PTSD Psychiatrist Serving New London, CT

New London has a deep connection to the water and to the military. The Coast Guard Academy is here. Groton, just across the river, is home to the Naval Submarine Base. A lot of people in this community have served — or love someone who has — and they understand firsthand that coming home doesn't mean leaving it all behind. Combat PTSD, operational stress, the moral injuries that build up from deployment — these are real, they're serious, and they deserve serious care. Sindhia Shyras, APRN is board-certified and has spent nine-plus years working in psychiatric care, including with patients navigating the particular weight that military service can leave behind. She offers both telehealth and in-person care, and she doesn't need you to explain yourself before she'll take you seriously.

What Combat and Military Trauma Actually Does

The body that came home isn't always the same body that left. And that's not a metaphor. Military service — especially combat deployment — rewires the nervous system in ways that can last for years. Hypervigilance that made perfect sense downrange becomes exhausting and isolating at home. You're scanning every room. You can't ride in a car without watching for roadside threat. Fireworks, crowded places, sudden noises — your system treats them like emergencies because it learned to, because that's what kept you alive. But now it doesn't know how to stop. That's PTSD. And it's not a sign that you can't handle things. It's a sign that you've been through things most people can't imagine.

You Don't Have to Have Seen Combat

PTSD in military and Coast Guard members doesn't only come from direct combat. It can develop from witnessing trauma, from life-threatening training accidents, from the sustained stress of high-stakes work over years, from sexual assault within the military — which is far more common than the institution tends to admit. If you've served in any capacity and you're struggling now, your experience is valid and your symptoms are real. Sindhia won't make you prove you deserve help. She'll just start from where you are.

For First Responders in New London County

The police, fire, and EMS community in New London and the surrounding area deal with things that accumulate — scene after scene, call after call, years of witnessing human suffering and crisis without much support for the toll it takes on them. First responder PTSD often goes unrecognized partly because the culture values toughness, and partly because the symptoms can look like other things — irritability, alcohol use, relationship trouble — rather than the textbook PTSD presentation. Sindhia approaches first responder trauma with real understanding, not clinical distance. She gets that the job makes this complicated. You don't have to explain that part.

Frequently Asked Questions