AP: How to Help When Smoking, Alcohol Complicate PTSD

The Associated Press spoke with IAVA Member Veteran Bryan Adams for this article about the correlation between PTSD and addiction to nicotine, alcohol, and drugs.   "People try to swallow it or take care of it on their own and it just kind of gets out of control," agrees Bryan Adams, 24, who is working with the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America to raise PTSD awareness. Adams, now a business major at Rutgers University, was awarded a Purple Heart after being shot when his Army patrol was ambushed in Iraq in 2004. Back home he handled restlessness and irritability with increasing alcohol use. Only when he got into college did a checkup lead to a PTSD diagnosis and therapy. He quit excessive drinking as the PTSD improved, despite no formal alcohol treatment.   [link]