Invisible wounds

Today is a more serious one, PTSD Awareness Day.  The awareness color is teal, but this is as close as I could get.
As I've established in the past my maternal grandfather fought in WWII and saw things he'd never forget.  Understandably he came back from the war a little shell-shocked, though not anywhere near as badly as some folks.  He did admit that fresh out of the war he wasn't well, and had it not been for Grandma his life might not have gone as positive as it did.  Nonetheless Grandpa lived well and functioned, but he was afraid of fireworks and sudden noises for the rest of his life.  Like all men who worked behind enemy lines he saw plenty of horrible things, and those things tended to haunt him as well.  He had comrades who came back from the war way worse off than he was, but if asked he'd be the first one to admit that he had a little "shell-shock," the term for PTSD back then.

Of course one doesn't have to experience a war to have post-traumatic stress disorder.  It could be a car accident, a sexual assault (or a regular assault), a natural disaster, the list goes on.  I remember reading an article, written in autumn of 1997, where child survivors of the Jarrell, Texas tornado had asked for more counselling, six months after the fact.  Even now the wounds run raw for some of those people.  Same is true for Joplin, and for anywhere else that's felt the sting of a violent tornado (or other natural disaster, for that matter).  Either way, if you've got PTSD, please know that you are loved and you are being prayed for.  Don't give up looking for help.

Love,
RagingMoon1987

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Let freedom ring

Image
Yet another patriotic one.  This one came from Etsy, but I don't know what shop it was. This one is one of three that my mother got for me in one fell swoop.  The others are the jellybean bow from June 3rd and the flag bow from June 14th . Like them, this bow is a big one. Let freedom ring, baby!  I remember sharing my memories of Flag Day, but I don't remember sharing memories of the Fourth of July...at least, not here.  Oh, I've got so many!  Halloween is my mother's favorite holiday, and Independence Day was my dad's for reasons unknown.  May have had something to do with his love for history.  But anywho, about April Daddy would start setting aside a little money here and there for fireworks, and as July 4th rolled around he'd buy fireworks with that money.  A few here, a few there, a whole sh!tload at Reeve's Boomland in Charleston...oh, Boomland.  I liked going there, but as I grew older I began to realize that it was kinda a dangerous place.  Not for
Read more

Pac-Man fever

Image
For the record, I suck at Pac-Man.  I've only played it a handful of times, but each time I couldn't get past the first level.  I guess it's one of those games that requires practice and patience...and patience is NOT one of my virtues!  Regardless, I do like Pac-Man.  Compared to the dumb video games we have today Pac-Man's simple innocence is...well, it's pretty nice.  Unfortunately I'm about to make myself look like a complete hypocrite, because my Pac-Man is munching more than just little white pellets! Phooey on pellets and fruit and ghosts, Pac-Man's hitting the hard stuff!  The Etsy carrier, DollfaceDesignss , goes heavy on the horror, so I guess Pill-Popper Pac-Man is kinda tame compared to Psycho .  Whatevs, I like my accessories a little (or a lot) on the offbeat side, so I'm happy.  This is a mighty nice bow, by the way.  Some of my bows pull my hair like mad, but this one slid right in. In addition to the goofy hair bow I've gone with Pac
Read more

The Marauder's Map

Image
Story time.  When I was a freshman in high school I had a friend who turned out not to be so great a friend after all.  We hung out together because our mothers were both teachers and because we both claimed to be holier than thou.  And because we were holier than thou, we were above the witchcraft and wizardry that was Harry Potter.  Not too long after she'd led me to believe the books were satanic, she spread a rumor that I was suicidal and that was the end of that "friendship."  My opinions on everything changed, but by that time I was too disgusted with life to even try the books I'd deemed evil, so I didn't read the Harry Potter series until I was about twenty-nine or so. Now the painful time that was my freshman year is far behind me, though the memories do still sting.  I learned some valuable lessons and figured out who my real friends were, so it wasn't all bad.  I've stuck to my guns regarding my religious faith, but I also remembered that books
Read more