Searching
For A PTSD Exit By Michael Kent
When Tiffany Horan walks into her neighborhood TGI Fridays with her family, she views her surroundings with a nervous eye darting around the room. Her first thought is to look for an emergency exit. What can she use as a weapon? How does she get her family out of here? What if there’s an active shooter?
Ashlyn, Kevin, Jackson, Tiffany, Madisen and Cooper.
F
or most people this is not a normal reaction when taking the family out for a relaxing dinner. For Tiffany it is normal. And it’s exhausting.
After two tours in Iraq as a Marine, Horan bears the invisible scars of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as the result of serving her country in a war zone. These scars will never leave her. She knows she will only be able to manage the PTSD. Managing PTSD can be fleeting since she works as a nurse at the Fred and Lena Meijer Heart Center in Grand Rapids. The sight of dead bodies, the smell of blood can trigger a traumatic reaction and bring back memories. It can cause her to revisit the trauma of war. “I won’t freak out at work, but by the time I get home, I’m exhausted mentally and emotionally. I’m drained,” says Horan. Horan signed up for the Marines shortly after the 9/11 attacks. She joined because she was shocked that America appeared vulnerable. She wanted to make a difference and she wanted to challenge herself. “If I can get through the Marines I can handle anything,” says Horan. Any deployment to a war zone can lead to emotional scars, but Horan says as a woman
12 – GATHER Veterans
