Post Trauma

The plethora of symptoms associated with PTSD make it that much harder to address, especially in a public setting.

Even many days later, there’s still some bit of news regarding the Las Vegas shooting. And I hope there would be, as awful as it was. The more we talk, the greater potential we have for actually putting words to action. A hopeful thought, but I’d like to think it isn’t too unrealistic.

Even after the news dies down and we’re onto the next big current event, the memory of this shooting won’t fade entirely. For many, it will pound at the psyche for years.

We often associate Post Traumatic Stress Disorder with veterans coming back from war. Men and women who cannot sleep without replaying horrific flashbacks or fear loud noises. And yes, this mental battle is one we actually need to fight, one much greater than physical warfare.

But PTSD affects many more people than we might realize. In the United States alone, we see over 3 million cases of PTSD per year. After a traumatic event, many people simply take a few weeks to return to normal functioning, but for others, symptoms persist that prevent someone from moving on to live a full life. An endless scenario that refuses to pass.

Symptoms generally vary among those affected, but they fall into four main categories: intrusive thoughts, avoidance, negative changes in mood, and negative changes in physical and emotional reactions. 

The first two criteria are what we commonly associate with PTSD, the sleepless nights, the avoidance of loud places. But there’s so much more involved, a complex web of emotional scarring. Symptoms can resemble depression, feeling disinterested in life and disconnecting from loved ones. You can become more irritable, more reckless, more numb.

The plethora of forms PTSD can take make it that much more difficult to understand and define. But welcome to the world that is mental health. We want to pigeonhole the typical appearance we expect from mental illness and anything that doesn’t fit into the mold is disregarded.

PTSD fits into no mold, but melds into any situation how it sees fit. It can lead to or be worsened by depression, anxiety, or addiction. Pinpointing where one diagnosis ends and another begins is like opening Pandora’s box, one we’d much rather leave shut.

But for Las Vegas, we have hundreds of people at risk. The immediate need to understand and treat PTSD requires us to gain awareness about its diverse role in mental health. What the shooter probably didn’t intend when he aimed at the concert crowd was the continuous shots fired for so many long after the violence ceased.

We should use this opportunity to not only help those affected by Las Vegas, but anybody we might have overlooked based on a stereotypical image of PTSD. More common triggers for PTSD are warfare and physical and sexual abuse, but many other traumatic events also can lead to PTSD, such as fire, natural disaster, mugging, robbery, plane crash, torture, kidnapping, life-threatening medical diagnosis, terrorist attack, and other extreme or life-threatening events. Just to name a few.

Just because you might not exude the typical symptoms of PTSD doesn’t mean your mental turmoil and emotions aren’t valid. You still deserve help and support. And you deserve to live a full life. When we deny and downplay others’ feelings, we devalue their experiences. We force these people back into roles they didn’t choose for themselves: victims, bystanders, broken people.

While it’d be great to see action on a political front to prevent future terrorist acts like Las Vegas, how we react in the meantime matters. Our immediate outreach for those involved was so inspiring to witness, but that support shouldn’t stop when we’re onto something new in the world. What is a passing headline for some is a life-altering sore in many people’s minds. 

We need to encourage therapy and clinical support for those who need it, now or in years’ time. We need to expand our definition of what PTSD is and what it “should” be. It’s a very real and scary condition, but one that can be treated and diminish. With its ties to neurological reactions, PTSD’s vicious cycle can be broken. 

We are not victims, regardless of what our thoughts might convince us, regardless of our individual experiences. For ourselves and others, health is a priority. Be willing to listen, to reach out, to seek opportunities you need even if others might not understand. 

You are not alone. And for everyone in Las Vegas and anyone who might be fighting mental battles, we are here for you.

Take care, and keep the faith. -Allie

Happy Violent Colonization Day!

The International Business Times is one of many outlets that have reported on protests against Christopher Columbus and this day. But who are the people protesting, and why aren’t we all?

You’d be lucky to find that proclamation in your calendar commemorating this day.

Not until recent years has there been controversy and backlash about this particular date. I haven’t been old enough to have an opinion outside of what was taught in history class. That history, by the way, mostly focused on the man that is Christopher Columbus, commissioned to sail the ocean blue in 14-hundred-92.

Despite my school and state’s significant Native American minority, we never once covered that point in history from their perspective. We maybe mentioned the names of tribes in the continental U.S., and that was about it. A white man’s history was the only history, and there was no reason to think otherwise.

I think now especially, as more people begin to speak up and gain greater awareness regarding one of our most marginalized populations, there’s a drive to celebrate the moments and people in history truly worth remembering.

There are only two federal holidays devoted strictly to one person: Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and Columbus Day. Knowing that, it practically means that both men are of equal importance to the American people. Two legacies that both deserve recognition.

However, they seem like polar opposites. One represents equality and hope, the other conquest and greed. Instead of standing up for the oppressed, giving a voice to a voiceless, Columbus brought a mentality with him that led to genocide and the start of a long history of seeing fellow human beings as “less than,” as “subhuman.” His discovery also planted the seeds that grew into the transatlantic slave trade.

That’s why so many activist groups and entire cities and states are opting out of Columbus Day and adopting Native American or Indigenous Peoples Day. We have entire months for other cultures and traditions, so the least we can do is a day, choosing to highlight what needs to be said and known about all Americans, no matter their skin color or country of origin.

