Originally posted on NewsNetNebraska
By Riley Johnson, News21
Dominic Biondo, 35, experienced post-traumatic stress upon returning to the University of Nebraska-Lincoln from Iraq and his work with a defense contractor. (Photo by Riley Johnson, News21)
Dominic Biondo can feel it coming back on.
He’s tossing and turning at night, exhausted during the day. He has started finding time to nap, and scotch and vodka have found their way back into his evening routine. The 35-year-old Air Force veteran hasn’t returned to splashing Baileys Irish Cream into his coffee, but he bought a bottle at the store recently.
And the anger that once clouded his days as an undergraduate student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln has crept back into his life.
“How do I not hate everything?” Biondo said of his continued fight with the post-traumatic stress brought on by his time in the interrogation rooms at Abu Ghraib in Iraq and at a defense contractor several years ago.
Dominic Biondo is one of many post-9/11 veterans who have battled post traumatic stress upon returning from their battles in Iraq and Afghanistan. The number of annual cases of post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, has risen substantially since the early 2000s for soldiers serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom, Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation New Dawn.