Michelle Tackabery

I’ve been listening to “The Mindscape of Alan Moore” as I work this morning. Moore talks about growing up, dropping out of what we in the US would call high school, working in a string of increasingly more disgusting low-paid jobs, and then becoming a comic writer whose work was immediately hailed as a genius. I’ve had this movie sitting in one of my YouTube play lists for a couple of years, but apparently today was the day to watch it.

So here is what he said that made me understand why I was having such a hard time with my memoir lately. Well, not a hard time, but having difficulty actually working on it because I couldn’t stop bloody procrastinating:

Quitting my day job and starting my life as a writer was a tremendous risk; it was and always is a leap, a shot in the dark. But anything of any value in our lives–whether that be a career, a work of art or relationship, will always start with such a leap. In order to be able to make it you have to put aside the fear of failing and the desire of succeeding. You have to do these things completely purely, without fear, without desire, because things that we do without lust of result are the purest actions that we shall ever take.

Yes, I was wanting it to succeed so much that I was paralyzed to continue. Today I have been blessed with śrutá–and I have heard.

• Alan Moore’s Dodgem Comics
• Wikipedia: Alan Moore

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My first book, written by me for Chris Lynch, was published December 26, 2012 by Balboa Press. Within Your Reach: A Journey Through Diabetes, relates the transformational road on which Chris embarked after being diagnosed with diabetic ketoacidosis. Admitted to Carolinas Medical Center-Pineville with a blood sugar level of 1469 mg/dl, Chris was near death and expected to be insulin-dependent for the rest of his life.

Within four months, Chris was completely off insulin. To learn more and order the book, visit:

• Within Your Reach website
• Buy the paperback from Amazon
• Buy the Kindle edition
• Buy the Nook edition
• Buy the e-Book on Google Play

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Five to one, baby; one in five.
No one here gets out alive.
Now you get yours, baby,
and I’ll get mine.

–The Doors

Post-traumatic stress disorder is constantly in the news now because the numbers of active and former military stricken with it continue to rise. There could be as many as one million vets diagnosed by the end of this decade.

I think PTSD continues to be associated with battle trauma because the World War One was when it was first noted in large numbers of returning veterans. Shell shock is easy to understand. It’s the other forms of trauma that we can’t seem to wrap our heads around; our “get over it” and “pick yourself up by the bootstraps” and “get back on the horse” American mentality can’t acknowledge such weakness. And how exactly does someone who endures abuse end up with PTSD when so many survive these incidents with only physical scars?

The only way to help people understand is for more people suffering from complex PTSD as a result of abuse to speak out. Many of us may have missed Boston Celtic player Keyon Dooling’s story. In early November he was interviewed by Katie Couric two months after dropping off the Celtics’ roster. Like me, Dooling suffered sexual abuse at an early age, and in his 20s started to experience disturbing mental distress. He ended up going a bit loony and ended up in a psych ward (sounds familiar). After a week he was ready to leave the hospital, but he had to own up to what happened to him, and to the fact that there was no “fix” for his condition.

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“They kinda felt like they got a stomach-ache. –3rd-grader at Sandy Hook Elementary School today

News reports are stating that at least 20 children and six adults were shot dead today at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, CT. It is hard to write now because I have been triggered by this horrific event, but I must. Killing children is the worst crime of all. My heart breaks for the children and families who will be affected by this tragedy for years to come, perhaps even for the rest of their lives.

Any parent of a child who has witnessed this trauma, regardless if post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is suspected, should be encouraged to discuss this experience as much as possible with their family. Exposure and talking therapies, and new, short-term drugs can help you avoid making this tragedy part of your child’s permanent makeup. Don’t ask them to shut their eyes or wish it away. They must see their grief through and not suppress it. PTSD is often invisible, and children are at serious risk of not identifying their thoughts, nightmares and other symptoms.

We know this.

The National Center for PTSD has great resources for helping anyone determine if they might have PTSD, and what to do next. The most valuable tool is a self-screening questionnaire. The short form is pretty basic and consists of these four questions:

1. Have had nightmares about [the event] or thought about it when you did not want to?
2. Tried hard not to think about [the event] or went out of your way to avoid situations that reminded you of it?
3. Were constantly on guard, watchful, or easily startled?
4. Felt numb or detached from others, activities, or your surroundings?

Your child might seem fine or undisturbed for days, and then breakdown. This is a “normal” reaction to stress. Nightmares and avoidance are harder to see and understand. Talk to your children and tell them nothing they can say or do will change your love for them; that you are strong and you can take it. The absolute worst thing you can do is ask them to forget about it.

I know this.

The Anxiety and Depression Association of America has an invaluable resource page for parents who have children experiencing or recovering from trauma.  Visitors can download assessment guides and find a caring professional to help. You can prevent PTSD, but you have to act now. All of that said, many children from Sandy Hook may not develop PTSD at all. But be prepared.

You should know this.

More links:

• CNN: Support crucial for kids after trauma

• National Child Traumatic Stress Network

   

   

   

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• Maybe some of them was in tunnels . . .