Latina Immigrants Suffer Post-Traumatic Disorders : Medicine: The stress is caused by violence during their journey north and the fear of being caught, doctors say.

Monica Celis was four months pregnant when she was raped repeatedly by the man she had hired to help her cross the border several months ago.

She screamed as she attempted to fend off her attacker with her fists. But her cries merely echoed in the dark mountains and empty canyons between the United States and Mexico.

“I felt like my life was ruined,” sobbed Celis, who entered this country illegally.

Today, Celis, 24, is among a growing number of Latina immigrants who have been found to have post-traumatic stress disorder from their journeys north.

Some women suffered beatings or other assaults; others were traumatized by their flight from border police and their terror of being caught. Upon reaching San Diego, they developed emotional paralysis so overwhelming that the majority ended up settling within 10 miles of the border. Many are so afraid that they remain indoors day after day, say the medical experts who have treated them.

Post-traumatic stress disorder has been commonly associated with war veterans, but it also affects victims of disasters and violence, including earthquakes, plane crashes, assaults and rapes. Experts estimate that 1% of the population suffers from the disorder.

In the first such study of 200 Latinas who crossed the border from Mexico, 20% have been found to have the disorder, said Dr. Rodrigo Munoz, a clinical professor of psychiatry at UC San Diego Medical School.

“That is incredibly high,” said Munoz. “We have identified a population of individuals who are grossly maladjusted, who stay within 10 miles of the border, who have suffered degradation so extreme that we have trouble getting them to speak.”

Victims can be treated with therapy or, in some cases, medication. In treating the Latinas, Munoz found that he not only treats the disorder but the fallout from women’s shattered dreams.

“Once you make it here, it’s like you’ve reached the promised land--you have what everybody in your village wanted. The reality is the opposite; you live in fear, you don’t have (immigration) papers, you are restricted in your ability to work, and you often feel completely alienated,” said Munoz, who is also a trustee of the American Psychiatric Assn. “Yet they know they cannot go back empty-handed, saying they have failed, so they have to stay and try.”

The high incidence of post-traumatic stress disorder among the Latina immigrants may be slightly inflated, Munoz acknowledged, because he was examining a patient population that sought help for physical ailments. “Even so, it is too high,” he said.

Experts believe that the high incidence can be attributed to the women’s vulnerability in the no-man’s land of the border, notorious for its rugged terrain as well as for murders, robberies and other violence.

“It’s alarming,” said Dr. Fernando Bayardo, a local psychiatrist who has treated post-traumatic stress disorder among Latino workers. “But I would expect to see a high prevalence on the border.”

When Munoz began his work in 1990, he was studying the incidence of depression among two groups of women, one that came here recently and has post-traumatic stress disorder, and, as a control group, Latinas who have been here for 11 years after crossing the border.

To his astonishment, he began seeing numerous cases among the new arrivals that fit the clinical description of post-traumatic stress disorder, which he considered to be rare. However, there were no cases among the control group.

Over the years, the disorder has been given various labels, including shellshock, battle fatigue, traumatic neurosis and war neurosis. Of the 3.5 million American men and women who served in the Vietnam War, between 700,000 and 800,000 suffer post-traumatic stress disorder, according to the American Psychiatric Assn.

In the United States, estimates vary tremendously. The American Psychological Assn. says there are “hundreds of thousands” of sufferers. An estimated 4.4 million women living in the United States suffer the disorder, said Heidi Resnick, professor of psychiatry at Medical University of South Carolina’s Crime Victims Center.

The symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder usually emerge months or even years after the trauma. Those who suffer from the disorder have repeated flashbacks in which they re-experience the traumatic event.

At other times, they have intense nightmares, insomnia or depression, medical experts say. Some are hit with overwhelming onslaughts of emotions--tears that will not stop, grief that is all-consuming.

Resnick and some doctors believe that crime is more likely than disasters or accidents to lead to post-traumatic stress disorder. Since many of the Latinas are victims of violence, Resnick said, the diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder among them was predictable.

In Celis’ case, she crossed the border one night last spring, leaving Tijuana with a coyote and two other would-be immigrants. When the coyote asked Celis to move away from the group, she thought he wanted her to help him look for border police.

Some distance from the others, he told her that she would have to have sex with him or she would never arrive in the United States.

“I refused and started crying,” said Celis, speaking through an interpreter. “I wanted the immigration police to come. He told me there was nothing I could do and that nobody was going to help me.”

After the rape, Celis was terrified to stay in the dark underbrush. Though loath to follow her attacker, she numbly did. Reaching San Ysidro, Celis fled from him.

Terrified, she boarded a trolley. A middle-aged Latino couple who sat next to her ended up taking in the young woman for the night.

After Celis found a place to live, she returned to Mexico to fetch her three children. The fourth was born here.

Today, she and her children share a one-bedroom apartment in San Ysidro with another family. She cannot speak English. She has all but given up on her idea of becoming a nurse or a cosmetologist. And she is haunted by nightmares and fears.

“I thought I’d have my own place to live, go to school, have a job, have a career,” said Celis. “I never thought it would be the best life in the world, but I didn’t think it would be the way it is now.”