“A 2016 review of research found 17% of LGB adults had attempted suicide during their lifetime, compared to 2.4% of the general U.S. population.”  — UCLA School of Law Williams Institute

“LGBTQ youth are not inherently prone to suicide risk because of their sexual orientation or gender identity, but rather placed at higher risk because of how we are mistreated and stigmatized in society.”  — The Trevor Project

(Content warning: family struggles/alienation, foster care, bullying, work struggles, religion, law enforcement, military, politics, supreme court, conversion therapy, riots, militant groups, physical assault, hate crimes, death sentence, and murder)

Possible Traumas

After years of struggles, I accepted that I was gay in 1989 at age 20, and told my family and friends soon after.  I know there has been a lot of progress socially in the US, since 1989.  But, doing research for this article reminded me, that a lot of people still suffer many and varied traumatic events because they are Queer. For those who are interested in more information, I am going to list some of the statistics I found, at the end of this article, including links to the source articles.

Almost everything I reference in this article is about struggles within the last ten years.  Because, yes, social acceptance has gotten better since the 1900s, 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, and ’80s, but social acceptance, equality, and safety are still concerns.

Growing up and living, actually just being lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning (one’s sexual or gender identity), intersex, and asexual/aromantic/agender  (LGBTQIA+ or Queer) in the USA has many possible traumas including, but not limited to:

Friends, Family and Foster Care

• -friends or family struggles
• -friends or family rejection
• -friends or family alienation
• -Queer people in foster care can face unaccepting foster parents, foster siblings, group home staff and residents

School, Religion and Work

• -school bullying
• -workplace harassment
• -hiring and workplace discrimination
• -lower wages
• -religious discrimination
• -religious persecution and expulsion
• -religions promoting and funding campaigns for anti-Queer laws
• -Queer law enforcement officers harassed by co-workers
• -Queer firefighters harassed by co-workers
• -Queer Enlisted Military harassed by fellow enlisted personnel

Government

• -Government officials and elected representatives saying stigmatizing statements
• -Government officials and elected representatives working to create anti-Queer laws
• -US Supreme Court decisions about Queer rights

Strangers and Businesses

• -social harassment
• -conversion therapy
• -renting, and housing loan discrimination and higher interests rates
• -law enforcement officers hostile toward Queers
• -Active Threats and Conspiracy to Riot by Conservative Militant Groups against the Queer Community
• -Hate crimes: verbal harassment, sexual harassment, physical harassment, and murder.

There are still about TEN COUNTRIES in the world where BEING GAY can be LEGALLY PUNISHED BY DEATH.

In the US, in 2022, every Queer person alive lives knowing friends, family, strangers, co-workers, religious people, law enforcement officers, firefighters, politicians, hate groups and more could be hostile, rejecting to homicidal.

Even one and certainly any combo of these possible traumas can cause fear and internal struggles causing more internal turmoil and trauma.

These ONGOING and INESCAPABLE traumatic events, even just the possibilities, could cause Complex PTSD.

Traumatic events from my brother and mother

About 1990, my brother told me, that if I ever brought a lover home; he saw what to do in a movie.  He would take them out behind a farm building and kill them.  After that, I barely spoke to him for two years.

During that same visit, my brother’s friend, the best man in my brother’s first wedding told me, that when he was in the military, he used to seduce gay men up to a hotel room.  Then with military buddies, they would strip the gay man, wrap them in duct tape, fill the man’s car with ice and then place the duct-tape-bound man in his car on the ice.   My brother and his friend laughed.  I was horrified.

After 25 years of acting accepting, my mother removed me from her legal will ten days before she died.  I think this was connected to her own implicit bias against me and the internal, religious, and social struggles she had because I am gay.  (Details of this story at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH6Wt1pchefOSB-IRo2R0hA/videos “My Dysfunctional Family Implodes.  I am set Free.”)

Some of my Queer traumatic events

In 1992, in Madison, WI, I saw four men pick up a concrete planter and throw it onto the hood of a car in the parking lot of a gay bar.  I didn’t even think to call law enforcement, because that is just what happens to us.

In 1994, in Milwaukee, WI, a friend and I met at a chili joint to talk about my recent trip.  As we left the restaurant, a man followed us, and threw a glass beer bottle on the ground behind us, so the broken glass bounced up and hit our legs, while yelling, “Fucking Fags.”

