PTSD

Moon fever

Mental health in my country South Africa is a huge issue at the moment with more than 140 patients being killed through neglect.

They were basically murdered and some starved to death because the Health Department removed them from a Health Care facility into NGO’s that were not suited to deal with special care patients.

It creeps on you slowly stealthily and barely being noticeable. At first you forget things and you write it off then you start panicking without any apparent reason. You write it off the normal way of life and you are not adequately coping with stress.

Bingo! you hit it on the head, you are not adequately coping with stress and people around you start drifting away because of your sometimes unexplainable behaviour. It is not like a train smash more like and irritant.

Then 9it start dawning on you speaking to therapists. All the things in your life that slowly but surely were creeping up on you. The stress of two years of compulsory Military service. The stress of journalism, having to face the harsh and sometimes horrid realities of life and being exposed to it. Mangled people brutality murdered and disfigured and some dissected. You cannot ever forget the smell of rotting corpses and mortuaries. You cannot forget the images of people being dissected in post mortems and you have to face it all and you are but 20 years old.

The stress of fighting a Union for two excruciating years. Having to live and work with body guards, having armed guards at your home.

The stress of being attacked by a racist mob because you dared to marry a person of different skin colour and need to be punished by being beaten brutally.

The stress of seeing people gunned down in cold blood right in front of you. By being shot at when you tried to save a woman from an attack.

The stress of being attacked in a police station and men trying to rape you .  The stress of suffering a stroke that left you deaf because of it. Then being fired in ICU because you cannot fulfil your contact.

The Psychologist tells you you are being treated for PTSD. Fancy word that. All you tried was looking after your family and making a life.

Do not let it go as far as I did before you look for help. There is no shame in it to say. “I can no longer cope.” There is help and it is effective.

Get help do not let it linger and creep up to you. You are a human that needs love and care and it is available.

Do not wait as long as I did before you reach out.