Individual Liberty—Progress—Humanity—Ethics—Rule of Law
"...if by a liberal they mean someone who looks ahead and not behind, someone who welcomes new ideas without rigid reactions, someone who cares about the welfare of the people—their health, their housing, their schools, their jobs, their civil rights, their civil liberties—if that is what they mean by a "liberal," then I am proud to be a liberal."
I know a young man who has PTSD. And when I say young man I really do mean young. He is only 14, and that just barely by virtue of an end of June birthday. So now I am sure you are wondering how a child who is on the cusp of puberty has a syndrome which is usually reserved for battle weary soldiers. Well in his own way he is a battle weary soldier.
When this young man had just turned three his father had his mother removed from the house under the pretense that he was fearful for his children's safety. An emergency 209A (restraining order) was granted and in the middle of the night she was removed. Was she really a threat to her children and their safety? Not really, but she was a threat to dad and his girlfriend. She went out one door and dad had the girlfriend moved in within 24 hours. Thus began a long and protracted court battle with mom trying to regain custody and dad determined not to allow it if at all possible. Why? The girlfriend was pregnant and he did not want to have to maintain two families.
At three years of age, a boy's mom is his world and to have that suddenly torn asunder is so traumatizing. Mum is gone but where did she go? When the little boy asks about mum he is told that she left him and if he persists in knowing where she is, rather than being given an answer, he is beaten. This then dredges back up those times he had seen dad throw mom into walls and gives rise to the statement that he later made to a counselor that it was "a good thing mummy has bones in her head", alluding to a time when he had seen dad go to punch mom she ducked, he connected to the wall and put his fist through it.
Eventually mum regained custody, Now she has her son back but with an added little bit...a child who is suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. While not quite the same as having seen one's buddy's head or other appendages blown off, but traumatic enough to have permanently damaged his fragile psyche just the same way that those soldiers from war after war have been damaged. The same sorts of symptoms...the flashbacks, the loss of time, the spatial disorientation. This came out full blown last Thursday afternoon when a simple hand placed on his arm sent him into a frenzy.
The ambulance was called, the police arrived as well and it took seven EMT's and police officers to control this youngster who is by no stretch of the imagination a large person. The adenalin was pumping, the language was flowing, and he remembers nothing of it now. What must it be like for those parents, wives, girlfriends who are presented with the same sort of scenario when their returning soldier sinks back into the dark hole of trauma? What hope would they have of calming or subduing an adult who is in the throes of PTSD when it took those who were three times this child's size to even get him into the back of the ambulance?
It is a syndrome that the VA wants to re-label and call readjustment disorder. Ask just about any adult what PTSD is they cannot tell you but would be the first ones to say that they support our troops...as long as they are overseas. It is a whole different ballgame when they come home and are suffering from something like PTSD. Some of those suffering with it have never had to leave home.