In 1995, in Madison, WI, I walked out of a grocery store past a car that was parked by the door.  As I walked in front of the car, they revved their engine and yelled, “Fucking Faggot” as I walked on.  I was alone, in sweats, and just bought milk; an ordinary living life activity.   We never know when harassment will happen or how far it will go.

In 2010, in Lone Rock, WI, I volunteered and created two small low-maintenance, ornamental, deep-mulch demonstration food gardens at the Lone Rock Library, with all of the food going to the community.  I also volunteered to lead a few educational presentations at the library explaining the gardens.  The gardens were cited with a fire code citation and removed.  I asked, begged, and demanded an explanation as I was teaching this kind of gardening around the Midwest as a part-time business.  If these gardens were a fire hazard, I needed to know. The Lone Rock Fire Department would not respond to my certified letters requesting an explanation.  Instead, they had their lawyer respond to me with side-stepping deflections.  Confirmation eventually got back to me that this was done because I am gay.

Local Murder

On June 18, 1995, in Livingston, WI, Norman Bennett was violently murdered and discarded.  I know one of Norman’s relatives who told me of the murder.  Family and society assumed Norman was gay.  Criminal charges were minimal.  Some of the details of the murder are in this public article:  https://casetext.com/case/state-v-tanner-77

Mental Health/Illness Symptoms

The Queer community is in a neglectful and abusive relationship with society.  We probably know which friends and family members accept us or don’t.  We never know what stranger may become abusive, where or at what time.  Hypervigilance is required when out in public.

The queer community has higher rates of:

• -depression
• -anxiety
• -alcoholism
• -drug use
• -suicidal ideation, attempts, and completions.

Foster Care and a Queer Group Home

I spoke with Jean Northway from Courage MKE, a LGBTQIA+ youth group home   https://www.couragemke.org/.  Many queer people in foster care homes and group homes have trouble with placements because even vetted foster parents and group home staff still have levels of not accepting queer behaviors, while they accept the heterosexual version of the same behavior.

Keeping any secret is hard.  We talked about having to hide a part of “who you are” in certain situations is very hard and damaging to one’s self-image.  When a person has to keep a part of themselves a secret, this takes a toll on the person.  In the group home Courage MKE, they work so every person does not have to hide any part of who they are.  With this goal, compared to the state average youth stay at group homes in Wisconsin, their residents are staying with Courage MKE 211% longer.

Possible CPTSD, unaware, undiagnosed and/or misdiagnosed

I cannot diagnose people; yet, I suspect there are a lot of Queer people living with low level up to diagnosable Complex PTSD.

CPTSD is caused by ongoing trauma that one feels one cannot escape from.  From the possible traumas listed above, it is obvious that traumas to Queer people can come from any and every aspect of life and continue happening throughout life.

Part of why Queer people don’t realize the traumas that are happening is because this is just life and we have numbed ourselves to dangers and just live with it.  We have no other choice.

These are some of the top symptoms of CPTSD:

• -intimacy problems
• -guilt/shame
• -anger or feeling numb
• -relationship problems
• -emotion regulation problems
• -feeling worthless.

If you are a queer person and live with some or all of these symptoms, there is help.  The first screener I know of for CPTSD is the International Trauma Questionnaire at https://www.traumameasuresglobal.com/itq.   There is a lot of information on this blog, on the CPTSD Foundation’s website, and on the internet.  In this video, I talk about the questions on two screeners that apply to CPTSD, the Adverse Childhood Experience subject questions and the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Check List – Civilian (PCL-C) at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IT2sARgB3iQ.  There is help and life can get better.

P.S.

Writing this article was more difficult for me than I expected.  I came out in 1989 and my life is most comfortable as a gay man.  Yet, I know there are dangers in society.  Since 2014, when I was accurately diagnosed with CPTSD, I have mostly focused on the traumas from my family.  I have some new things to examine, after writing this article.

Guest Post Disclaimer: Any and all information shared in this guest blog post is intended for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing in this blog post, nor any content on CPTSDfoundation.org, is a supplement for or supersedes the relationship and direction of your medical or mental health providers. Thoughts, ideas, or opinions expressed by the writer of this guest blog do not necessarily reflect those of CPTSD Foundation. For more information, see our Privacy Policy and Full Disclaimer.

Roger Reynolds

Roger Reynolds

After 25 years in and out of therapy, Roger was finally accurately diagnosed with Complex PTSD in 2014, at 45.  An accurate diagnosis changed his self-help research and treatment plan, which is improving his life.

Hoping to increase understanding of CPTSD from a survivor’s perspective, Roger is starting the YouTube Channel “No Bruises on the Outside”  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH6Wt1pchefOSB-IRo2R0hA  Roger’s highest goal is increase CPTSD awareness and understanding so diagnosing is earlier and treatments more on point, leading to less suffering and more comfort in survivors’ lives.

When writing or speaking, Roger works to incorporate science and personal stories to deliver a down to earth, easy to understand presentation.  Roger has been a public speaker and educator for more than 20 years.  Since 2019, he has been speaking about mental health struggles, skills, treatments and his life story.  Behind his family’s public façade of a peaceful dairy farm in southwest Wisconsin, USA, near the Mississippi River, was domestic violence, alcoholism, denied parental mental illness, stalking, death threats and more.

www.youtube.com/channel/UCH6Wt1pchefOSB-IRo2R0hA

Triggers Are Real

Triggers are serious and should not be laughed at or minimized.

Some minor word or minor action versus my strong response is not always easy to explain to others.  

They did not live through what I lived through.

I live with triggers in my brain.  

As a layperson, I am going to explain some of the brain science of triggers.  I use common non-traumatic experiences to explain neuropathways and triggers.  My hope is others may use these same examples to help people who don’t have triggers to better understand what we live with.  I hope this article is easier to read with few traumatic references. 

(Content warning: minimal mention of a car accident, snake, physical abuse, anger/rage, and alcohol, with no details of any of the events.)

Neuropathways

To learn to do something new, one must “Practice, Practice, Practice.”  Repetition builds a specific pathway in the brain to do a specific task.  Neuroscientists call these specific pathways in the brain neural pathways or neuropathways.  (I am not a neuroscientist.  More information about neuropathways is on the internet.  I am writing about neuropathways as a layperson and the neural, axial, and synapses details are not important to understanding this article.)

As a child, memorizing the alphabet song created a pathway in my brain.  If someone says, “Sing A, B, C,” I immediately hear that song in my head and I will automatically prepare my vocal cords to start to sing “A, B, C, D, (pause) E, F, G…”  Memorizing the alphabet song created a neuropathway in my brain that will last all of my life.  This specific neuropathway is still there and is easily activated, with one word and four letters.  Probably, “Sing A, B” is enough to activate this specific neuropathway.

A neuropathway can go to and activate different parts of the brain.  A neuropathway can activate learned instructions of how to do something, memories, or both.   These instructions can start to send messages to other parts of my body.  From “Sing A, B…” I immediately activated nerves, muscles, and my vocal cords getting ready to sing.  

Ask me to show how to tie my shoes; I will start to move my arms, hands, fingers, and body before I am even consciously thinking about how to demonstrate shoe tying.  The brain and body are very interconnected. 

If at age 20, I learned a new alphabet song, this would create a new neuropathway for this new alphabet song.  I practice, practice, practice this new alphabet song with a child.  We perform this new alphabet song in their kindergarten class.  A year passes, and someone says, “Sing A, B, C, D.”  Most likely, the alphabet song I learned as a child will be the first song I think of, the first neuropathway that is activated.  

This is the power of a strong, well-established and first learned neuropathway.  Plus, the strength of the primary neuropathway versus later developed neuropathways, to the same activating event.  The new alphabet song is a secondary neuropathway, less substantial, less established, less developed, like a walking path off of a road or an off-ramp or detour, connected to the first neuropathway for the activating event “Sing A, B, C.” 

Neuropathways and Brain Development

These neuropathways in our brain are like roads on the landscape.  The first three minutes of this video created by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explains the creation of neuropathways in the brain.  This video has superb graphics with this explanation.  I highly recommend watching the first three minutes of this video: “Preventing Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) Online Training Module 1 Lesson” at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-SSwYTe8TY  

Here are two important quotes from this video: 

“Our brains develop and change throughout life, enabling us to learn and do new things and to adapt at every age.  But childhood, and early childhood, in particular, is the most sensitive and critical period for brain development. As a child interacts with the world, their experiences, both positive and negative, stimulate the brain, causing it to form neural pathways that lay the foundation for lifelong cognitive and behavioral functioning.” –the narrator

“Our experiences literally shape the way our brain is developing and the brain architecture.”  Jordan Greenbaum, MD

I am going to continue to focus on neuropathway creation and activation.

