Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Causes, Effects, Symptoms & Treatment

[RascalPuff]

Military veterans by no means hold a monopoly on the disabling burdens of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which likewise effects many traumatized civilians. There are divisive and bonding agents bringing civilians and vets together and separating them. It is the hopeful objective of this venture to stimulate a self-recognition encouraging unification and reciprocal understanding, advisory and self help.

In its own interests, civilization generates and produces veterans who serve civilization and then re enter it.
Consequently, civilians and veterans are inter-dependent and inseparable.
Moreover, although post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) has only been academically and medically recognized and defined since about 1980, it's acquirement is as old as severe human psychological and physical shock, injury and trauma.

This thread and communication is dedicated to the study and consideration of the causes, effects and possible remedies for avoidable violence and its consequences.

There are two kinds of post traumatic stress: PTS - Post Traumatic Stress, which is temporary, and, PTSD - Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; which is permanant.

PTSD is incurable, though it can be managed, with counseling and an appropriate meds regimen.

Telling a person with diagnosed PTSD to "Get over it"
Is like telling a truck in a traffic jam, to "Move on".


http://forums.delphiforums.com/kaidupuppy/start

[leskey]

You raise some very interesting topics, RP.

I was diagnosed with PTSD several years ago. While, PTSD has been the plight of many returned servicemen for generations, it has also been an affliction of those individuals who have survived physical and psychological traumas and abuses.

PTSD's classification, was the result of the efforts of an organized group of Vietnam War veterans. These war vets had not only experienced physically threatening and traumatic circumstances, they were also subjected to the additional psychological trauma of the politico-social conflicts of the era - they were the scapegoats...they were not lauded as heros. The societies they returned to, at least initially, did not allow them to forget.

IMO, the diagnosis of PTSD has only served to identify the impotent status of victimhood - the need to have an individual's, or group's, suffering recognised by the government and, by default the society, which entertained the circumstances of the trauma. This does not lead to liberation, if it becomes the tool to justify one's right to become part of any state-funded benefit system. It becomes the condonable behaviour attributed to on-going regret and grief.

While there are varying degrees of stress in all traumatic circumstances, the consequences of the experience are defined by the psychological strength, mental acuity and emotional intellect of the individual.

I disagree that this state of being cannot be overcome...that's not to say it can ever be totally forgotten and that it may not have significant on-going consequences in an individual's life, especially if they're forced to live with debitilitating physical consequences. However, despite the consequences, the circumstances were due to the alignment of certain effects in a relatively short window of time. It is not a disorder, unless it is allowed to expand beyond it's original context.

Rather than a life of denial, it's constructive for the individual to personally acknowledge and accept the veracity of events and their consequences, in order that the effects can, rather, become a catalyst for postiive change. Like alcoholism, stress can become a drug...a way of life...it can only be kicked if and when the addict decides it's time.

I know this sounds tough, but IMO, it boils down to a choice of free will.

[RascalPuff]

You raise some very interesting topics, RP.

I was diagnosed with PTSD several years ago. While, PTSD has been the plight of many returned servicemen for generations, it has also been an affliction of those individuals who have survived physical and psychological traumas and abuses. I am fully aware of that. Though not a clinician, I work with them, and, I deal with civilian PTSD cases, routinely.

PTSD's classification, was the result of the efforts of an organized group of Vietnam War veterans. These war vets had not only experienced physically threatening and traumatic circumstances, they were also subjected to the additional psychological trauma of the politico-social conflicts of the era - they were the scapegoats...they were not lauded as heros. The societies they returned to, at least initially, did not allow them to forget. I am fully aware of that.

IMO, the diagnosis of PTSD has only served to identify the impotent status of victimhood - the need to have an individual's, or group's, suffering recognised by the government and, by default the society, which entertained the circumstances of the trauma. There are many ersatz, freelance PTSD students who agree with you. This does not lead to liberation, if it becomes the tool to justify one's right to become part of any state-funded benefit system. The legitimate system callls such individuals, 'malingerers'. It becomes the condonable behaviour attributed to on-going regret and grief. This is called 'malingering' - the Bureau of Vets Affairs deals with them routinely.

While there are varying degrees of stress in all traumatic circumstances, the consequences of the experience are defined by the psychological strength, mental acuity and emotional intellect of the individual. Very well.

