A personal perspective of PTSD / Mental Health of a physically challenged person # Mental Health Day
By Malini Shankar Digital Discourse Foundation I might as well start with my own example. I am a physically challenged person. I was born normal and perfectly fit; but a childhood accident caused a severe head injury as I fell backward during play time while perched on a ground floor balcony grill; - crashing my skull base against the Fiat car door handle. It paralysed me within minutes. I was one month short of my eighth birthday. As I drifted off into comatose and became unconscious about 15 – 20 minutes after the fall, I became distinctly unaware of my surroundings, it was the start of a life-long battle with destiny and the grit and determination to fight death, to save my own life and breathe; it traumatises me to this day every moment - awake or not. I distinctly recall chasing a light at the end of the tunnel … or in my case it was light at the bottom of a dark stairway… I felt like I was chasing the light, I was convinced that my life, my breathe and my soul was bei...