Steve Dripps was born November 23, 1979 at Rochester
Hospital in Rochester, PA. to Bruce and Nina Dripps. He grew up in New
Galilee, PA through 1979-1992 then later moved to Beaver Falls, PA from
1992-2005 and now currently resides in Butler, PA. Dripps attended Big Beaver
Falls Senior High School, where his army life began when he joined the army his
junior year. “I
joined as a junior in High School on January 13th, 1997. I knew that
college was not an option for me and didn’t have much else that I could do. My
basic training was in the summer of 1997 and I went to Military Police School
very soon after graduating High School”, Dripps stated. Dripps also said “the
Army offered me the job that I wanted. No other military service can offer the
job of your choice in contract.” Dripps duties in the Army included Military
Police, Recruiter and Retention NCO. While in the army Dripps was deployed to
Egypt in 1999, Bosnia in 2000, Washington DC in 2001, Iraq in 2003 along with
multiple stateside and oversea missions outside of the places listed earlier. Eventually
in April of 2009 Dripps hung up his boots for good, but before hanging up his boots, Dripps found out he had PTSD shortly after returning from Iraq.
PTSD comes in
many forms. Some are not as obvious as what a normal person would consider
PTSD. It is not always a person becoming startled during an event. Some
symptoms could be short-term memory loss, or avoiding situations that could
spark an old memory. Those symptoms are some that Dripps suffers still today.
With shortly finding out he had PTSD after being deployed in Iraq, Dripps personal experience was originally explosive outbursts of anger. He also stated “That doesn’t typically happen these days unless triggered. I still have trouble with large crowds and tend to lack emotion.” However along with his PTSD Dripps lives the normal family life.
Dipps himself goes into greater detail of what it is like
dealing with PTSD, including some interesting statements.
Dripps married Stephanie Foster on July 4th, 2008 and they now have 3 boys ranging in the ages of 2-7. She said “Something that can get frustrating about his PTSD is Steve's sleeping patterns. While in Iraq, he would be put on 24-48 hour shifts. From months of doing this, when he would nod off to sleep, his body would twitch to stimulate himself awake. Years later, this is still a habit of his. When he starts to fall asleep, he twitches. It usually lessens a couple of hours after he falls asleep, and then usually half way through the night he has one huge twitch that wakes us both up.”
Along with the statement above Stephanie continues to discuss
what it is like living with someone who has PTSD in the following videos. She also mentions how she found out Steve had PTSD.
Everyone has their own way of dealing with PTSD weather you’re
the one suffering from it or a close family member. Stephanie said “It can be
frustrating at times and I have to remind myself that it's not his fault and I
refuse to be mad at him for anything associated with it. At the end of the day,
we are extremely fortunate that his PTSD is limited to memory, sleep, and
crowds.
Recently Dripps attended The South University
obtaining an Associates in Information Technology in 2012 and a Bachelors in
Information Technology in 2014. He currently works for the United States
Government.
In closing Dripps said “My symptoms are
currently still occurring, however over the years I have learned how to deal
with them better. It’s easier to avoid stressful situations.”
