Page 218 - Total War on PTSD

“War is not some sort of Nintendo video game.” - Scott Ritter
Courtenay: My memory issues have been long-standing (post-deployment) and can be worse at times. There really isn’t any way to predict what I’m going to forget or when.
My most recent episode was when I visited the local library. Since I hadn’t been to the library in over 10 years and I didn’t have a library card, I applied for a new one, was issued a new one, and then managed to lose it somewhere in the library less than five minutes later. More irritating is when I try to remember something while walking from one room to another, and by the time I arrive I plum forget what I was doing. Dumbfounded, I stand there trying to recover whatever it was that I was thinking about, or was in the process of doing.
I really suck at games like chess...anything that requires any sort of detailed forward thinking and strategy. I recall playing my little brother Daniel on Mortal Combat and really having fun with beating him, which he hated. However, the reason I was able to beat him was that I didn't know what all the buttons did on the controller, so I just kept pressing buttons randomly over and over again until I beat him. In the meantime, he couldn't win by using strategy and my strategy was to not have a strategy.
He really hated playing me because of this...it was so fun! I lost my little brother Daniel to an accidental drug overdose in 2006. I can’t help but wonder what ‘battles’ he was fighting. What I wouldn’t give to have him back again.
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