Donald Trump Slip Up?

I did a quick search, and found nothing on this yet (surprisingly). So I decided to preemptively start a thread on this.

As most of you probably haven't realized - but will once I state this - I've mostly stayed out of arguing in the news/current events/politics section of the board for a while. I haven't explicitly stated who I'm supporting (although it's definitely NOT Hilary), and have only a couple of times defended something that Trump has said, as people have taken it out of context.

Today, Trump made what some people are calling a "gaffe", "slip-up", or any number of things. The quote is here:

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/donald-trump-fire-comments-veterans-ptsd/story?id=42536616

Many people are blasting Trump for apparently calling people with PTSD "weak". But that's not what I'm getting from it at all. This is a totally different side of Trump I'm seeing from what the media normally portrays. This is a compassionate Trump, not the brash man that says anything he's thinking.

For those of you who don't know, I suffer from PTSD. Pretty severely. I've been out of the Army for roughly 21 months now, and I've already lost 5 jobs due to my struggles with PTSD/TBI/Anxiety/Adjustment Disorder. I spent 12 months in Iraq, and 13 months in Afghanistan. Both tours my job was route clearance. In other words, I drove trucks ahead of convoys looking for IEDs (bombs) so that the less protected vehicles behind me could get through without casualties.

We lost count of how many explosions I witnessed, but we're guessing that the number is at least 75. And that's the ones I was there personally for. I saw videos from other platoons, and watched many more while in the air over other clearance convoys. I've seen my joes get hit; and I've seen my buddies get hit. I've seen a buddy get hit twice in less than an hour. He was so messed up in the head that he would get lost in the 100 meters from our barracks to the showers, and had to have an escort.

Needless to say, I'm familiar with battle, and I'm familiar with PTSD. What Donald Trump said today in no way offends me; rather, it shows that he is aware of the issue and has some compassion for it. I didn't take what Trump said today as calling me weak. The only weak ones are those who don't get help.

Now, let's talk about if Trump had actually meant that those with PTSD are weak. Would that be inaccurate? If you stress test two boards, and one breaks, then it's the weaker one. If two people fall from the same height, and one breaks his legs, then his bones were weaker. So, even if he did mean to say what the media outlets are saying he meant to say, he's not wrong. Some people's minds are more resilient than others. Turns out that mine wasn't as resilient as some.

So, again, I just wanted to preemptively stall the threads that I know are coming, and shed some light on what was said.

 

This is true to me, as well; to a point. There are some people capable of enough empathy to almost truly understand. But what I tell people is, "I don't need you to understand. I need you to be understanding."

Sadly, my wife and daughters know that I do not tolerate any unsolicited physical touch. It broke my heart the first time I heard my daughter ask, "Mommy, can I ever hug Daddy?" and she replied, "Yes, but you have to ask him first." It's not that I don't like physical contact, it's that the surprise of an unexpected touch may end badly. My wife also knows to not wake me by shaking me. On the lighter side, we keep some extra pillows that she can wake me with!

I'll be honest, Salty. It's been hard. I'm currently in between jobs (although I have an interview coming up with a bass pro shop for seasonal work), but I just had my disabilities re-evaluated. With losing 5 jobs, I'm hoping that they increase my disability (currently at a total of 60%). I don't want to completely retire, but I'm hoping to get 100% for the duration of my schooling. My hope is that after I have my degrees, I can settle into a job where the stress level isn't so high as to set me off.

 

When I came back from Iraq (first tour), I was diagnosed with "Combat Stress Disorder". At that time, the military was trying to distinguish between full-blown PTSD and what I call "PTSD lite". The idea is that some people exhibit signs of PTSD, but then the signs diminish after a few months (3-6). This type of disorder is very akin to "Adjustment Disorder", where a person has a hard time adjusting back to normal life (if any life in the military can be called normal!).

It is my opinion that if I hadn't deployed again so soon after my first (just under 18 months) that my mind would have been able to heal, and I would have been able to handle my second deployment a little better. As it is, I feel like it was the same as letting a sports player play too soon after an injury. Also, the second deployment was much worse than the first (as in what I saw and went through).

 

Zaac, I don't have a good answer as to Trump's empathy towards other situations and people. What I do know though, is that his empathy towards vets seemed sincere. Even the tone he used was one of empathy. Instead of the "berserker-turned-politician" voice he normally uses, he was very subdued and down to earth.