Manns Medium

  At conception, the first thing that forms are part of the brain, this portion has only one cognitive component which is called the Mix match negative (MMN).   This component is tasked with telling the fetus when it is time to form the different parts of the body and recording all events and reactions.   This recording captures everything from the way things happened to how you felt about them, this is the start of all your memories and beginning stages of creation of your behavior. From infancy to the age of eleven (11), the MMN continues to capture your memories and reactions. This is defined by all your experiences and all that you witness.   You learn by watching those closest to you and the examples that they set to figure out how you should react or handle those same situations.   Your only sense of right or wrong is the justification that if those closest to you are doing it, then it must be okay and right. From ages twelve (12) to approximately twen...

  The movie “Mending the Line” is a story about a Marine wounded in Afghanistan who is sent to a V.A. facility in Montana where he meets a Vietnam Vet who teaches him how to fly fish as a way of dealing with his emotional and physical trauma. The films director is Joshua Caldwell, writer Stephen Camelio and stars Brian Cox, Patricia Heaton, and Perry Mattfeld. Now when I saw the trailer, I was a little apprehensive about watching the movie because lately it seems that almost anything sends me back to my time in the Marines and host of unreconciled feelings as well as a few more nightmares but this one was different.   It showed true emotions and feelings as well as top notch action and drama, but the overall ending result was a massive feeling of joy and happiness that could never be explained or put into words. I am not about to sit here and try and tell you the entire movie because there is no way that I could capture the beauty and satisfying mark it will leave on you. ...

  If we are completely honest with ourselves, even the blind can see the connection between mental issues and criminal activities.   You can gather all the proof your need through live interviews with those who are currently incarcerated or those who have a criminal record including misdemeanors.   Since there are not one human being free of trauma in their lives which spawns a mental issue, the alarm should ring quite loudly when you hear them say that they are fine, normal, sane, or free of sin.   The very fact that a living, breathing human being thinks that they are immune from mental issues should, itself, be very alarming. We all begin contact with mental issues at birth.   Abandonment is the first mental trauma we face as we are forced out of the only safe and secure environment that we know.   We then spend most of our time trying to make sense of this new world that we are now a part of.   To get an idea of how we are supposed to...

  When a Dream becomes so much more than just Reality   Adam Dixon had a dream, he dreamed of one day creating a space for at risk youth and adults that would go beyond the typical programs and offer something that no other has ever. He did not expect that this dream would materialize into far much more than that. He created The Adam Dixon Perseverance Foundation in 2014 after 3 year professional football career playing arena football and brief stints in the Canadian Football League. He recognized the immense and immediate need for this kind of organization providing not only sensible solutions but educational scholarships, mentorship, and leadership development. He was acutely aware that there were many others at-risk youth and adults programs out there but there were still a very large part of what was needed to guarantee the success of the students missing. He made it his heavenly mission to not only discover what they were but solve those issues.   It is n...

When we are first born, we shed the protection of the womb and entire into an existence that is extremely frightening, we cry not so much about the doctor spanking us on the butt but simply because we know of no other recourse to express this fear. This is the first time we encounter a mentally traumatic event, we call abandonment. Our only true solace is to placed in the arms of the person whom we had come to know as our safe haven strictly by heartbeat and possibly smell because only after hearing that familiar heartbeat and later the sound of that safe haven’s voice, do we calm down enough to stop crying. If that sensation is missing, we will continue to be unsettled and affect by this for the rest of our lives. If this sensation is present, we tend to settle in and when something happens which creates a fear in us, we run to that safe place for comfort also for now and the rest of our lives. As we grow, several other mentally traumatic events happens, each leaves it’s o...

One would think that since mental illness is not so much stigmatized as it once were and so many health care plans now cover treatment, we would be making great strides in our ability to help those “non-functional” individuals to become more “functional”.   I say that because this appears to be the only true difference between those who suffer and those who claim to not.   The non-functionality and functionality separate those who are strong enough to get the help that they deserve and those who continually deny that they need the help.   Those who may be functional at this moment often find themselves non-functional because they did not prepare with new coping skills and continue to rely upon the old ones to navigate through their days.   I say this because unless you are a robot, trauma occurs within the life of every human being.   The degree upon which it affects that individual is the difference between what may be very traumatic to you may not be...

I have always been an advocate in believing that the strongest part of the human body is the mind.   I believe that it is the mind that is the main actor in this play called “Life” and if we are to truly be in command of our destinies, we must first master our own individual minds.   The mind has been credited with the ability to heal the body and we know that people have been able to convince themselves of things even in the face of over-whelming evidence to the contrary.   What one perceives to be the truth is often the reason why they may react in a particular way or believe in certain things and because of those conflicts arises and many times resolutions to these conflicts can never be reached.   This results in added stress which can cripple a person’s physical health.   There are ways to help reduce this stress and the primary one is to exert as much effort spent to help our children with their mental work as we do with their homework.   It is the ...

As a retired U.S. Marine, there are few things that truly makes me wish to grab certain people and shake them until an apple falls out except when I read that I have lost another brother simply because some loud-mouth politician decided to start a war that they did not have to fight in.  It makes things even more frustrating when those who saber-rattle are also those who can make the changes to correct these suicides but refuse.  I assume that they believe having “yes men and women” on their payroll allows them the conscientious to sleep at night because those yes men and women are former military and tells them exactly what they wish to hear.  I guess my frustration is even more aimed at myself because even after writing a book on how to handle this, it still appears not enough and the more that I attempt to do the less it seems to matter.  That was before I read this article titled “ Suicide Claims 14th Marine From a Unit Battered by Loss ” written by Dave Philipp...

You read that title right America, my school will reduce veteran suicides because the numbers do not lie and it is clear that what has been attempted in the past is not working.  We have assumed that throwing money at veterans would be the answer.  We have assumed that holding job fairs and offering businesses tax credits for hiring a veteran would do it.  We have assumed that placing them on disability and welfare would do it.  We have been convinced that donation and charity would answer the screams of veterans all over this nation demanding help and getting none.  We have assumed that saying “thank you” would quiet the voices within the heads of these veterans and within our own very souls.  We were and still are so very wrong.  We are wrong because we lack the understanding that the main underlying issue faced by veterans who contemplate suicide has nothing to really do about money.  It simply has something to do about dignity and respect. ...

For years now I have been fighting this invisible enemy and just recently come to realize who and what this enemy is.  This enemy used to get the best of me in the beginning but until recently I truly thought I had it under control.  Those nightmares and wondering minds as well as those hype-reactions took its toil but I made a fight of it.  I was just sitting here a few minutes ago and thinking that I had endured enough.  I couldn’t seem to stop the voices but as my day was getting darker, it finally occurred to me why. The enemy is PTSD and whether those in the medical community wish to acknowledge it or not, I know that it exists.  It’s invisible to many but ever present for many more.  People wish you to believe that it is only exclusive to a certain segment of society but I know that it is not.  People want you to think that they understand what it is and how to treat it but they have no clue.  People want you to believe that only those ...

T here is this group of scam artists who has now appeared to have set their sights on veterans and many of whom may already suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), have found that they were subjected to contaminated drinking water on the U. S. Bases on which they were assigned, currently fighting with the V. A. regarding disability, education and other benefits of which they earned and convincing an employer that they are hirable thereby living day to day unemployed.  For some reason, these crooks think this is a target enriched environment from which to operate but what they may not have counted on is veterans are much similar to a bunch of snakes, you mess with us and we bite back. Image coming home after serving your country in uniform and after being promised so much not being able to get any of those promises answered because while you were busy defending their freedom, some were changing the rules and policies which now deny you those promises.  But befor...