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The PTSD just kind of made him shelter me a lot.

Olivia Jefferson (daughter of a Veteran with PTSD) talks about how PTSD affected her family.

Transcript

After my mom died, then I kind of

distanced myself from a lot of people

because I never really got a chance to know her.

I was six years old when she died.

So I found that, you know, my dad, he still wanted

his social life at the same time as me growing up,

being a child, I wanted a social life, too,

but the PTSD just kind of made him shelter me a lot.

There were a lot of things that I could not do.

I couldn't go out.

I really couldn't sleep out

unless it was to a family member's house.

There were just a lot of restrictions on what I wanted to do,

certain things I couldn't watch on television.

I really didn't start going out

until I was in high school.

I spent some time with my cousins

and my family and things like that, but as far as going, like,

to the movies on the weekend and little, like,

school dances or house parties, little things like that,

even though parties weren't ever really my scene,

but just not being able to really go to it

just kind of made me want to do it more when I got older.

Being sheltered when I was younger, kind of,

it made me just want to branch out when I got that chance to.

So, did I have social life?

Yes, but it didn't include too many,

it didn't include too many people.

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