This is a bit out of left field, but was thinking (have been for years but hard to find the words), I cannot blame my parents in so far as they were very good people. Just had someone say the other day, 'there was so much respect in your family', and 'there was so much life packed into it". This was true, there were just a lot of trauma's, no one's fault, and of course more ('traumas' or 'happenings') are likely to follow when people's last concerns etc are to take care of their own selves- I mean, self-care is the first to go in and after those times, that is reality (for example, look at post-tornados). It still remains in my mind my own 'fault' or inclination, if I did not speak up, or ask for help, or expected of myself I was an adult. And, other 'pervs'', well, same difference. And when (if) I did say something (rare), well compared to what the previous generation went through, well it was not as big. In some ways they weren't sure how to address it. I kind of minimized, I think, as well.
Plus, it was a different day and age, not one of 'helmets' and child-carriers and such, we played 'dare' on the railway tracks and stuffed 6 plus a dog plus luggage in the car, we travelled on each other's shoulders and raced on bikes down hills and road on handlebars, and played out till it was past dark, or went out dancing till the morning. We road with open windows and no seat bels and were less safe but more 'alive', in a way. Just a different time. And parents were aware of friend and such but not expected at school events and such.
Plus, I was always hyper, fast, anxious, aware, 'worried', as a kid. PTSD was like an exageration of the same. Unlike you, Dear Abstract, after the ptsd symptoms presented I did acknowledge them (to myself), but blamed it on 'me' ('myself'). That I was defective or 'weird', it was just 'myself', my 'fault', my (own) 'self', my own 'defficiency'.
To this day, I find to hard to stomach ptsd thought of as a 'mental illness'- a tad easier to think of it as an 'injury'. In that I feel 'normal'- plus about 100 physical symptoms I wouldn't have without it (ie racing heart/fear/ horror or flashbacks, adrenal surges, nightsweats. nightmares, hypervigilance, etc). However, perhaps this is 'progress', I don't know, ptsd is not 'me', per se. I mean,it "isn't" in so far as it is not a 'function' of work, dating, my personal choices or beliefs, etc. Which sounds pretty weird, because it affects all or most of those. But perhaps no more (or no less?) were if I had Diabetes, or one leg.