I disagree that this state of being cannot be overcome...that's not to say it can ever be totally forgotten and that it may not have significant on-going consequences in an individual's life, especially if they're forced to live with debitilitating physical consequences. However, despite the consequences, the circumstances were due to the alignment of certain effects in a relatively short window of time. It is not a disorder, unless it is allowed to expand beyond it's original context. When the stressors are keenly consequential, the world is abundant with 'triggers' - and the afflicted are 'forced to live with it'. Some of them are endemic, whereas part of the severe PTSD experience is the continuous discovery of synapsis stimulants and ganglionic avenues you had previously blocked out. A pleasant or every day experience can be a 'trigger', because it is memorably stored alongside a contrasting catastrophic experience that abruptly intruded upon it. For some, 'normality' is a mine field of triggers, that are unexpectedly encountered in the most mundane circumstances and settings. Agorophobia and bi polar symptoms emerge here - also in other segments of Disorder Symptoms Manuals.

Rather than a life of denial, it's constructive for the individual to personally acknowledge and accept the veracity of events and their consequences, in order that the effects can, rather, become a catalyst for postiive change. Like alcoholism, stress can become a drug...a way of life...it can only be kicked if and when the addict decides it's time. In cases of anxiety and panic attack, the endocrinal pot boils over with the ingredients associated with the original stressor. So, you have determined that the programmed individual can reprogram himself - one of the approaches to alleviating PTSD is to attempt a reversal of perspectives, such as, 'You should feel liberated from guilt, because you were attempting to liberate the people of South Vietnam'. Meanwhile, one of the things the exemplary Vietnam vet learns is that he/she not only was not welcome when he/she returned home, they weren't welcome in Vietnam, either - the '68 Tet Offensive was a brutal classroom in that very study. The 'therapeutic' method is often called 'crazymaking' by many vets. It has many other more professionally impressive names - psychomolecular restructuring, neurolinguistic programming, behavior modification, operant conditioning...
..
I know this sounds tough, but IMO, it boils down to a choice of free will.

Dear Leskey:
It certainly would be a good thing of PTSD was as easily circumspected and contained within your blithe evaluation of its parametrical handicaps and limitations. Whereas, there are as many gradations of PTSD as there are circumstantial stressors experienced by the afflicted individual. I am fully aware of the civilian element's affliction with PTSD, as my starting post recognizes, upon its forthwith commencement. Ostensibly, you consider yourself to occupy a station of objectivity because you have personally been diagnosed with PTSD. I have no way of knowing what your stressors are, but clearly you are of the 'Get over it', and 'Move on', 'Don't be a victim' (and sometimes, 'Blaming the victim'), school.

There are moderately disordered persons who do in fact fall into the category you describe. On the other hand, it's generalising that trauma has a uniform standard of measurement, which doesn't distinguish open heart surgery from a hangnail, or a strong personality from a weak one. Apparently you have been relatively fortunate in managing whatever your stressors, triggers and symptoms may be. For that matter, so have I (with a bizarre plurality of 'near sudden deaths' in my service medical record). 'Adjustment' does indeed have a lot - but far from everything - to do with given individuals and their resilience to stress and depression. Response to trauma (or traumae) varies with the individual in a manner comparable to the various responses of different individuals to the same medication - 'paradoxical' (reverse) responses are included in the variations. PTSD often abounds with normal responses to abnormal circumstances...

While, the Disorder Symptoms Manual (DSM - I thru V) is several hundred pages duration, with only a few pages included that list the factors of PTSD. It is a relatively new medical address to a very complex, ancient subject, fraught with a matrix of entangled admixtures as diverse as the entire contents of the Disorders Symptoms Manual and the experiences of the individuals and personalities who suffer from it. Specialist Master's Degrees and Ph.D's are emerging in the accumulating knowledge of the issued, all time anthropomorphic anomaly.

Are you familiar with the Published International Literature on Traumatic Stress (PILOTS)- the largest PTSD data base in the world, affiliated with the National Center for Post Traumatic Stress, in Menlo Park? Are you aware of the neuro psychological - cerebro-chemical - contingencies of severe PTSD? That it's dynamics include physical pathologies?

All too often, that is what it 'boils down to'.

