A rapid descent because of the trauma load you carry can be very short. That's what happened to Alaska Native Joseph Murphy in Juneau, Alaska. His death at the hands of the Alaska Department of Corrections was revealed when Governor Walker revealed an investigation into the Department recently.
Here is the link: "How a shameful Alaska jail death took a decorated hero"
The story talks about the trauma Mr. Murphy experienced in his family of origin, and during his military service. He settled into a productive life, finding self healing ways to deal with his trauma load. But something obviously happened to him, and he started drinking more heavily. That's not unusual. The way I see it, we find coping mechanisms [Positive, neutral and negative] that ebb and flow depending on our triggering events. When live goes good, we need fewer mechanisms. When life goes bad, we adopt more. And with every mechanism we adopt, familiarity makes them less effective and we increase the dose.
Mr. Murphy disappeared into his life before his death. We do that. We live life without letting people in deep enough to understand the turmoil we are in. Or we don't understand why we do what we do. It's common in our world because that's the culture we were raised in and we think it's normal. As a result, we don't get the help we need. Everyone assumes we don't need help as we walk a trajectory into trouble.
I share this story in the hope that we will start to think about the continuum of life. The signs of trauma can be seen early in life. But we need to look at all of the available evidence, not just the symptoms that have already caused us damage. How do we do that. We ask. So far we don't ask enough. Then we observe. Then we offer to intervene. The problem is, many of us have had really poor experiences with behavioral health services and counseling. I have been three times and didn't find any help.
It can be a short journey to death. I hear about them all of the time. The suicide at the Alaska Federation of Natives Convention. The murder of a relative of my child's friend. Mr. Murphy. An innocent victim of an ACE victim acting out.
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