Art programs give hope to veterans facing PTSD

Transcript

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Nick Schifrin: Post-traumatic stress is far too common among veterans. Ten percent of men, nearly 20 percent of female veterans report symptoms at some point in their lives. But could the arts provide a needed prescription?

Stephanie Sy reports from Seattle for our ongoing coverage of the intersection of arts and health, part of our Canvas series.

(Singing)

Stephanie Sy: On a recent afternoon at the Seattle Opera, a group of military veterans prepares for an upcoming performance.

Woman: OK. Not a bad review. Thank you.

Stephanie Sy: This veterans choir is part of Path with Art, a Seattle nonprofit that offers a range of programming designed to promote public health.

Woman: Let’s go again.

Stephanie Sy: For Shanda De Anda, who served 24 years in the United States Air Force, the once a week ritual of singing with fellow service members has been healing.

Master Sgt. Shanda L. De Anda (Ret.), U.S. Air Force: Trauma changes who you are as a person.

Stephanie Sy: De Anda served in combat roles in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Bosnia. But it wasn’t until she retired from the Air Force in 2019 that she began to process all that she’d seen on the battlefield. She was diagnosed with PTSD.

Master Sgt. Shanda L. De Anda (Ret.): But I was like, I’m sure I don’t have that. I’m sure that’s not a problem for me. And then COVID hit, and I lost the ability of being really active and in the community. And so being alone with my thoughts became more a part of my life.

Stephanie Sy: She says, when even leaving her house made her terrified, her therapist referred her to Path with Art.

Master Sgt. Shanda L. De Anda (Ret.): Joining the veterans choir, where I’d be surrounded by other veterans, is a way of kind of finding my voice again.

Stephanie Sy: Randy Schoesler has also found a new voice in the veterans choir. He served in the Air Force for seven years until he says he was kicked out of the military in the early ’80s for being gay.

2nd Lt. Randy Schoesler (Ret.), U.S. Air Force: Randy Schoesler, I was very much in the closet, because, at the time, this was before don’t ask, don’t tell even.

Stephanie Sy: Yes.

2nd Lt. Randy Schoesler (Ret.): There was no defense. If you were found to be gay, it was instant discharge.

Stephanie Sy: What did you go through?

2nd Lt. Randy Schoesler (Ret.): Well, first, it was the shock. Then I lost my job because my clearance was immediately ripped.

Stephanie Sy: Schoesler struggles with depression. He’s been coming to Path with Art for six years.

2nd Lt. Randy Schoesler (Ret.): I need community. I need camaraderie. I need to be able to express myself.

Stephanie Sy: Path with Art has offered classes on everything from learning the basics of podcasting…

Man: You both have nice big voices.

Man: Really?

Stephanie Sy: … to pottery, acting and fashion design. The classes are available to low-income adults and all veterans for free.

Holly Jacobson, CEO, Path with Art: We have a mental health crisis. There’s no one magic pill that’s going to solve it all. And so the arts can play a role in helping fill that gap.

Stephanie Sy: Holly Jacobson, the CEO of Path with Art, says since launching the veterans program in 2019, participation has skyrocketed.

Holly Jacobson: It really did show that there was a need. So it’s now a quarter of our program, over 500 individuals last year.

Spc. Donna Baker (Ret.), U.S. Army: This is supposed to be a wolf.

Stephanie Sy: Here veterans are also employed as teachers. Artist Donna Baker teaches art classes using mixed media, including yarn.

Spc. Donna Baker (Ret.): When I get to the point where I can’t handle things, I go to art and it just kind of — it calms me down. It relaxes my mind. I feel at ease. I don’t feel anxious. I don’t feel like I have to battle the world.

Stephanie Sy: Baker was stationed in Germany during the late ’80s and early ’90s. A survivor of sexual assault, she says she still struggles with PTSD from her time in the Army.

Spc. Donna Baker (Ret.): In a lot of ways, I can totally connect. I can totally connect with maybe what they’re feeling, their angst, their pain, their suffering.

Stephanie Sy: Feelings that other military sexual assault survivors like Chris Wisdom share. She joined the Army in the late ’90s.

Private 1st Class Chris Wisdom (Ret.), U.S. Army: They were telling the females not to go out at night alone because there were a lot of attacks, that there were a lot of rapes. And it wasn’t by civilians coming on post. It was by your fellow soldiers.

And so the fire represents the anger and then the tears, the sorrow and sadness.

Stephanie Sy: More than two decades later, her artwork, including this mask, expressed what she went through.

So that mask, I named Explosive Emotions. I made that to represent when you try to suppress who you are and your feelings for so long with all that you have been through that eventually it’s just going to explode.

Susan Magsamen, Author, “Your Brain on Art”: The folks that have served our country so beautifully have come home and have experienced trauma in a way that many of us can’t understand.

Stephanie Sy: Susan Magsamen is the co-author of “Your Brain on Art” and an assistant professor of neurology at Johns Hopkins University. Her extensive research has included looking at Path with Arts programs and has found they are effective at improving mental health outcomes.

Susan Magsamen: And a lot of times, people talk about well why can’t you just get over something? And trauma is not like that. And so the way to get out, it turns out that these arts and aesthetic experiences can be incredibly valuable.

Something as simple as singing, which activates your parasympathetic nervous system, activates the vagus nerve, again connects you to each other, calms your physiology and makes you just feel better.

Stephanie Sy: For Shanda De Anda, it’s working.

Master Sgt. Shanda L. De Anda (Ret.): For a long time, I was trying to get back to who that version of Shanda was. But she isn’t here anymore. And mourning that loss and then celebrating the opportunity of developing a new Shanda is something I think Path with Art was extremely instrumental in making that happen.

Stephanie Sy: For so many here, it’s a step away from a painful past toward a more hopeful future.

For the “PBS News Hour” I’m Stephanie Sy in Seattle.