Besides the fact today is what it is, I also thought of mentioning this today after hearing some of the news coverage from last week’s Las Vegas mass shooting. I do plan on discussing different aspects in light of this event, but one in particular is how the news has been classifying the violence, saying it’s “the worst massacre in American history.” And that is a flat-out lie, not that Trump would start tweeting to call that “fake news.”

Yes, Las Vegas and all home-grown terrorism (yes, this is terrorism. An act that evokes terror is terrorism) is devastating, but using that phrasing minimizes past tragedy and outright overlooks it altogether. The Wounded Knee massacre of 1890 far surpassed the 59 lost last week: roughly 250-300 men, women, and children died in a single day. That right there is a tragedy in of itself. One life is no less valuable than the next.

Our words, our actions, and our worldviews matter. How we respect others and their diversity is a reflection upon ourselves. Standing against Columbus Day and the history it represents should automatically be seen as a valiant act of justice and consideration. From Columbus Day, Thanksgiving, and the entire push to Westernize Native Americans, I think they deserve our support, and this is a way to show it. They are another thread in America’s tapestry that have the same rights and freedoms as we do. If the reverse were to be the case, that we have day set aside for a minority leader violently uprooting Caucasian lives and killing off major populations, how would we react?

Not only was Columbus not the first person to discover the Americas (the vikings and Polynesians beat him to it), but he was on his exploration for Europe to essentially ensure that the land was inhabited by “nonentities.” Columbus also didn’t popularize the idea that the earth was round. The educated Europeans of Columbus’s day widely acknowledged that the earth was not flat, contrary to reports.

It just makes sense to make a universal decision, rather than sporadic states and cities transitioning away from this tradition, to rethink Columbus Day. Either remove the day altogether, or denote the day for Indigenous Peoples. Along with this, we need more Native American representation in our education. We need a multicultural perspective on the history we are teaching to upcoming generations so they prevent the truth of history repeating itself. Our population only continues to become more diverse, playing host to a growing number of ethnicities, but our education needs to catch up accordingly.

Let us not forget the past few months of outrage over removing Confederate statues and flags from public views, most of which were created in mass production in the 20th century after the adoption of the Jim Crow laws and beginnings of the civil rights movement. The statues were built ultimately with a clear message in mind: white supremacy.

We seem to evolve so rapidly in some areas, but in areas that stain American history, we lag behind. We cannot afford to do this much longer without accepting the negative consequences. Why not be on the progressive side of history? The one acknowledging the value of everyone? The one seeking a future recognizing the past’s flaws and working toward a more just, equal society?

Take care, and keep the faith. -Allie

Dreamers

Those in the country under DACA deserve our support. Everybody deserves the rights to opportunity and freedom.

In light of another year since the events of September 11th, this is an ideal time to consider our country’s actions and intentions moving forward.

Last week, it was announced that the DACA program would soon come to an end. For thousands of people, that means that they would no longer be protected under the law as a child of an illegal immigrant.

Why has this decision come about? It originates in a fear that was proven on this day sixteen years ago. That was the moment the country confirmed a reason to bar its borders, barricade itself from outside intruders.

This transcended to every scale, institutional to individual. We became more suspicious of our neighbors, more defensive of our own lifelihoods and worldviews.

Xenophobia. A viral disease that has run rampant throughout the population. An outright avoidance or subtle microaggression toward “others,” people who don’t share our skin color, our beliefs, our country of origin.

Obviously this has been present long before 9/11. Dividing the world into “us” versus “them” makes it easier, to group diverse individuals into generic categories, like a list to check yes, these people are okay, or no, these people are enemies.

Perhaps somebody practices a different religion. Maybe they are trying to go through the process of citizenship or came to America to offer themselves and their families a better life. And yes, some enter the country with violent, harmful ideas in mind. But a few potential risks should not outweigh the vast number of people who want nothing more than peace and community.

We amplify the frequency and severity of terrorist attacks. First off, we usually only highlight those with a majority Caucasian demographic. Rarely do we mention the more prevalent violence occurring right under our noses in areas of poverty, Muslim-predominate areas. Violence for some has become part of everyday life, and yet so many of us turn a blind eye to such news.

Compassion in its truest form knows no borders, no divisions we have created. Our very country was founded on a belief of freedom and courage, except even then we harmed those different from us, people who had been on the continent long before pilgrims settled.

We still hold that double standard of promoting love and equality whilst undermining the predetermined “other.” That other just transforms into whatever we best see fit. Another testament of history repeating itself. When we allow fear and ignorance cloud our vision, we go against our moral standards of treating others with respect.

Where do we go from here? How do we move forward when our own human nature continually holds us back? Certainly it’s not a straightforward answer, an overnight flip of the switch. Again, this decision to end DACA did not generate out of thin air. Its origin is a gradually amplifying fear that has flooded over into outrage.

If emotions can drive us to the extremes of forcing innocent young people from the only home they’ve known and proposing a bordering wall shielding us from our neighbors, then emotions can do the opposite, too. Just as we fuel hate, we can fuel understanding, passion to improve ourselves and others, resounding love for every human on this planet.

I believe it is possible. Not easy, of course, but not out of reach. But it takes a communal movement to make traction. I see it in our reactions to the DACA decision. I see it in our drive to help victims of Hurricanes Irma and Harvey. I see it in little choices we make every day to support each other and simply show respect.

So let’s not look back at this day with fear. Let’s view it instead as a turning point. An opportunity to rise from the ashes and spread our wings with soaring compassion. We all deserve to dream. Let us not extinguish that fire.

Take care, and keep the faith. -Allie