[Michael W. Harris]

When I was about twelve and my sister was two and one-half, my Mom had a mental breakdown. My brother now believes it was post-partem depression. But Dad put Mom in a Mental Health Hospital in Downtown Atlanta for two to three months. During this time he sent my sister, Julie, to stay with my aunt and uncle who lived in Atlanta.

Before this Julie had been a happy, sweet, giggly infant. When we left her at the relatives she was screaming. She screamed every time we went to visit her. It was heart wrenching for my Brother and me, we would cry all the way home. I am sure it affected Dad also.

Julie was never the same. She has had serious mental health issues since. Anger issues and other emotional issues. She is financially better off than me now. But this is one reason why she did not want to see me when I was up in Athens, Georgia last year where she lives. Too much pain from the past.

Toddlers are very fragile and can be permanently damaged in a billion ways other than physical abuse.

[Skeezyks]

Thanks for sharing your thoughts. I have few memories from my early childhood. Actually, to a large extent, I don't really have many memories at all prior to around the age of 8. But one glimmer of a memory I do still have lurking somewhere in my subconscious is of being dropped off at a baby sitter's house on my mother's way to work. What I recall is standing in the driveway of the sitter's home crying for my mother to come back.

[dlantern]

I'm glad football is a safe escape, remembering a previous post.

[Michael W. Harris]

Originally Posted by dlantern

I'm glad football is a safe escape, remembering a previous post.

Yea, someone just told me that Herschel Walker did not have a dissociative disorder but traumatic brain injury. I don't know where I got the info that he was dissociative????

[Fuzzybear]

[dlantern]

Its on youtube his book everything . Im sure he is a nice guy!

[Michael W. Harris]

More regrets. If my Mom and Dad had been sensitive enough, my sister, Julie, could have over come this. But Mom and Dad did not understand how badly Julie had been traumatized by this experience. They did not show her special attention, love and understanding to help her feel like her family loved her.

Julie did not know my Aunt and Uncle before we left her at their house. Julie, at the age of two and one-half, only saw her family abandoning her. Leaving her. We never got her to feel loved again. I had my own serious mental health problems at that time. I did not know how to help her. I grieve over my own failure to show her the love that she needed to heal from this trauma.

[dlantern]

Sorrows to you and yours.