It sounds as though you counseled your way - with or without meds - to an extrication of yourself from your symptoms, enough to cast an asympathetic perspective of what PTSD entails. One may learn a lot about pneumonia, for example, whether they have it or not, but until you get your medical degree, your knowledge is limited to your incompletely studied experience. It is also confined to who you learned from, under what circumstances, for what period of time. Moreover, in this metaphor, there are many gradations of respiratory distress. You are respectfully cautioned that the first law of medicine is: Do no harm. Neither one of us is above taking that law very seriously in this discourse. (Here, let me help you, said the monkey, putting the fish in a tree.)
- Regards, RP

[Mikal]

Hi RP and Leskey…you know I understand both your perspectives. Yours RP because I belong to the site Bitter Lemons and have read the remarkable transmissions of soldiers standing back from the battlefield really feeling the impact and yet Leskey’s view I also know to be true because I have had to find the power and strength inside myself to overcome many crushing circumstances within my own life.

I have a friend who became initiated into the Military five years ago. He joined to obtain his carpentry licenses but none-the-less had to undergo initiation due to the ongoing war in Iraq/Afghanistan.
He told me he was isolated in a group situation which he termed as “in three weeks you will be a killer.” He told me it was difficult but he tried very hard to block a lot of the initiation out simply because he saw himself as a carpenter, someone who builds, not a killer as someone who destroys.
He said day long initiation was brutally exhausting especially when you are choosing to block a lot out. So he said he would go back to their dorm and in the confines of his own space he would fill with anxiety and pace, wring his hands and wonder what on earth he was doing this for.
He said his only salvation was to keep telling himself that he was not a killer.

This young fella has been on 3 stints to the Iraq/Afghanistan war and although escaping the horror of the battlefield he said he has witnessed horrific occurrences in this thing called War. He dropped in to see me at work about a month ago. We went for a walk and I ask him if he was okay! He looked thoughtful for a moment and then said, “of course the effects of war on a country and its people is devastating and cruel, so its searing—but I have not let it sear my consciousness, I have let it sear my heart and thus have become a deeply contemplative man.”
He then winked his eye and said…I am a carpenter Bev, not a killer. I have come full circle in my ponderings and have seen how it is that men become instruments for killing—I have come into my own and can now say I am a Man—my youth has died and my heart has attached itself to LIFE.”

Regards Mikal

[leskey]

Been there, done that. Rascal, you can have my T-shirt if it helps.

No meds...they only serve to cloud reality, dull the senses and post-pone the awful necessity to experience the pain in order to deal with grief and regret...the alternative is to waste whatever life might remain.

My unsentimental certainty has been hard-won...and it certainly wasn't intended to offend.

[RascalPuff]

May it be understood here that the progression of this thread is not in contention with the points made by Leskey, who importantly contributes to qualified facets of this thread, as, hopefully it is already clarified in the preceding dialogue. Leskey's contribution is, among other things, as a role model, an object lesson and a caveat for those who would fall into despair where they might otherwise experience some degree of successful rehabilitation.
___________________________

Some information resource materials - with a few excerpts - follow:

Aphrodite Matsakis (Author of I Can't Get over It: A Handbook for Trauma Survivors)
…trauma refers to the wounding of your emotions, your spirit, your will to live, your beliefs about yourself and the world, your dignity and your sense of security…your normal ways of thinking and feeling are now inadequate… you touch your own death or the death of others. At the same time, you feel, or are helpless to prevent death or injury.

Judith Herman (Author of Trauma and Recovery: The Aftermath of Violence--from Domestic Abuse to Political Terror)
…to come face to face both with human vulnerability in the natural world and with the capacity for evil in human nature.

Traumatic events are extraordinary not because they occur rarely but rather because they overwhelm the ordinary adaptations to life.

Jon Allen (Author of Coping With Trauma: A Guide to Self-Understanding)
Evolution has prepared us well to cope with time limited stress…But there is no reason to think that evolution has prepared us to cope with deliberate, protracted or repeated cruelty.

Babette Rothschild (Author of The Body Remembers: The Psychophysiology of Trauma and Trauma Treatment)
Trauma is a psychophysical experience, even when the traumatic event causes no direct bodily harm. That traumatic events exact a toll on the body as well as the mind is a well documented and agreed upon conclusion of the psychiatric community

Belleruth Naparstek (Author of Invisible Heroes Trauma Survivors and How They Heal)
Heroism must be judged by the courage and grit required to do what needs doing. That’s why trauma –that great terrorizer— produces heroes. No one has to override fear the way a trauma survivor does.
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The following information resource was proffered by April5th, who holds a Master's degree in neuropsychology and is among the clinician qualified Mods on 'OpenForum: PostTraumaticStressDisorder' - the link to which is included in the starting post of this thread.

If you are sensitive to issues involving sexual violence this could be triggering. Read with care.
This story got me so upset. I couldn't believe it.
http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/27/california.gang.rape.investigation/index.html
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210.1 http://www.theduluthmodel.org/pdf/PhyVio.pdf
The above link will take you to the power and control wheel.
Some forms of abuse aren't always as easy to see because they don't leave bruises at least not visible ones. When someone hits you, you know it, but other forms of abuse can be just as damaging, if not to the body to the mind and it might not even register as abuse because it didn't leave a mark, but it can leave PTSD for those in the situation.
If you know someone experiencing anything like the situations described in the power and control wheel and you think they should just leave, maybe leaving isn't the safest option right now but that doesn't mean they have to be in that nightmare alone.
Leaving takes time, and planning and support.
If you are being hurt and need to talk to someone, support is available call the National Domestic Violence Hotline at
1-800-799-SAFE (1-800-799-7233)
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SYMPTOMS
203.1 By Mayo Clinic staff

Signs and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder typically begin within three months of a traumatic event. In a small number of cases, though, PTSD symptoms may not occur until years after the event.
Post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms are commonly grouped into three types: intrusive memories, avoidance and numbing, and increased anxiety or emotional arousal (hyperarousal).



Symptoms of intrusive memories may include:

• Flashbacks, or reliving the traumatic event for minutes or even days at a time
• Upsetting dreams about the traumatic event

Symptoms of avoidance and emotional numbing may include:

• Trying to avoid thinking or talking about the traumatic event
• Feeling emotionally numb
• Avoiding activities you once enjoyed
• Hopelessness about the future
• Memory problems
• Trouble concentrating
• Difficulty maintaining close relationships

Symptoms of anxiety and increased emotional arousal may include:

• Irritability or anger
• Overwhelming guilt or shame
• Self-destructive behavior, such as drinking too much
• Trouble sleeping
• Being easily startled or frightened
• Hearing or seeing things that aren't there

Post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms can come and go. You may have more post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms during times of higher stress or when you experience reminders of what you went through. You may hear a car backfire and relive combat experiences, for instance. Or you may see a report on the news about a rape, and feel again the horror and fear of your own assault.

When to see a doctor
It's normal to have a wide range of feelings and emotions after a traumatic event. The feelings you experience may include fear and anxiety, a lack of focus, sadness, changes in sleeping or eating patterns, or bouts of crying. You may have recurrent nightmares or thoughts about the event. This doesn't mean you have post-traumatic stress disorder.

But if you have these disturbing feelings for more than a month, if they're severe, or if you feel you're having trouble getting your life back under control, consider talking to your health care professional. Getting treatment as soon as possible can help prevent PTSD symptoms from getting worse.
In some cases, post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms may be so severe that you need emergency help, especially if you're thinking about harming yourself or someone else. If possible, call 911 or other emergency services, or ask a supportive family member or friend for help.
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According to the Mayo Clinic


Practicing relaxation techniques can reduce stress symptoms by:

• Slowing your heart rate
• Lowering blood pressure
• Slowing your breathing rate
• Increasing blood flow to major muscles
• Reducing muscle tension and chronic pain
• Improving concentration
• Reducing anger and frustration
• Boosting confidence to handle problems

Does that sound like something you'd like to learn more about?
If so, follow the link below to the mayo clinic's information on relaxation. There are several other links available on that page on specific techniques.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/relaxation-technique/SR00007
If you are familiar with a technique that has worked for you in reducing stress and you'd like to share your knowledge and experience with others reply to this message.
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Largest database of publications on PTSD.
PILOTS:
Published International Literature On Traumatic Stress
http://WWW.PTSD.va.gov/index.asp

[leskey]

It's evident that when a situation which precipitates in PTSD is encountered, the lives affected are forever in jeopardy of falling back into the abyss.

