Sufferer My First Time Ever

[Yugogypsy]

I never joined any forum until now. I'm Deaf (note the capital letter means culturally DEAF) and I was born deaf (small "d" means auditory deaf). My first language is American Sign Language (ASL) and English is my second language. I was diagnosed having PTSD amongst my other diagnoses.

I've been teaching hearing people ever since I can remember and teaching is a job that no child should ever have been placed upon. Now it's been over 40 years of doing this job. For a few years, home is the safest place away from the hearing people... I married a Vietnam vet who also have PTSD and identified the similarities, referred me to counseling for PTSD. I'm seeing a counselor who can sign ASL which is very hard and rare to find around here.

The memories leading up to PTSD meltdown is very raw for me to express. I don't have questions to ask in this post. I'm very wary of connecting with other hearing non signers in this forum and finding Deaf "pen pals" can be hard to find. Most Deaf prefer using ASL than English so expressing themselves can be cumbersome and difficult to even post ANYTHING in English language. I don't have much hope or expectation to find Deaf with PTSD in this forum (note, the address to this is from Australia). The best I can hope for is a "pen pal" for someone who is bi-lingual like me - ASL and English... English and Spanish... English and Japanese... English and (you fill in the blank)..

Please don't correct my English.. Had enough of those for years! There! At least I started something...I can't find a place where I can post a new post out there. I think this is the place to post.

 

[Upside Down Eagle]

Hi Yugogypsy, welcome to the forum.

I speak English and Spanish... if you ever want to write, you know where to find me :)
And might I say, your English is perfect, there is no need to correct anything!

 

[Echo]

Welcome, Yugogypsy; I hope you'll feel at home here. I'm new, too, but there is a lot of great information here and people tend to be very helpful and non-judgmental. I hope you find another ASL signer. Good luck.

 

[rightkindofme]

Welcome. I am not Deaf but I have been studying ASL for many years because my hearing is in the process of going. Most everyone in my family eventually becomes deaf and I do not want to be unprepared later.

I hope that you feel comfortable here.

 

[franciemarnie]

Welcome Yugogypsy!!

 

[intothelight]

Hi Yugogypsy,

Welcome to MyPTSD forum! :)

I hope you find benefit from the information and interactions from the other members.

Wishing you the best.

Debbie

 

[Lady of Longbourn]

Welcome to the forum. :)

I hope you can find some support here and information. Just FYI: The address is Australia, as the forum is based/owned by Australians but the forum itself is very mixed as well as the staff.

I wish you peace.

Ayesha

 

[Angelwings]

I am fluent in ASL, but hearing. I've known ASL since childhood. I understand where you are coming from, as far as typing in English vs ASL. Welcome to the forum!

 

[arfie]

Hi Yugogypsy. I was mute for most of my childhood. I don't get to declare it officially, but in my heart I consider human to be my umpteenth language. The mosaic of languages on the bio-net are my first body of languages. The adults in my life kept looking for hearing causes of my mutism and I even agree that it is a hearing issue. Sorta. Most of what I hear in the human dialects is not worth listening to. I don't mind calling that a hearing problem.

That was long enough ago that I have gone on to learn many of the human dialects and still think the birds, dogs and other critters on the bio-net have the more intelligent communication systems. In all the human dialects I have studied I believe I have seen that speaking the same language is no guarantee of communication. I have studied ASL privately, but have never been willing to scale the walls around the ASL communities I have encountered. My ASL studies have no practical development. Love watching it, though. It looks uncommonly logical for a human dialect. From a distance...

Welcome to the forum, Yugogypsy. May it be as healing for you as it has been for this non-human-wannabe. I am beginning to think I might be able to embrace my own humanity some day. Maybe. Still thinking...

 

[Yugogypsy]

I just completed my story and posted "My War" a few minutes ago... Read on and enjoy.

I have two service dogs. I listen to them well. They listen to me well.

There's several languages... The language of languages (plural)... The language of the human heart.... The language of the soul... Those are the things that words and languages cannot express... If we listen hard enough, we can hear it. Hearing people can be deaf. Human being can be deaf...

Thank you for welcoming me.

 

[scout86]

Welcome!

I just read your other post. I'm so sorry you've been so badly treated by those outside your community!

Over the years, I've had several customers who were members of the Deaf Community. It would truly never have occurred to me to think of them as "stupid" or any of the other things you mentioned. As far as I could see, they were "people" more than anything else. They had their own personalities, hopes, dreams, abilities, and issues. They also, as it happened, couldn't hear. There are things I can't do too.

I don't know ASL. I wish I did. I always felt kind of stupid, because I couldn't communicate with them in their own language, but they could mostly read lips quite well. I think it ought to be taught in all school systems, just like any other language!

I hope you come to feel comfortable here and come to believe that not everyone in the entire hearing world is an insensitive idiot!

 

[Mercy]

Thanks for trying this forum for human support. I find that not seeing the person I am speaking with is a hardship as body language communicates more than the words. Because of my abuse many of the meanings of certain words have been distorted.

Welcome Yugogypsy