The title of this blog
originates from an Oliver Stone movie about the Vietnam War of 1963-1975 ( i.e.
“Heaven and Earth ” ). I expanded a theme of the film to my life as depicted in
an associated blog, Tales from Life’s Odyssey.
Being raised in a stringent military environment, mental health issues were more or less ‘brushed under the carpet.’ My father, a high-ranking career officer in the Royal Canadian Air Force, died at the young age of 42. I was only 16 at the time and this event had profound emotional impact upon my life for years.
I remember the reaction my mother gave upon my one day telling her ‘ I want to see a psychiatrist.’ Teenagers did not routinely say this to a parent in 1960. So, her response of ‘you must be crazy’ might appear comical but was equally not surprising. My emotional dysfunction was carried in my soul for the next fifteen years throughout the world while attempting to show others that ‘ I was my father’s son.’
That path was followed through catastrophes in several war zones ( starting in the Middle East, followed by Laos and Vietnam ),other man-made calamities, and natural disasters. From psychological impacts of those involvements, by Christmas of 1973 my fate was as a helpless, homeless drug addict existing on the freezing streets of New York City. As an official missing person, friends traced and eventually found me, thereupon temporarily placing me in a Salvation Army hostel.
From there I was sent to my native country with assistance of a Canadian-born doctor who worked with Vietnam War veterans at New York’s military hospitals. My symptoms were comparable to serious anxiety disorders suffered by these former soldiers. By 1980 that syndrome was clinically labelled post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).
Two wounded comrades in Vietnam War of 1963 -1975:
the conflict that coined distinct term and meaning of PTSD .
Hospitalised in Toronto
during spring, 1974, I spent three months at an addiction and psychiatric
recovery facility which is now called the CAMH - Centre for
Addiction and Mental Health . My distinct remembrance upon
discharge was being told that if I ever returned to drug abuse my death would
follow shortly thereafter. This reality impressed upon my thoughts for decades thereafter.
However, having a wife enduring the mental imbalance of young dementia ( officially called 'fronto-temporal dementia' ) really forges my understanding,
advocacy and public awareness of mental health issues and brain disorder complications. She suffered periodic frequencies of schizophrenia from 18-20 years of age, and first illustrated dementia traits in her early 50's. The roots of her story are summarised
in this section of Tales from Life’s
Odyssey.
Hence the purpose of this
blog is to highlight experiences of being her main carer, in the face of public
stigma, discrimination, sometimes authoritarianism within the
psychiatric profession, and, short-sighted government polices towards mental illnesses and dementia.