Page 83 - Total War on PTSD

“I wear sunglasses almost all the time outside — not because I think I'm really, really cool, but because of the rays.” - Ronda Rousey
Courtenay: I very much wish that I could go to a movie theater without being bothered by other people in the theater. Nine times out of ten there is always someone texting, talking loudly, kicking the back of my seat, things like that. I can’t stand someone sitting directly behind me... it just drives me up the wall. With my PTSD and anxiety there isn't much I can do about it when it acts up except my first reaction which was to get up and leave the theater and wait for myself to calm down enough to go back in.
While serving with the Seabee's in Afghanistan, during which time I was a Limited Duty Officer (Ensign and former Chief Petty Officer), someone in my Regiment made me a Boot to carry around. It was around a size 14 men's boot and was filled with concrete with a piece of rebar through the middle (top) of the boot to serve as a handle.
As an Ensign and the 'Boot' officer (even though, because I was a Limited Duty Officer and a former Chief Petty Officer I wasn’t actually a ‘Boot’), I was ‘supposed’ to carry this boot around with me. I went along with it for fun and Seabee tradition’s sake. I ended up using an extra M16 harness to help me carry it. Well, given the weight, I also didn't waste any time finding a hiding place for the damn thing as it was also killing my shoulder and ‘technically’ UNSAT in uniform. Nevertheless I still carried it in my possession to and from my barracks ‘just in case’.
There was one time that a Petty Officer who worked for me stole my wonderful boot, held onto it for a week, all the while having other people sending me random photos of my boot ‘in action,' and then some inventive person decided to hoist it up on our flagpole after evening colors. Well, I was 'summoned' outside and found my boot floating in the breeze, if that was even possible, and busted out laughing. That was the only time I laughed like that during the entire Afghanistan deployment. It felt so good.
In the end I had to get the boot down myself...and it went right back into a selection of hiding places for the remainder of the deployment...hidden from prying eyes and potentially deceitful Petty Officers.
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