Everyone’s talking about PTSD nowadays as if it’s exclusively a soldier’s disease. ANY traumatic event can cause PTSD, whether it occurs in a war zone or in your own back yard. PTSD has been around for years under different names, “shell shock” “soldier’s heart” etc it is recognized more now than it ever has been, and thankfully now there is treatment available whereas in prior wars (WWII, Korea) you were expected to suck it up and move forward. My father is a Vietnam vet, but went in to the services with undiagnosed PTSD as a result of watching one of his older brothers drown right in front of him when he was a young child, less than 10. To this day he has difficulty going to a public swimming pool where kids are yelling and carrying on. He didn’t work on treatment until after he retired from the Air Force, 26 years later, as to admit that you had a problem was considered a sign of weakness by his superiors and something he could have been discharged for. Yeah, great house to grow up in.
Ray may have arrived in a “drop out” state, but he got to the one place he knew he could get help, at least subconsciously, so good for him! Most people with PTSD don’t have a safe place to go to, it’s part of how the disorder develops, everything you know and everything you think is safe turns out not to be, and the trauma worsens. Without treatment you are always subject to flashbacks, drop outs, whatever you want to call it. WIth treatment at least you have a fighting chance against the fear that goes with it.
Everyone’s talking about PTSD nowadays as if it’s exclusively a soldier’s disease. ANY traumatic event can cause PTSD, whether it occurs in a war zone or in your own back yard. PTSD has been around for years under different names, “shell shock” “soldier’s heart” etc it is recognized more now than it ever has been, and thankfully now there is treatment available whereas in prior wars (WWII, Korea) you were expected to suck it up and move forward. My father is a Vietnam vet, but went in to the services with undiagnosed PTSD as a result of watching one of his older brothers drown right in front of him when he was a young child, less than 10. To this day he has difficulty going to a public swimming pool where kids are yelling and carrying on. He didn’t work on treatment until after he retired from the Air Force, 26 years later, as to admit that you had a problem was considered a sign of weakness by his superiors and something he could have been discharged for. Yeah, great house to grow up in.
Ray may have arrived in a “drop out” state, but he got to the one place he knew he could get help, at least subconsciously, so good for him! Most people with PTSD don’t have a safe place to go to, it’s part of how the disorder develops, everything you know and everything you think is safe turns out not to be, and the trauma worsens. Without treatment you are always subject to flashbacks, drop outs, whatever you want to call it. WIth treatment at least you have a fighting chance against the fear that goes with it.