"Healing Our Soldiers" images are from the February, 2015 issue of <a href="http://www.nationalgeographic.com/healing-soldiers/" target="external">National Geographic magazine</a>. Army Staff Sgt. Perry Hopman, who served in Iraq from 2006-2008, confronts the battery of medications he takes daily for blast-force injuries he sustained while treating soldiers as a flight medic. "I know my name, but I don't know the man who used to back up that name."

Brain injuries caused by blast events change soldiers in ways many can't articulate. Some use art therapy, creating painted masks to express how they feel.

Tiffany H., as she prefers to be known, was "blown up" while helping women in a remote Afghan village earn additional income for their families. Memory loss, balance difficulties, and anxiety are among her many symptoms.

A soldier's mask is painted with words like hope, stress, anger, and IED.

Marine Cpl. Chris McNair, retired, who served in Afghanistan from 2011-2012, sits on the porch of his parents' home in Virginia. He says he was inspired after seeing an image of Hannibal Lecter's mask from "Silence of the Lambs."

A soldier's mask is painted red and riddled with pins.

Air Force Staff Sgt. Robert "Bo" Wester, retired, served in Iraq and Afghanistan. Suiting up before attempting ordnance disposal "is the last line. There's no one else to call ... It's the person and the IED ... and if a mistake is made at that point, then death is almost certain."

A soldier's mask is illustrated with wounds to the face and head.

"Healing Our Soldiers" will be featured in the February, 2015 issue of <a href="http://www.nationalgeographic.com/healing-soldiers/" target="external">National Geographic magazine</a>.

According to the Department of Defense, "Traumatic brain injury is one of the invisible wounds of war, and one of the signature injuries of troops wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq."