Funny story. I don’t lead a wonderful and spectacular life, but I’m lucky to have observed some who do. I recall this one time someone said to me that she has PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder, commonly found in soldiers). I was skeptical because I thought (or so I thought) PTSD only occurred to people who have experienced major psychological trauma and I know too well that she led a so-so privileged life. Since I was in disbelief, I asked her: “How did you ever receive such unfortunate disorder?” She said she was verbally oppressed by her peers; she’ll get triggered if anything insulting comes crashing her way.
Post-traumatic stress disorder is a very serious condition, with “about 4 percent of teenage boys and 6 percent of teenage girls meet the clinical definition of PTSD.” The article continues by showing examples of children and teenagers suffering through a major psychological trauma such as being assaulted and having your dear mother murdered. The National Centre for PTSD in America lists a few causing factors of PTSD present in teenagers: 65% neglect, 18% physical abuse, 10% sexual abuse, and 7% psychological (mental) abuse.
Not too long ago after people celebrated boxes for a day, a transgender teenager by the name of Leelah Alcorn who underwent conversion therapy committed suicide due to (what I assume) is neglect and mental abuse. The article also mentions her battle with her parents due to them not accepting her gender identity. Trauma can arrive as sudden as the Monday sunrise—and on December 28 2014, trauma struck two birds with one suicide.
For people not familiar with conversion therapies, conversion therapies are essentially Christian therapies that convert “lost” souls back to the right teachings of Christianity.
Yes, everyone’s sympathetic over the Leelah Alcorn because her death is sign that conversion therapies should be regulated and even banned and that transgendered people should be given more attention due to their likelihood to commit suicide or receive PTSDs. Leelah Alcorn committed suicide by walking through a busy traffic. She died by vehicular impact—a truck crashed into her. But what about the truck driver Does the media not recognize the emotional impact of accidentally taking someone’s life?
There are always multiple sides to a story; Leelah’s story ended when she committed suicide, the effects of her death will cause a ripple become a story on its own and will tell a tale of how it changed how the public views the LGBT(Q) community, yet the driver’s story is yet to be heard. I wouldn’t know anything about accidentally taking someone’s life, but I am sure that I would experience nightmares and extreme depression. Nobody wants to wake up every morning and find that they ran over a 17 year-old teenager. Who knows, maybe the truck driver would eventually commit suicide.
“Events like these could be prevented by reaching out to oppressed people,” many would say, however the oppressed ones are usually the reserved ones or the loud ones—nothing would seem wrong. In the end, talking and discussing about trauma and suicide fruits in nothing; there is no definite and absolute solution. There are too many causes to factor in, and everyone prefers different treatments. Awareness is an appropriate but temporary solution to traumas and suicide.
Yesterday was UBC’s very own Suicide Awareness Day, we’re talking about trauma in ASTU, and we’re touching on gender inequality in Sociology. Aren’t coincidences fun?