By John DeMayo She had the kind of hair any little girl would envy. In school, she was known by her hair. Even the teachers paid her compliments. So it was not surprising when she was questioned about its hurried and unskilled alteration. Moreover as a child does, she gave a child’s answer. “I got gum in it. My dad cut it. He told me not to chew gum in bed. He was mad. He has PTSD.” The following day, after being notified of by a teacher of potential child abuse, Family Protective Services and the police showed up at the little girl’s home to investigate. A few months prior, he was in a combat zone. Now faced with the abrupt assimilation demanded by an estranged family life had become a series of emotional peaks and valleys. His young daughter’s impromptu hair cut was not an overreaction. Had it been another child with another father, at another time, no report would have been filed. He was a US combat veteran. Family Protective Services took immediate custody of the little girl and her two siblings. They had determined that neither parent—mom was taking anti-anxiety medication to cope with the dad’s peaks and valleys—of working through this veteran’s transition period without government help. No one was injured. No one was harmed. It was all about perception. The family’s fate is now in the hands of judges and bureaucracies. I wonder if a Peace Corps volunteer returning from years in Rwanda would have been so easily judged. The problem with war is America has convenient memories. We have experienced this before yet the lessons, left to politicians and clinicians to interpret, often go unlearned. PTSD is part of human culture. To read more click the line or go to: militarywithptsd/americansbestforveteranptsd/
Posted on: Wed, 09 Apr 2014 00:11:11 +0000
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