Another snowy day. Yes, this is a repeat of last winter, except with even more frigid debauchery on the part of mother nature. Snow tomorrow. Ten snows in December. Ten. I can deal with it better in that month, because Christmas is coming then, with New Years to follow. Now, I am just hunkered down, enduring and wondering how to entertain myself instead of simply writing all the time. And suffering under the imperial and arrogant whip of my guardian, Harvey. He went out in the blowing 'white ash,' as I termed the falling stuff earlier today. He sniffed, stopped, licked his front paws, turned, looked at me and I understood. I apologized, and let him back in. It is all my fault, you see. That is what it is like to be held in a chattel relationship like this.
i was at the North Chicago Base today. There was a ton of discussion going on, this day, about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. It seems that DSM V (the bible of psychological disorders), which will be coming out later this year, and it is supposedly going to get the bottom of this disorder. Who knows? It is being written 'in secret.' Dick Cheney is, no doubt, somehow involved, which would make sense as he has given more people traumatic stress than any other living human in recent history. In listening to the 'experts,' none of whom suffer from the disorder, I have come to the conclusion that there is something to be said about it that they are missing. Here is my treatise on PTSD
Post traumatic stress is that condition, typified by terrible dreams (even night terrors), lack of quality sleep capability, drug and alcohol addiction, broken families, arrest records, and a certain paranoia and hyper-vigilance. It is created by exposure to extreme trauma. Since I have enjoyed this condition since returning from the fields of combat in Vietnam, I have the following classifications to make, with respect to the levels of trauma which generate the disorder. So far, I have only ever heard of PTSD being considered as a single similar effective condition. I believe otherwise. I think this mental condition is a group of swirling tornado's hidden inside the big overall twister, if you will allow the analogy.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
I. Direct - The person who suffers at this level, does so because of direct physical and psychological trauma. Penetration of the body by bullets and shrapnel, the killing of troops and civilians, the torture of combatants and non combatants, and, of course, the tortured as well. The 'stressor' for this condition is direct and experienced by the body as well as the mind. These sufferer's are typified by the wounded actors who survive the combat or disaster, such as the actual surviving passengers on an airplane which has crashed, wherein most other's were lost.
2. SR-!. This stands for Steps Removed, One. The 'one step removed' sufferer has not experienced the trauma directly, at least not upon his or her body, or visited violence upon the body of another. Instead, they have witnessed the carnage. They have flown over it and dropped bombs. They have counted and taken care of the bodies of the dead. They have ministered to the wounded, and dead, as well. They are are there, on the scene of the disaster but not an active player in the violence. Those sufferers might best be typified as the immediate rescue crews who show up at the airplane crash scene and administer aid to the survivors, count and care for the dead, etc. They were there but not actors in the 'play.' They were, more or less, the 'stage crew.'
3. SR-2. This stands for Steps Removed, Two. The 'two steps removed' sufferer was not there, where the stressor of actual physical disaster or combat occurred. They might have been there later or in the general area. But they witnessed either the carnage or were involved with the people who were directly involved. They may also have experienced the loss of some of those people who were co-workers or friends. Those sufferers might be typified as the relatives gathered after being informed of the disaster, and gathered together at the airport or some hotel to await news and survivors.
4. SR-3. This stands for Steps Removed, Three. The 'three steps removed sufferer was not on the scene either. But they were impacted by the stories or representations of others, including those that were delivered by the media. Using the air crash analogy again, those are the sufferers who see the event on television, or are at the airport for other reasons and hear and gather over the grieving relatives of the survivors and the dead.
Now that we have developed a classification system, the application of psychological assistance becomes truly complex and labyrinthian. You see, the counselor must deal with prevarication. There is a natural human tendency for the sufferers of post traumatic stress to want to be in some other classification than the one they find themselves in. The direct survivors and sufferers want to be in a more removed classification and it becomes very very difficult to get those people to tell the truth about what they really experienced. They minimize, or lie. Conversely, the people who suffer further down in the classifications have some unaccountable urge to make their own experiences more graphic and more direct. They maximize or invent.
in other words, everyone is lying almost all the time about whatever it was that happened or did not happen to them! However, once adopting the classification system, a counselor can begin to attempt to place sufferers into certain areas. The effects of post traumatic stress are different for each classification, you see! The direct sufferers, who were involved with penetrating deep trauma, become less violent, more docile and even tend toward self-conclusion on a regular basis. Unless they encounter very dominant authority, in which case they can become extremely violent in an instant. Road rage is a typical by-product of the direct sufferer. On the other end of the spectrum, the 'third step removed' sufferer is given to threats and posturing. Real violence or self destruction (suicide) are not as likely because the effects of the stressor cause the sufferer to embellish and then wait, hyper-vigilant, to see if the data they have imparted is going to be accepted. The only real violence from the low end of this classification spectrum may come from such direct uncovering of lies or embellishments. This is, of course, to be avoided by counselors. These sufferers may be typified as people who get in bar room fights on a regular basis, wear semi-military outfits, etc.
There you have it. This is my take on probably the key psychological imbalance of my life. One I live with and accommodate as best I can. One that I blame for my 'arrogance.' Well, not really. I have written this on the blog, not to entertain or interest you, as I probably did not. I have written it to memorialize it for the future. I have nowhere else to take it.
John Stewart was maligning Caroline Kennedy on his show this evening (it is actually the re-run of his show last night). I did not like it. Caroline is mine. Ours. She is of the fabric of this nation, so stamped and cut back during those days of 1963. She also has to have post traumatic stress, so she is a 'sister' to me. I hope she does not become a Senator, however. I do not think she has the two-faced capability given to the people who sit in those chairs. I wish her bliss. I wish her quietude and peace. And great good fun. I see no fun at all on the senate floor. And it is okay that she says 'you know?' all the time. You see, she is an SR-2.
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