Ever since 47-year-old Andy Kaufmann retired from the U.S. Army in 2009, scenes from active duty in Iraq, Bosnia, and the Saudi Arabia and Kuwait border have rattled his body and mind— giving him hyper-vigilance, disrupting his sleep and memory function, and threatening his marriage of 21 years.
Kaufmann, of Montpelier, Va., thought he had tried everything to shake post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a condition common among military veterans that will affect nearly 8 percent of Americans at some point during their lifetime, according to the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (VA). After serving in Iraq, Kaufmann suffered an injury that required more than 20 surgeries on his back and neck, and caused short-term memory loss. The father-of-three tried traditional talk therapy and a slew of common prescription medications, and even tried magnetic resonance therapy, an experimental treatment. When none of those things worked, Kaufmann developed an alcohol dependency.
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