PTSI Revisited

I’ve spoken earlier in this blog about my bouts with Post-Traumatic Stress Injury. I refer to it as “injury” rather than “disorder” because it is an externally inflicted wound. Some writers call it soul damage; others refer to it as a moral wound. I know from my own experience that it is the result of an experience (or series of experiences) so brutal that the psyche is permanently damaged and never heals.

So one learns to cope. Facing the memories is requisite. Writing about them is one of the best methods of confronting them. Hence so much of my writing, including Last of the Annamese. But sometimes a scent, a sound, a brief glimpse will ignite them all over again.

That happened to me when the reporter from the Howard County Times interviewed me a couple of weeks ago. She asked questions and prodded my memories. They came back at full strength.

You can read the results in her article: http://eedition.howardcountytimes.com/Olive/ODN/HowardCountyTimes/default.aspx

I never know when the haunting will return full bore. My job is to bear them and keep on working.