Motorcycle Riding Can Help Heal PTSD, Says Army vet

Army veteran Montgomery Granger gave up riding a motorcycle decades ago to allay his wife’s fears. But he’s never given up his belief that riding and caring for a motorcycle can be a spiritual, healing experience, especially for veterans suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.

“On a motorcycle you’re one with nature and you’re not a spectator,” says Granger, who spent 22 years in the U.S. Army Reserves as a field medical assistant and now lives on Long Island in New York. “Any time you put your foot down, you touch the ground; there’s no separation between you and your environment.”

So Granger isn’t surprised that U.S. Air Force veteran Patrick Romeo of Youngstown has decided to ride his Harley Davidson in the Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge, a 10,000 miles cross-country ride that begins Aug. 9. Romero, a former firefighter, hopes to raise at least $10,000 for Resurrecting Lives Foundation, an Ohio organization that helps veterans with traumatic brain injuries (TBIs).

The challenge attracts many veterans, which makes sense, says Granger.

“Riding a motorcycle is an incredibly liberating feeling,” he says. “It’s like flying and kind of frees the soul. It can be a total release.”

Granger has a connection with Resurrecting Lives too – he is a friend of founder Dr. Chrisanne Gordon, who he says has a unique understanding of traumatic brain injuries and PTSD.

“Chrisanne is one of my heroes,” Granger says. “She is proof that this a brain injury can be treated successfully.” Granger is referring to Gordon’s own successful recovery from a TBI, which has informed her work with Resurrecting Lives.

Granger doesn’t believe he has PTSD, but he’s sure he had TBIs as a result of an 11-month deployment in Iraq. He’s been able to overcome them with the support of his wife, five children and steady jobs in education, currently as the associated administrator for physical education and operations for Wyandanch Union Free School District in New York.

But for veterans without that support or those who need more ways to heal, Granger suggests joining a group of motorcycling veterans.

“One of the safest ways to ride is with others, especially if you’re new to motorcycling,” he says. “There’s so much that motorcycle riding can open up to a person. It releases pain and anguish and can have a healing property.”

Caring for a motorcycle also has a healing effect, something Granger learned from the book, Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiryinto Values, by Robert Persig. Granger first read the book as a teenager when he began riding a motorcycle, then revisited it a few years later.

“Dealing with the mechanics of a motorcycle becomes therapeutic in itself,” Granger says. “Only you know how well you’ve fixed your machine, the quality of the mechanics you’ve put into it. Just like only you can know the quality of the things you eat, the exercise you get or the relationships that you have.”

For more information about Resurrecting Lives, see ResurrectingLives.org.