Intensity can create a strong neuropathway with just one occurrence

“Practice, Practice, Practice” can create a strong neuropathway.  The intensity of an experience can fast-track the creation of a primary neuropathway or link to a memory.  If my favorite song, for 30 years, was playing on the car radio just as I got into a car accident, my favorite song could immediately become something that activates my memories, feelings, or flashback (typical or emotional) of this automobile accident.  Now, I may hate and dread this song from one event.

Neuropathways for Warnings

As a toddler, before I have conscious memories, I learned that “HOT” stated strongly by an older person meant “Don’t Touch! Hurts!”  I expect I was allowed to touch a few semi-hot objects to help me learn this lesson.  

Now, in my fifties, if someone yelled, “HOT” at me, I would automatically stop.  I stop because of a strongly practiced neuropathway in my brain.

Singing the alphabet song never hurt; it may feel a bit silly as an adult.  In childhood, burns hurt and still hurt fifty years later.  I still appreciate a “HOT” warning, if I am about to touch something hot.  Yes, please activate the “HOT” neuropathway for me.

If someone yells, “Snake,” I will stop and look, feeling a bit cautious.  If someone yells snake five different times on a hike and there is never a snake, I will start to doubt that person’s snake warnings.  I am building a new “Snake” response neuropathway specific to this jokester.  This new neuropathway will be a secondary neuropathway to someone yelling “Snake.”  I will still pause for a split second, identify the voice, then I remember this jokester likes to do this and I will relax and continue walking.  After a few times, this secondary neuropathway will also be activated in a split second.

Psychological Traumatic Triggers

Regarding Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (PTSD) and Complex Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome (CPTSD), “trigger” is used to refer to a word, action, smell, sound, song, visual, or anything that activates a neuropathway, memory, typical flashback or emotional flashback connected to a traumatic event.

During a traumatic event, brain activation, body chemistry, and emotions are incredibly intense, that is why it takes only one experience to create these strong, primary neuropathways. 

The warning “HOT!” was created before I have conscious memories, yet I still know it.  I have feared my father all of my life.  I am certain I had traumatic experiences at his hand, with his angry voice, before I can remember.

Using Brain Science to Heal

I live with CPTSD and I know a lot of my triggers.  I tell a half-joke.  “If someone is somewhat drunk and then shows anger, it is magic.  I disappear!”  I still cannot be around somewhat drunk people who show any amount of anger.  I know this is from my childhood with an angry, alcoholic father.  

When I am triggered, knowing what is happening in my brain helps me to:

• -not blame myself
• -not criticize myself
• -not accept the thought “I’m too sensitive”
• -not accept the thought “I’m a failure.”  

Instead, I try to: 

• -accept that I am this sensitive; because being this sensitive helped me survive in the past
• -take a few deep breaths
• -get to a safe place
• -let myself experience my feelings, without judgment
• -go for a walk
• -take a nap
• -watch TV as a distraction
• -eventually, try to identify what activated this neuropathway.

I am working to build new secondary neuropathways to many of my triggers.  The process is not easy or fast, but it is helping.  

(I don’t identity dissociate or experience typical flashbacks.  I do emotionally dissociate and experience emotional flashbacks.   A list of what to do when triggered will be different for every person, based on what they experience.)

Guest Post Disclaimer: Any and all information shared in this guest blog post is intended for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing in this blog post, nor any content on CPTSDfoundation.org, is a supplement for or supersedes the relationship and direction of your medical or mental health providers. Thoughts, ideas, or opinions expressed by the writer of this guest blog do not necessarily reflect those of CPTSD Foundation. For more information, see our Privacy Policy and Full Disclaimer.

Roger Reynolds

Roger Reynolds

After 25 years in and out of therapy, Roger was finally accurately diagnosed with Complex PTSD in 2014, at 45.  An accurate diagnosis changed his self-help research and treatment plan, which is improving his life.

Hoping to increase understanding of CPTSD from a survivor’s perspective, Roger is starting the YouTube Channel “No Bruises on the Outside”  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH6Wt1pchefOSB-IRo2R0hA  Roger’s highest goal is increase CPTSD awareness and understanding so diagnosing is earlier and treatments more on point, leading to less suffering and more comfort in survivors’ lives.

