker. It acts to
prevent adrenaline from playing its key role, in
the formation of debilitating memories that
trigger flashbacks, but ohly if administered
When Community Court was started,
HONE CHARGER, from page 5
defendants would show up once, get their
treatment or community service assignment,
does, it’s just insane,” says Fox. “The
and then return when it was complete. A
:ase) that I had was somebody charging
2010 ruling by the Court of Appeals found
leir phone by the Greyhound bus station,
that defendants had the right to an
on’tyou have a reasonable expectation that
arraignment so they could have the option of
n outlet near the busstation would be OK?”
pleading not guilty. This added an extra step
Jackie’s case went to Community Court.
that, according to Fox, has contributed in an
Community Court is an effective way to
increase in people failing to appear.
void the higher costs associated with
Jackie missed her first arraignment She
recessing misdemeanor crimes through
says she lost her citation, but turned herself
Circuit Court, and it can help people who
in a couple of months later. Records show a
teed social services, like drug or alcohol
bench warrant had been issued, and when
reatment, says Fox.
she turned herself in she was booked into
Fox says the majority of charges sent to
jail, and then released the same day. She
im m unity Court get reduced from
didn’t miss court again.
|
nisdemeanors to violations. According to
Jackie usually tries to stay away from Old
lumbers compiled by Clean and Safe District,
Town because, she says, she gets hassled a
letween 2002 and 2012, about 67 percent of
lot, by people on the streets and police alike.
lefendants processed through Community
“I used to come down here with my kids
Sourt closed their cases in full compliance, s
and grandkids all the time before I was
If defendants don’t show up for their initial
homeless, and I was never harassed once,”
arraignment, they get a bench warrant -
' she says. For many years she worked in
which can lead to an arrest - and if they
social services, and in some cases, with
don’t show up after being ordered to do
police officers. “I always liked cops,” she
community service or treatoent, they re
says. But now, she «ays, her perspective has
issued a fine ranging from $435 to $635.
changed.
“Given the population we’re dealing with
“Before I became homeless, I had no idea
here, it’s like trying to squeeze blood out of a what was going on,” she says. “Now I get
turnip,” says Fox.
within six hours of the traumatic event.
In “Irritable Hearts” the reader also learns
of the many approaches currently taken to
treating PTSD. But, unlike “The Evil Hours,”
you live in McClelland’s head virtually every
minute of every day. Her head is her personal
torture chamber. Her lapses into hours of
uncontrollable sobbing, trembling, and
immobilityfrom seemingly innocuous triggers
is her unpredictable companion to her
attempts, rather successfully overall, to
continue her work. Her work is dangerous,
especially for a tall, attractive woman who
moves among dangerous men in dangerous
regions of the world. One wonders why she
continues.
McClelland takes the reader to the brink of
“all right, enough already” in the seemingly
endless description of triggers during sex,
triggers before sex and on and on. But, she
doesn’t get the reader over the edge to the
point of quitting on her chase for relief.
Much of McClelland’s story is her therapy
in the different forms she attempts - among
them alcohol, violent sex, eye-movement
therapy known as EMDR, and an extended
time with a somatic therapist, that treatment
having the greatest positive effect.
How do these books end: with cures? They
end with the knowledge that this mental
condition can be ‘cured’ in some, not others,
its symptoms moderated for some, not
others. And, like cancer, society is learning
that nobody goes looking to have PTSD. _
• June 2Tis National PTSD Awareness Day.
Read Morris’ or McClelland’s work and it will
be a meaningful day of appreciation for those
society has subjected to trauma in the name
of freedom, and it has endured the proclivity
of too many males to exploit and wreak
devastation on females simply because of
their physical ability to dominate. The bright
side is that PTSD is now getting a degree of
attention from which there can be hope.
harassed. How do you think that makes me
feel?”
Jackie says she prefers to sleep in close
proximity to the police station because she
feels safer there. But if she wants to shower
or eat, Old Town is where -are all the
resources are. For Jackie, having a charged
cell phone is a matter of personal safety.
“Men approach me, stuff happens,” she says.
On the day of her arrest, she had to walk
through Old Town to get to Transition
Projects to take a shower, and her phone was
dead.
She says she saw a man charging his
phone on the corner of Northwest Davis
Street and Third Avenue, and decided to join
him. She had no idea that what she was
about to do - plug in her phone - could bring
a theft charge.
In Community Court she was given the
opportunity to get the charges reduced, but
only if she pleaded guilty and then completed
community service. If things didn’t go
according to that plan, she’d have a
misdemeanor conviction and a hefty fine to
pay.
But Jackie didn’t want to plead guilty to
theft when she felt like she had done nothing
wrong. And she didn’t want an offense on her
record that could jeopardize her chance at
housing. She decided to fight the charge.
This moved her case over to the regular
Circuit Court misdemeanor docket where she
was assigned the second of .two publically
funded attorneys who would handle her case.
The district attorney’s deal in circuit court
wasn’t nearly as sweet as the one offered in
¿Community Court. According to Du Clos, it
included one year of probation, 20 hours of
community service or a $100 fine, and it
required that she take a Theft Talk class.
Theft Talk, a class aimed at thieves, costs
$70. For those who can’t afford it, the price
is reduced to no less than $50, which the
offender has to pay out of pocket. Jackie,
again, entered a plea of “not guilty.”
The day before Jackie was scheduled for
trial, the DA dropped the charge. “It was
very reasonable of him to do that, says Du
Clos. “I’m not sure that every DA would have
dropped the charges.”
Jackie has muscular dystrophy and
receives disability checks, but she is still
Sleeping outdoors while she waits for
housing she can afford with that income.
Her co-defendant’s case still is pending due
to his failure to appear in court.
emily@streetroots.org