I love America, I am still proud to be an American. I do however wonder what has become of us. Once a strong resilient Nation of people we are now getting soft and squishy. No, I’m not talking weight wise as in obesity, but mentally.

Life has hard times, that was just always part of life. We had disappointments, hurt feelings and sometimes our self esteem suffered. We grew up with “What doesn’t kill you only makes you stronger”. This didn’t mean just physical injury, you could get lumps and bruises and learn and become stronger from the experience. It developed a strong mindset to try your best. “Get up, brush yourself off and get back on that bike.” Was the spirit taught to young children. It taught us that if we want to achieve we must work for it and not just give up at the first defeat.

Sure there are tragic moments to be sure when we need to talk to someone. Priests and Family members were generally there (and still are). The only counselors we knew about really growing up were “career counselors” in school. The adults used marriage counselors, financial counselors etc.

Enter the Wimps. Somewhere along the line after surviving Dr. Spock who helped us raise children that were next to mongols giving them anything they want and more rights than the parents, we slipped into the ultimate emotionally coddling. Again there are times when you need counseling, but not for every thing that occurs in your life that upsets you.

Emotional Extremist
They are ruining a once strong country. Although they do nothing in their activist role to aid the mentally unstable, they fawn over those that have been exposed to any type of upset. We recently witnessed “Service Dogs” 25 of them I think were deployed to the White House of our country to help calm the emotions of those who’s party had lost the election. Children being given counseling in school because of the outcome of an election.

We have taken emotional upset to a new level. Children compete on the playing field. The winning team gets a trophy. Guess what, the losing team also gets a trophy. Sometimes each child receives a trophy or certificate for having “participated”. So you really don’t have to try to achieve recognition for something, you will be rewarded whether you put forth your maximum effort or just coast along through a game. What does that teach them. In the golden days the losers brushed themselves off and vowed to win that trophy or certificate for a skill and recognition next time.

A tragic accident takes the lives of several students over a weekend. The school nearly shuts down and is inundated with “paid” grief counselors and many times the entire school is required to attend to be helped over the grief whether you knew the students or not. Gone are the moments of silence and reflection that made us strong by dealing with it on our own.

PTSD
It is a real and devastating condition caused by traumatic experience that a person can’t cope with. Soldiers returning from war suffer from PTSD many times. Some do and some don’t. They have seen horrible things that most should never have to witness.

Enter the extreme emotional  hawkers. I spoke with a person last year that was an Ambulance driver. They were suffering from what they said was “PTSD” and were seeking permanent disability due to the things they had seen as an Ambulance person.

Here’s a thought, get off your butt and get some counseling and stop trying to ride the government payment system.

I knew one guy personally that was just a mean drunk, always had been. So after his deployment to the war and back his “acting out” was attributed to PTSD. This cheapens a serious condition that some need real treatment for and it siphons money from an already strained coffer just so a mean drunk can dodge a jail sentence for wrecking the inside of a McDonald’s Hamburger joint because he was drunk and upset they weren’t waiting on him fast enough.

Or my former neighbor a young lady of about 23 who got drunk each weekend and partied causing noise on the street. After I called the Police one night she came with one of her drunk male buddies and knocked on my door and asked if I had called the Police, she apologized for the noise and rowdiness and said she was just unwinding from her tour in the war and her stress disorder. She had returned 8 months prior. “I served my time and now I’m home unwinding”.

I guess I was cruel, I told her she was a disgrace to the service to use an excuse like that to party and disturb others. I told her I had served my time also but it was here in the city as a cop dealing with people just like her and I shouldn’t have to deal with her now that I am retired. We didn’t have any more parties or trouble from her once she was told her “excuse” for bad behavior was not being accepted.

How about Police Officers, I have never known one that suffered from PTSD and they see horrible things almost daily. How about Doctors and Nurses. What if most of our society decides they need to be awarded PTSD because they have been traumatized and just stop working. Pretty soon our whole nation will just sit down and decide everything is too traumatic and we need to be excused from life and draw a check till the government goes broke from no one working.

I guess I am just tired of people that use excuses and those that use those people to make money. Will it ever stop?

What are your thoughts, is the counseling and PTSD diagnosis being overly done? Or am I just an old Grinch.