Page 731 - Total War on PTSD

Gripping the edges of my seat, I tried to prepare myself for the loud clanking noise and the accompanying earthquake-like vibration beneath my feet.
Sporadic but jarring, the noise was coming from the elevator shaft just outside my classroom. Everyone else in the room seemed totally oblivious to the noise and vibration. Perched on the edge of my seat, I braced myself as I tried to predict when the next impact would occur.
I fought to stay in my seat and not run from the room and the building. Waves of nausea hit me and threads of tension spread throughout my body as my head throbbed and I stared at the course book, trying to read the same paragraph I’d already read several times before. The sound of metal against metal at the bottom of the elevator shaft sounded like a giant stack of weights on a workout machine amplified tenfold.
I spoke to one of the instructors after class in the first week, explaining what I was dealing with and how short a time it had been since I was in Afghanistan but the instructor didn’t seem to ‘get it’ and I knew any conversation with the other instructor, based on my experience with him, would be about as useful as making a peanut butter sandwich with a toothpick. While I still made it through to the end of the class, I am amazed that I didn't stop coming altogether. The only thing that kept me in that seat was my stubborn nature, borne through life from when I was very little.
The female Veteran mentioned below is a proudly stubborn, but very strong woman who made it through a lot in her life, in military service and otherwise. She may have struggled, but she also never gave up.
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