More Ariz. vets of Iraq war seek emotional help

TUCSON - "Daddy, why don't you play with us anymore?"

Iraq war veteran Rigo Morales was cut to the core by the question from his 4-year-old twin girls.

His wife had been asking questions, too, wondering what had become of the doting husband who used to leave her roses on the windshield and love notes on the fridge.

"I knew right away when he got back from the war that something was wrong with him," Angelica Morales, 30, said of her 34-year-old mate.

"He used to be so loving and attentive. After he got back, he was always tense. He looked scared."

A trip to Tucson's veterans hospital confirmed her fear: Her husband had severe post-traumatic stress disorder - a combat-induced condition that had taken their whole family hostage.

Such cases are on the rise in Arizona and around the country. The Pentagon and the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System are reporting major spikes in stress illness among veterans who have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan.

The PTSD clinic at the local veterans hospital has seen its caseload soar by more than 100 percent. Last fiscal year, an average of 32 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans visited the clinic each month, compared with 73 a month so far this year.

Former soldier Derrick Stephenson, 24, was frequently under fire as a forward observer with an artillery unit. He did two combat tours - a year in Iraq, followed by 15 months in Afghanistan - then found his life back home falling apart.

"I either couldn't feel anything, or I would lose my temper and black out from rage," said Stephenson, of Mesa, who attended the VA program in Tucson. The program takes troops from across Arizona and surrounding states.

In Tucson, "finding other vets from the same war is what helped me the most," he said. "I'm closer with those guys now than with anybody else."

Nationally, about 40,000 troops have been diagnosed with the disorder since 2003, The Associated Press has reported.

Unlike veterans of past U.S. wars, who often buried their pain for decades, some young veterans are seeking help while psychic wounds are still fresh, often at the insistence of loved ones.

Experts say early treatment is crucial to helping them live better. Recovery is a lifelong process because the disorder, which skews the brain's ability to accurately assess danger, is a chronic condition that needs to be managed, much like diabetes.

Untreated, such veterans are at increased risk for depression, suicide, substance abuse and relationship breakdowns. Male veterans commit suicide twice as often as men who haven't served in the military, research shows.

Morales is one of 150 or so Iraq and Afghanistan vets with once-crippling symptoms who have been treated in an intensive, three-week inpatient program at the Tucson VA hospital, one of three programs of its kind in the nation.

Troops are admitted to the hospital for education, counseling, peer support, and therapy for anger management and nightmare reduction.

They practice relaxation techniques and communication skills, receive medication for frayed nerves and sleeplessness, and learn how to rejoin a world that often doesn't make sense to them when they return from combat.

Many young veterans come home "hooked on the adrenaline of war," said Alan Baehr, a psychologist and director of the program at the Tucson hospital.

After spending a year or more in mortal danger, "it's hard to re-engage in civilian life and have the things that matter to your friends and family matter to you. Everything seems so trivial, compared to the life and death of war," he said.

Common symptoms of PTSD include sleeplessness, anger and withdrawal. Another telltale sign among Iraq and Afghanistan vets is driving problems - driving too fast, swerving in traffic, or driving down the middle of the road - all due to lingering fears of roadside explosives.

Morales, a former Army combat engineer, conducted patrol raids with an infantry company for a year just outside the protected Green Zone in Baghdad. He and his battle buddies were attacked nearly every day during their tour, which began in April 2004.

As a result, Morales said, his task force lost five soldiers. But in Iraq, there was no time to grieve.

"At the time, you just have to shut everything down inside and keep going. You have to do your mission with a clear mind, or you're putting yourself, and the people you work with, in danger."

After 10 years in the Army, he quit shortly after his combat tour ended. He and his family left Fort Hood in Texas and came home to Tucson, where Morales spent most of his time locked in a bedroom, fuming at a world that, to him, seemed surreal.

It was the plea from his twin daughters, Luna and Soleil, that prompted him to seek help, he said. "I realized I wasn't really being a father to them."

After treatment, he said he still struggles, but his anxiety level has improved so much he's reconnecting with his family and plans to study electrical engineering at the University of Arizona.

His wife can see the changes.

"He's a whole lot more outgoing and communicative. It's still a daily struggle, but I'm slowly getting my husband back."