When writing or speaking, Roger works to incorporate science and personal stories to deliver a down to earth, easy to understand presentation.  Roger has been a public speaker and educator for more than 20 years.  Since 2019, he has been speaking about mental health struggles, skills, treatments and his life story.  Behind his family’s public façade of a peaceful dairy farm in southwest Wisconsin, USA, near the Mississippi River, was domestic violence, alcoholism, denied parental mental illness, stalking, death threats and more.

www.youtube.com/channel/UCH6Wt1pchefOSB-IRo2R0hA

Which word? Violence or abuse is semantics, a distinction without a difference.  Which word to use is not the most important consideration.  If you have lived with No Contact Physical Violence/Abuse, what is most important is that you identify how you were affected by this and get help to heal the bruises to your psyche.

When There are No Bruises on the Outside

When there are no bruises on the outside; how do we identify Abuse?  How do we identify when insults become Emotional Abuse or when arguments become Domestic Violence; when there are no bruises on the outside?  

Can physical violence be physical abuse, if no one is hit?

Inanimate objects can be broken, smashed, punched, burned, or thrown, even thrown in the direction of someone, yet the victims are not hit and have no bruises.  Is this physical abuse?

When my father was physically violent, he was in a rage; yelling and insulting someone or everyone.  I felt scared, fearful, vulnerable, powerless, threatened, angry, blamed, embarrassed, humiliated, overwhelmed, repulsed, hopeless, terrified,  and there are more.  Running away from him was not an option.  Arguing or fighting back was quite dangerous.  The safest thing to do was stand there as a neutral observer, showing none of my own emotions, yet responding to him in a way that was agreeing and hopefully would appease him. 

There are stories of broken dishes, a broken kitchen table, holes punched in walls, burned clothing, a stabbed water bed, and a permanent dent in a wooden door from a flying 1970s heavy, cut glass ashtray.  An example from my family strongly paints a picture of what no contact physical abuse can look like.  

Broken Glass and Bloody Walls

I was 18 and had recently moved out of my father’s home, where I had lived with my father and step-mother, 2 younger step-brothers, and my younger half-sister.  My father was gone Sunday night through Friday night as an over-the-road truck driver.  My step-mother asked for his permission (because his permission was required) to repaint and wallpaper the kitchen and dining room, during the week, while he was gone.  Permission was granted.

She completed the redecorating and bought two new pictures for the walls at the local Ben Franklin Five & Dime store.  Dad got home the next weekend and was angry because he had not approved buying new pictures for the walls.  

That Saturday night, he and my stepmother went out.  He got drunk.  Once home, while verbally fighting he smashed his fist and forearm into the glass of one of the new pictures.  Then he walked around and threw blood from his bleeding hand and forearm onto the newly painted and wallpapered walls.  

A classmate of mine was babysitting the younger kids at our house.  During the fight, she grabbed a butcher knife from the kitchen, took the kids upstairs, and hid in a closet.

I stopped by that Sunday morning and saw my father sitting at the dining room table with his hand and arm in a bloody towel, with ice on his wounds.  The table was littered with empty beer cans.  He was trying to decide if he should go get stitches.  Actually, he was probably waiting to sober up before going to the doctor.

My father hid his drinking and violent behavior from his parents, sister, and aunt.  Unannounced, they all stopped by; and walked into the same scene I walked into.  My father told them that he slipped and fell.  They asked no questions and the visit proceeded like all was fine.  They are sitting in a room with blood spray on the walls, beer cans on the dining room table, and my father with his hand in a bloody towel with ice.  

The Unspoken Threat

I remember three spankings from my father before I was eight.  One was over a living room chair.  One was with a vehicle engine belt.  One was with a machete, while I was running.  (Thankfully, I was not cut.)  I don’t remember much actual hitting of people.

Yet, when an event like the broken pictures was happening, I always knew the physical violence could be turned on me at any time.  “You could be next” is the unspoken threat.  

Physical harm would happen to me, if I spoke up and crossed a certain unspoken, yet clearly understood line.  Running would have been seen as disrespectful and unacceptable.  Showing fear or crying was unacceptable.  Every victim needed to NOT show their emotions.  I learned to emotionally dissociate, to shut off feeling my emotions.  In my late 40’s, I finally identified this series of behaviors in myself and started to call it “Submit and Appease.”

