Another mass shooting. Allen, Texas

[Sleep profit]

To those instructors SS. Stood for. Neo Nazi.  Bolts had a different meaning. Possibly jail culture. and State I was in   

[1fast4by]

23 hours ago, MacGyver said:

Goodness.  I’m so thankful y’all are safe.

Talk to someone.  A professional.  Make sure your kids do to.  If you want to talk more about that, give me a shout. 

Thanks for the kind words. But I'm definitely not someone who was actually affected by this, my struggle is nothing in comparison to the families that have victims... They have an impossible hill to climb now. My struggle is the fact that I've basically spent my entire adult life training and carrying firearms. And yet there was nothing I could have done to prevent or help the situation. In fact, I could have made it worse for myself... Helplessness is pretty powerful...

Im fortunate. My kids are young... young enough that they still don't know what happened... Thank God.

[Omega]

5 hours ago, Grayfox54 said:

Information or misinformation? 

You seem to be suggesting that this story is being manipulated for devious reasons. Please explain for us dummies that ain't gettin' it. 

My guess would be as good as yours, I just noticed something weird.  But having all the MSM and now intelligence units spewing this so fast, and so identical, it just makes one think. 

[Chucktshoes]

50 minutes ago, 1fast4by said:

Thanks for the kind words. But I'm definitely not someone who was actually affected by this, my struggle is nothing in comparison to the families that have victims... They have an impossible hill to climb now. My struggle is the fact that I've basically spent my entire adult life training and carrying firearms. And yet there was nothing I could have done to prevent or help the situation. In fact, I could have made it worse for myself... Helplessness is pretty powerful...

Im fortunate. My kids are young... young enough that they still don't know what happened... Thank God.

To second what Macgyver said, don’t be so quick to dismiss the idea that you might benefit from at the very least a visit or two with a therapist to debrief. Trauma isn’t a competition and just because someone else was more directly or horrifically affected doesn’t mean that you aren’t allowed to experience or process it in your own way. 
 

Even if only as a prophylactic measure, I’d seek out some professional outlet as you’d be surprised how your body might keep score in ways that your brain will dismiss or suppress. I suspect @Luckyforwardmight concur on that point. 

[MacGyver]

It can be hard to cope with the fact that the only reason you made it out that day when 8 others didn’t was a few feet or a few minutes or just luck.

In my case, it was several years before the trauma caught up with me - despite doing some work at the time the event happened.  It wasn’t until my kids were old enough to see a commemoration on the news and ask questions that it really floored me.

Something we know today is that trauma is cumulative. An event like that naturally messes you up. 

Anyway, pay attention to yourself. There are people who’ll listen and help.  

[Luckyforward]

6 hours ago, MacGyver said:

It can be hard to cope with the fact that the only reason you made it out that day when 8 others didn’t was a few feet or a few minutes or just luck.

In my case, it was several years before the trauma caught up with me - despite doing some work at the time the event happened.  It wasn’t until my kids were old enough to see a commemoration on the news and ask questions that it really floored me.

Something we know today is that trauma is cumulative. An event like that naturally messes you up. 

Anyway, pay attention to yourself. There are people who’ll listen and help.  

6 hours ago, Chucktshoes said:

To second what Macgyver said, don’t be so quick to dismiss the idea that you might benefit from at the very least a visit or two with a therapist to debrief. Trauma isn’t a competition and just because someone else was more directly or horrifically affected doesn’t mean that you aren’t allowed to experience or process it in your own way. 
 

Even if only as a prophylactic measure, I’d seek out some professional outlet as you’d be surprised how your body might keep score in ways that your brain will dismiss or suppress. I suspect @Luckyforwardmight concur on that point. 

Fast -

Mac and Chuck, as usual, are insightful.  Trauma is cumulative and as one of the best books on trauma is entitled "The Body Keeps the Score" - Bessel van der Kolk.  As you stated in you original post, you are still processing that terrible moment.  I am so thankful for you and your children.  At the same time, I am certain that every time you review that moment in your mind, you experience both an emotional and physical response.  That's the trauma you still carry from that moment.  

