thedrifter
03-03-06, 07:40 AM
`REMOVING THE VEIL'
Vietnam vet got help to fight his memories
By Peter Gorner
Tribune staff reporter
Published March 3, 2006
For most of his postwar life, Ned Broderick had the memories under control.
After serving 19 months with a combat Marine battalion in Vietnam in 1966 and 1967, Broderick went on to establish himself as a painter, sculptor and photographer.
In 1979 he co-founded a veterans art group that evolved into the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum, a collection of artworks created by more than 100 veterans. Broderick was president through 2002.
All along, Broderick said, he was dealing privately with the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Then they got worse, and for the first time he sought help.
"I was increasingly unable to suppress thoughts that related to combat," he said. "And heavy, bad dreams, flashbacks. About a year and a half ago, I lost the ability to push them back, to deal with them. ... They got so bad, I finally had to come in."
At the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, Broderick said, he got excellent treatment, including a prescription for propranolol. The drug has reduced his tension and helped him cope, he said. He now takes it only if he feels particularly stressed.
"I think that in order to have a better life, these drugs are very important," Broderick said. "They remove the veil, sort of. They're really helpful. I've lived with these memories a long, long time, and now I have something that weakens them."
"People tell me the drug changed their lives," said Dr. Joan Anzia, a psychiatrist who until recently was chief of the day program at Jesse Brown.
"When I saw a new patient, I generally asked them, what are the symptoms that are troubling you the most? If they told me ... that they're constantly on edge and can't concentrate, they're having nightmares and flashbacks, I'd offer then propranolol," said Anzia, who now works at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Anzia said some of the combat veterans had never been treated in 30 years or told anyone what they'd been through. The drug sometimes allowed them "to manage the feelings enough so they can talk about them and reconstruct the narrative," she said. "To make a meaningful life story for themselves."
pgorner@tribune.com
Ellie
Vietnam vet got help to fight his memories
By Peter Gorner
Tribune staff reporter
Published March 3, 2006
For most of his postwar life, Ned Broderick had the memories under control.
After serving 19 months with a combat Marine battalion in Vietnam in 1966 and 1967, Broderick went on to establish himself as a painter, sculptor and photographer.
In 1979 he co-founded a veterans art group that evolved into the National Vietnam Veterans Art Museum, a collection of artworks created by more than 100 veterans. Broderick was president through 2002.
All along, Broderick said, he was dealing privately with the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Then they got worse, and for the first time he sought help.
"I was increasingly unable to suppress thoughts that related to combat," he said. "And heavy, bad dreams, flashbacks. About a year and a half ago, I lost the ability to push them back, to deal with them. ... They got so bad, I finally had to come in."
At the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center, Broderick said, he got excellent treatment, including a prescription for propranolol. The drug has reduced his tension and helped him cope, he said. He now takes it only if he feels particularly stressed.
"I think that in order to have a better life, these drugs are very important," Broderick said. "They remove the veil, sort of. They're really helpful. I've lived with these memories a long, long time, and now I have something that weakens them."
"People tell me the drug changed their lives," said Dr. Joan Anzia, a psychiatrist who until recently was chief of the day program at Jesse Brown.
"When I saw a new patient, I generally asked them, what are the symptoms that are troubling you the most? If they told me ... that they're constantly on edge and can't concentrate, they're having nightmares and flashbacks, I'd offer then propranolol," said Anzia, who now works at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Anzia said some of the combat veterans had never been treated in 30 years or told anyone what they'd been through. The drug sometimes allowed them "to manage the feelings enough so they can talk about them and reconstruct the narrative," she said. "To make a meaningful life story for themselves."
pgorner@tribune.com
Ellie