Wednesday, November 9, 2011

Makes me think...

So on our fabulous trip from Kansas to Georgia I was in one vehicle with 2 danes, 2 cats and a grouchy teenage girl and husband was driving the Uhaul with a lab as his driving buddy while towing his truck.

The trip was going good til...we made it to a small gas station in Northern Georgia..and husband had problems with the debit card and couldn't get it to work..so he wasn't happy about it and started to have a melt down. I got him calmed down and had him go wait by the Uhaul while I got the gas paid for..there was a woman standing behind me and she made some comments about how my husband was acting like a total jerk and some other things. Well it took everything I had not to rip her head off..then it hit me we are in a whole different world, away from the Army and people that know about PTSD so I calmly explained to her that my husband was injured and has severe/chronic PTSD along with a mTBI and that he can't always control himself and that we have been driving for 2 days already. Everyday our civilian counterparts hear about PTSD, TBI's and other injuries but they really don't understand them, because its something they are not exposed to as much as those of us that are around the military daily.

I don't want my husband to be veiwed as the "weird guy" on the street and I want people to understand that while he has PTSD he is still a wonderful guy...he tries to keep it all together and for the most part he does but like any injury there are residual effects...he can't handle crowds, he can't handle people looking at him, he can't handle loud noises(fireworks, cars backfiring and so forth), he can't be alone for long periods of times because he's impulsive and can't control his actions...and so forth. It's not my husband its a horrible injury that makes him this way...and all soldiers & civilians with PTSD are people..they are living, breathing people who feel pain when they are judged. They feel everything and to be judged and treated like garbage because of this injury is wrong...just because you can't see an injury doesn't mean its not there and just because you can't see the damage PTSD does doesn't mean its not there..I've seen first hand the damages of PTSD. Please don't judge to harshly when you hear someone has PTSD..you never know when you could be facing this injury..

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