Monthly Archives: March 2015

Irritable Hearts: a PTSD Love Story by Mac McClelland

In 2010, human rights reporter Mac McClelland went to Haiti to cover the lingering devastation of the earthquake. Back home, McClelland finds herself imagining vivid scenes of violence. She can’t sleep or stop crying. It becomes clear that she is suffering from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder after witnessing the epidemic of rape in that country and nearly suffering a rape herself.  This unfortunately (fortunately?) coincided with her meeting and making an immediate connection with a French gendarme named Nico, sent there as a UN peacekeeper.

This book is the result of an exhaustive, and exhausting, exploration of the condition we commonly associate with combat veterans.  The author makes clear that trauma is trauma no matter what form it takes, and that if it is left unresolved, can result in this psychologically and physically devastating illness.  It is a miracle that the author survived the sadness, dissociation, self-loathing, and violent fantasies to write this book.  That miracle was Nico, who was her lifeline, the man she wanted, whose love motivated her to seek healing rather than victimhood or death.

Civic Centre Resource Library Update – March 20

This week at the Civic Centre Resource Library, structural steel erection is ongoing and appears to be almost complete. Work is being done at the main entrance canopy at the southeast corner. Connection welding has commenced. Distribution of Open Web Steel Joists (OWSJ) across the beam continues. Metal decking on the first floor roofs has started at the collaboration spaces.

CCRL

Steel being erected at the main entrance canopy.

OWSJ installation is ongoing.

OWSJ installation is ongoing.

Vertical framing around roof edge is ongoing.

Vertical framing around roof edge continues.

Metal decking commenced west of the reading garden.

Metal decking commenced west of the reading garden.

Steel connections are ongoing.

Steel connections continue to be installed.