One might think it’s unusual for a man in his mid-forties with a private practice in psychiatry, with a wife and two kids, and with and a comfortable home in the Milwaukee suburbs to enlist in the U.S.military. But that’s exactly what Major Mike McBride did.

McBride joined the Army Reserve Medical Corps in 2001 “as an emotional reaction to nine-one-one.” Since then, he has treated emotional reactions of a very different caliber: insomnia, hyperactivity, isolation, detachment, paranoia. These symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (or PTSD) have mentally wounded many young soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.

McBride just returned from a six-month tour in Iraq. When I pulled into his driveway last week I felt well acquainted with the science and politics behind PTSD.

However talking with McBride about his understanding of the disease and his first-hand experiences made my knowledge seem shameful, to say the least.  

I sat on his back porch in Elm Grove, Wisconsin, and listened to his stories from overseas. Many of them seemed similar to Sunday features in the New York Times or pre-commercial segments from the evening news, but there was no page to turn and there was channel to switch, and I had no desire to do such a thing.

McBride spoke of his experiences treating the war struck psyche with ambivalence.  When referring to PTSD he hinted at hope, noting recent successes where generals acknowledged the disease. Still, his voice often shuttered with dismay recounting the times soldiers were “mocked and ridiculed” for seeking treatment. Take a look at this video to get the story straight from a wartime psychiatrist.