The recent loss of a very close, long term friend, brought this home to me. This person had lead an exemplary life - had been a role model for all who knew her. The intervention of prescription drugs for the first time quickly (within four months) lead to death by her own hand. It was unknown to all but three family members and this particular friend, that she had been abused as a child...this may have been buried deep, laying in wait for the specific 'nourishment' that would allow it to take on a life of its own.

The point to this little vignette is to illustrate that this could be anyone...or, all of us. There's no benefit in ignoring the issues that assail us in the hope that they'll go away. It behoves us to honestly examine the details and actively acknowledge all the issues...it is our opportunity to put something right, so others might avoid a similar experience. IMO, finding strength in vulnerability is the only way to move forward.

[labelwench]

Many have serious trauma in their past, which can surface unexpectedly and devastatingly.

A few years ago, in a most luxurious setting, I experienced a brief mental collapse, as the secure walls of my shielding of decades came asunder.

I went into 'escape mode', leaving the classroom and setting, walking along the beach in tears, planning on how I would return to my room, book a taxi back to the city and go to the airport and pay my own way home.

Those who had paid my exorbitant fares and prestigious class fees, I would compensate out of my own pocket, if required, but I did not think that I could continue thus.

Along the way, I met a dear old woman and her little dog, and the dog recognized my distress (as did she) and they stopped and engaged me. We talked and walked for a considerable interval, and she walked me all the way back to the hotel and gave me a hug.

I returned to my room, now undecided in the wake of her kind intervention, which was entirely supportive, not judgmental in any way.

My classmates came to my door, expressing concern if they had somehow caused my sudden distress and departure.

I was able to regroup and continue, and by the next day, I was appreciative that I wrestled my past demons back into their cave.

They will never be entirely vanquished, but I have a better understanding of how and when they will attempt to come at me and I can watch for patterns and hope to prevent such again.

[RascalPuff]

Having first hand knowledge of a case history of one individual, a partial list of some of the experiences of whom, follow:

Confined (beginning at age 3 1/2) by genetic father to gothic ambience - rat and roach infested - basement, with coal bin and a half ton of small arms ammunition, for eighteen consecutive months (1944 thru 1945); 'for bedwetting'. The 'agreement' was that the child would be released from the basement whenever he quit bedwetting. 18 months later when child turned 5 yrs of age, was allowed to leave basement long enough to attend school on a five day weekly basis, to go back to basement after returning home from school. Child's ordeal in basement began with his Mother and himself being physically thrown down a flight of stairs, resulting in child acquiring the first of three skull fractures.

Child was 'kept company' by an Irish Water Spaniel named 'Molly', who threw three litters of AKC registered pups in basement kennel; whereas, Molly could leave the basement at will through a flexible - exit & entrance - storm door, while the punishment for the child doing it was twice a broken nose and innumerable, brutal beatings. Child also witnessed Mother being flung against wall with such force as to stain wall with blood - two elder children-sibling brothers likewise beaten routinely by antagonist father - an Optometrist Dr. by profession, who arrived home every night from work with a fifth of Jim Beam sour mash whiskey and consumed it before retiring to bed each night. It was all twice as bad on weekends when father did not work.

Mother divorced father shortly after the end of W W II, in which Mother lost three brothers (Child's three uncles). Mother then lived rent free in large apartment above her upper middle class father's jewelry store; went on to meet 'the only Indian in town' - an illiterate, very kind hearted, hard working, Native American Ojibway Chippewa, named William Henry Oshie. Two elder brothers joined military before they were drafted. Youngest sibling - 'the (semi feral) basement boy', traveled widely throughout northern Minnesota and southern Canada with Mother and Stepfather, supporting themselves by custom making and selling hand made jewelry of semi-precious gem stones. Mother & Stepfather lived much of the time on nearby - 'Net Lake' - Indian reservation. County Welfare Dept. obliged Mother to surrender youngest son to 'Child Protective Services', because he wasn't attending school, though his college educated Mother was providing the equivalent of formal schooling to him. Youngest sibling child (the subject of this blog) went through three different foster homes between age 14 and 16 - mainly because he was a stoic and a bedwetter; without the skills of social mobility - there was no word for PTSD at that time.

