Enduring trauma is an inevitable part of human life. Navigating the waters of life is often perilous, but somehow we survive and we endure. We, as humans, are often left with physical scars that will heal with time. We are also left with mental and emotional scars as well. The emotional and mental scars are what will impact us long after the physical scars have faded.
In September 2008, Warner Robins Middle was playing Feagin Mill Middle in a football game. It was sunny not a grey cloud in the sky. The eighth grade game started. My fellow cheerleaders and I took our spots in the track. Then, everything changed. As we started a cheer, something that sounded like the world ripping apart came from behind us. I turned around to the sight of coaches, referees and principals on the ground not moving. I ran for whatever the closest building was and did not stop until I was inside. On that day, our coach, coach Martin, was struck in the head by lighting.
To this day, I cannot get the image of coach Martin lying on the field out of my head. It is an emotional scar that I will live with for the rest of my life. From that day on, the lighting and rain storms of Georgia that I had grown up loving became my nightmares. Anytime I so much as catch a glimpse of rain clouds or hear a clap of thunder something is triggered in my brain that brings me back to that day in September 2008. I have been told that what I am dealing with is a mild form of PTSD accompanied by survivor’s guilt. I did not want to believe it at first. I did not want to believe that I was mentally unwell.
But, as I entered college, I began to realize that it is okay to not be okay. I started to seek help for my problems. I no longer let my disorder get in the way of my life. I learned to live with my disorder. PTSD is not something that people every want to talk about. It is the dirty taboo disorder that people believe that only soldiers can develop.
The truth is that anyone can develop PTSD. All it takes is one life-altering trauma or one near-death experience and your life is changed forever. As a person affected by the disorder, it is my duty to help others that have it as well. So please, if you know someone who is suffering, help them. PTSD is not something that someone should suffer through alone. Help whoever you know that is affected seek counseling. Help them seek other sufferers who can relate. Above all, please do not treat PTSD like it is something that the sufferers bring upon themselves. Please treat PTSD just like any other disease that is capable of taking life because without the right treatment, many have fallen to PTSD.
