Thousands of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan have suffered the effect of post-traumatic stress syndrome. A treatment developed for children with autism, could offer help.
Jonathan Warren left the army four years ago. The staff sergeant served two tours in Iraq, earning two Purple Hearts.
He lives in Orange County now, a long way from the war, but one memory continues to haunt him.
"I had a traumatic brain injury, cerebral spinal fluid coming out of my ears, and watched my best friend burning alive," Warren said.
In 2006, Warren and his team were in a Humvee hit by an IED blast. Remarkably, no one died. While his physical wounds healed, Warren's psyche was far more damaged. He didn't know how badly, until he returned to civilian life.
"Everybody was a threat, so I always sizing people up, seeing if they had a bomb," he said.
He was anxious, depressed, unable to sleep -- the symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. He tried to self-medicate using pain killers, alcohol and marijuana. He tried therapy, but nothing worked.
Then about a year ago, someone told him about the Brain Treatment Center in Newport Beach.
"We're using very powerful magnetic fields to change literally how the brain is working, literally the frequencies of how the brain is running," Dr. Robert Silvertz of the Barin Treatment Center said.
It's called neuromodulation and it's used to help children with autism by stimulating areas of the brain that aren't working like they should.
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Autism treatment could help veterans suffering from PTSD