Mother gang raped on 'Indian Reservation', September, 1955. Stepfather neutralized antagonists, who had later threatened to murder him and his youngest stepson after they physically 'abused' the latter. Stepfather 'nullified the threat'.
Refer nightmare dream sequence documented in Chapter Two, Butterfly, Owl & Eagle: Athena Marie Prima:
http://www.toequest.com/forum/philos...rie-prima.html

At age 17 volunteered for military and quit bedwetting in boot camp, San Diego, CA., July, 1958. Counselors would later conclude that bedwetting was caused by father's physical cruelty to Mother, his two elder brothers and himself.

Active participation in failed Bay of Pigs Cuba invasion, May, 1961. Lost a dozen men from his boat in a firefight on the beach (Subject was never 'targeted' to be fired upon but the remainder of his passengers and himself were inadvertently raked with fully automatic small-arms fire, originating from the adjacent firefight). Ordered to move his boat with surviving passengers to another - 'secure' - location; without any efforts to recover any WIA or KIA from the subjected hostile engagement.

Lost first fiance to abduction, gang rape and murder on Thanksgiving Day, 1961, St. Tropez, France. He escaped (moving) capture vehicle, she did not.
Incident recorded in Service Medical Record (SMR). Covert Naval operations neutralized antagonist (mercenary) elements (Classified).
Fiance's birthdate was Valentine's Day, 1939.

Christmas Eve, 1961, stabbed in back by while subduing berserked American Sailor.

Honorably separated with recommendation for re-enlistement after four years service, 3 1/2 of which was as a BMSN Coxswain (BoatDriver/Pilot) stationed on board an ammunition ship.
(To date, not ever been legally accused or charged with any crimes beyond a misdemeanor.)

May, 1968, acquired double skull fracture as passenger in a car that was side swiped at an intersection. Driver of car killed in motorcycle accident 25 years later.

Lost Mother to coronary occlusion, on Valentine's Day, 1976 - two years earlier, Mother had taken a fall from a ladder while customizing curtains, and broken her right leg femur. When her husband carried her to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) hospital for treatment, she did not trust the doctors and persuaded her husband to take her back home, where, her life began as a shut-in and the femur bone 'knitted' in a displaced - near compound fractured - position. Two years later she perished of coronary occlusion, due to blood clot being shaken loose from point of 'healed' injury.

September 11, 1990. Lost 28 yr old favorite Nephew to suicide, via gasoline immolation in his mother's North Hollywood kitchen. 3rd degree burns over 90% of his body, except face and groin. Lingered in hospital for six weeks and died on Halloween Day, 1990. Was diagnosed as 'schizophrenic' after enduring a lifetime of abuse from his father - who, in 1999, shot himself through the head, on the eve of going to trial for multiple pedophilia and massive embezzlement.

For further (partial) list of (military) stressors please refer to 'How to Acquire Post Traumatic Stress' in ToEQuest Index subject: 'Anecdotal Stories'.

The first response to the posting of that thread follows:

Re: How to AcquirePostTraumaticStressDisorder Pt I

Originally Posted by mkirkpatrick
I know how you feel rascal,when my Budgie died I was off my food for over 6 hours!


regards michael.
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Immediately recognizing the jeering hyperbole, I stoically replied:

The only time I ever lost my lunch is when the fork lift driver dropped a bomb on me.

Regards,
- RP
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[labelwench]

One may never be aware of the skeletons in the closet of another, as for the most part, our society prefers not to acknowledge the atrocities that are committed daily, often behind closed doors, other times front and center granting implicit support by non-interference.

There has been a move to encourage support within our communities, and solicit persons to report suspected wrongs, which may otherwise continue unchecked.

Physical and psychological abuse at all levels is cumlulative, and the individual so stressed may often learn coping mechanisms such that, they are able to appear 'normal' to others, in fact may often be among the seemingly strongest and most capable of people.

Yet, who do these strong people turn to, when the walls finally come crashing inward?

People are ever shocked when the news reports a domestic tragedy, or a co-worker run amok with a gun at the workplace, or a highschool, often reporting how the person involved seemed like such a nice person, who would have thought?

More surprising to me, is that it does not happen more often, when one has but a bit of the knowledge of how much pain some individuals and some cultures have endured.

We often speak of the nobleness and intelligence of mankind.

On the whole, I feel much saver in the wilderness with the bears. They will ever act true to their nature, which is more than I have observed of my own kind.