Here is a useful review of how one is affected: https://mytime.telemynd.com/telemyndblog/the-science-behind-ptsd-how-trauma-changes-the-brain-r16/?gad=1&gclid=CjwKCAjwx_eiBhBGEiwA15gLN2X2tU38E1eIg8NfvhAgpk0ujGuwAOQmEdl76brpYywoMKMRpcpB_BoCnasQAvD_BwE

Helpful options to get a handle on trauma:

• If you do not know a therapist, talk with your PCP about this experience and ask for a referral to a mental health provider that they recommend
• Check with your company's HR department - some companies offer Employee Assistance Programs which will provide, at no cost to you, a number of therapy sessions 
• http://www.ptsdalliance.org/help/ - lots of resources here
• If you are a veteran: https://www.va.gov/health-care/health-needs-conditions/mental-health/ptsd/
• Mental Health America provides a very useful online assessment tool: https://screening.mhanational.org/screening-tools/ptsd/

I am thankful that you and your children were safe from this experience physically.  Emotionally, it won't hurt a thing to double-check your thoughts and feelings from that difficult day.

 

[Chucktshoes]

4 hours ago, Luckyforward said:

Trauma is cumulative and as one of the best books on trauma is entitled "The Body Keeps the Score" - Bessel van der Kolk. 

 

I was referencing this very book in my post when I mentioned the body keeping score. From my non-professional perspective it’s an amazing resource for learning how to recognize and process trauma responses that we don’t even know are trauma related. 
 

I recommend it to all of y’all. 

[Luckyforward]

26 minutes ago, Chucktshoes said:

I was referencing this very book in my post when I mentioned the body keeping score. From my non-professional perspective it’s an amazing resource for learning how to recognize and process trauma responses that we don’t even know are trauma related. 
 

I recommend it to all of y’all. 

Absolutely!  https://www.amazon.com/Body-Keeps-Score-Healing-Trauma/dp/0143127748

[Luckyforward]

Good video with van der Kolk - 

 

[A.J. Holst]

While this comment from Kennedy may not apply to this particular murderer, it is something I was not aware of.

No tinfoil hat, but the influence of Big Pharma should be concerning

Robert Kennedy Jr.: “With all of these shootings nobody’s looking at the pharmaceutical contribution to that. Anecdotally, it appears that almost every one of these shooters were on SSRIs or some other psychiatric drug. And this is only happening in America where all of these people are taking these psychiatric drugs. We take four times as many [psychiatric drugs] as any other country in the West.

The average European country, something happened. Prior to the introduction of Prozac, those shootings just were almost unknown, and now they’re an everyday affair. But NIH will not study that because it will offend the pharmaceutical industry. And it’s something that we ought to be studying.”

[Snaveba]

That may be true, but there are A LOT of folks who regularly take something like Prozac with no negative psychological effects. 

[Luckyforward]

RFK  Jr. is pretty much anti-medication across the board.  https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-robert-f-kennedy-jr-distorted-vaccine-science1/

[MacGyver]

RFK Jr. has no idea about this. He's not a reliable narrator on much of anything.

 

[bubbadavis]

10 minutes ago, MacGyver said:

RFK Jr. has no idea about this. He's not a reliable narrator on much of anything.

 

This pretty much applies to all politicians, IMO.

[gregintenn]

7 hours ago, MacGyver said:

RFK Jr. has no idea about this. He's not a reliable narrator on much of anything.

 

I agree, but it’s hard to argue the fact we are definitely an over medicated population.

[MacGyver]

1 hour ago, gregintenn said:

I agree, but it’s hard to argue the fact we are definitely an over medicated population.

I’d tend to agree - but with a caveat. A lot of the meds these days aren’t the ones we grew up with.  I know a couple of people who were so resistant to meds because of bad experiences in the 80s and 90s.  They finally got modern meds dialed in and it truly changed their life. 

[Grunt67]

I only had one White Supremacist in my jail( Trousdale ). Turned out to be a wannabe. Trying to impress the rest of the inmates. He failed.