NPR reports on veterans struggling with traumatic flashbacks who’ve found peace in exploring underwater. “I went through group therapies. I was actually institutionalized for a little while because of the PTSD,” Tim Maynard tells NPR. “I went through some electric therapy, one-on-one counseling, they put me through medication for about two years — and nothing was really working.” Then Maynard discovered scuba diving.
“That first time I got in the water, it was just — it was like everything stopped. Everything,” Maynard tells NPR. “I was just mind-blown at how alone yet safe I felt. I just felt like nothing else mattered except for me swimming around right there.”
“I don’t have to take my medicine for it anymore, because I’m diving so regularly,” says Maynard. “I feel a sense of euphoria for two or three days after I do the dives.”
“You start hearing yourself taking your breath in and then the bubbles coming out,” veteran Marlene Krpata tells NPR. “You start to breathe a little slower and everything slows down for you.”
Some Veterans Find Peace Thanks To Scuba Gear, Quiet Waters (NPR, September 7, 2014)