Normalized Violence.  Abuse?  Symptoms? 

The abuse was happening in my home before I was born.  I didn’t know most of my symptoms were mental illness symptoms; they were just how I lived.  After seven years of continual therapy, I am still identifying more symptoms and triggers. 

Angrophobia, yes, ANGRO, not agoraphobia, is the fear of anger.  I have an intense fear of people who are angry or who I have seen get angry and honestly, even someone a bit irritated triggers me to high alert.  The sooner I could identify a parent being irritated, the sooner I could emotionally dissociate, appearing neutral, and try to appease them.  I was always hoping for less outrage.  In me, this all happens subconsciously; this is an early childhood learned response.  

My “submit and appease” routine is an automated immediate response.  I can appear emotionally neutral in less than a second.  People don’t even know I am scared of them or why I drift away from them.  

In the broken glass scene, when my relatives acted like nothing was off or wrong, their actions gave the message that this was normal and acceptable.  In my fifties, I realized they must have seen scenes like this before or they would not have been able to disconnect from their emotions and just have a “normal” visit in that setting.  

It was harder for therapists and for me to identify the abuse because no one was hit and there were no bruises on the outside.

The many effects, including angrophobia, have cost me friends, relationships, and stable employment for many years.  

“No Contact Physical Violence” or “No Contact Physical Abuse”? 

Breaking, punching, and throwing objects is certainly physical violence.  I debate whether to call this physical abuse.  There is danger.  There is fear.  There is a threat.  Yet, there are no bruises on the outside.

I would be no less scared, had I been hit.  And, had I been hit, I would have been less confused about if this was abuse and I would have been accurately diagnosed sooner. I was severely affected by this no-contact physical violence.  

Which word? Violence or abuse is semantics, a distinction without a difference.  Which word to use is not the most important consideration.  I lived through No Contact Physical Violence/Abuse.  What is most important is that I’m identifying how I was affected by this and getting help to heal the bruises on my psyche. 

I still struggle with the memories, triggers, and neuropathways that were established during events of no-contact physical violence/abuse?  These are bruises to my mind.  Therapy and self-help work is helping me to decrease my struggles and increase my comfort in life.  

Which word? Violence or abuse is semantics, a distinction without a difference.  Which word to use is not the most important consideration.  If you have lived with No Contact Physical Violence/Abuse, what is most important is that you identify how you were affected by this and get help to heal the bruises to your psyche.

This scratched picture, with missing glass, is now a family heirloom, to remind us of what we survived.  Now that we are adults and realize we lived in constant fear, in an abusive household, even though we had “No Bruises on the Outside.”

Guest Post Disclaimer: Any and all information shared in this guest blog post is intended for educational and informational purposes only. Nothing in this blog post, nor any content on CPTSDfoundation.org, is a supplement for or supersedes the relationship and direction of your medical or mental health providers. Thoughts, ideas, or opinions expressed by the writer of this guest blog do not necessarily reflect those of CPTSD Foundation. For more information, see our Privacy Policy and Full Disclaimer.

Roger Reynolds

Roger Reynolds

After 25 years in and out of therapy, Roger was finally accurately diagnosed with Complex PTSD in 2014, at 45.  An accurate diagnosis changed his self-help research and treatment plan, which is improving his life.

Hoping to increase understanding of CPTSD from a survivor’s perspective, Roger is starting the YouTube Channel “No Bruises on the Outside”  https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCH6Wt1pchefOSB-IRo2R0hA  Roger’s highest goal is increase CPTSD awareness and understanding so diagnosing is earlier and treatments more on point, leading to less suffering and more comfort in survivors’ lives.

When writing or speaking, Roger works to incorporate science and personal stories to deliver a down to earth, easy to understand presentation.  Roger has been a public speaker and educator for more than 20 years.  Since 2019, he has been speaking about mental health struggles, skills, treatments and his life story.  Behind his family’s public façade of a peaceful dairy farm in southwest Wisconsin, USA, near the Mississippi River, was domestic violence, alcoholism, denied parental mental illness, stalking, death threats and more.

www.youtube.com/channel/UCH6Wt1pchefOSB-IRo2R0hA