How Vietnamese cope with PTSD after fleeing Vietnam, Baltimore police chief's time in Long Beach, why the NFL gave up its tax-exempt status.
Healing wounds of the Vietnam War through LA nature
Tens of thousands fled Vietnam at the end of the war, leaving behind family, friends and the world they knew.
Many brought with them memories of the conflict. The often painful and complex emotions presented new challenges to a community still finding its footing in a new country.
A rush of memories, a sense of loss
Gina Masequesmay fled Vietnam as a child with her family in 1976, one year after the Fall of Saigon. Unlike others who were forced to flee as refguees, her family left the country as immigrants and first went to France, before coming to California. For her the childhood memories often came back in a rush:
"The tanks rolling into town, seeing people on the road because they were bombing nearby," said Masequesmay. "We were hiding under a table, just waiting and hearing the shooting and explosions outside."
She says those memories haunted her for years.
"I just had flashbacks of this and that," she said, noting that the spoken and unspoken tension among family members contributed to the strain. "The anger, the resentment, the anxiety about the future, just a lot of loss."
Arriving in L.A., Masequesmay and her family first lived in a housing project in Pacoima. Faced with adjusting to a new place, a new life and a new language, the family was in what she calls "survival mode." Gina strove to get an education and a steady job. It wasn’t until many years later, as an adult, that she first came to terms with the experience of trauma that her family went through.
"I would think these crazy thoughts in my head," she said. "I cried a lot, I was really sensitive and upset."
The experience, set off by attending a fireworks display in 2001, left her nearly incapacitated.
A turning point toward healing
After five years, some close friends eventually convinced her to see a therapist, where she was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD. The regular sessions were helpful, she says, but the big turning point for her came during a visit to Deer Park Monastery near San Diego. On her first visit, Masequesmay listened to the story of a Vietnamese monk, who recounted his own experience of trauma and spoke about how walking meditation could help.
After practicing herself, she was led to a question that she says is central to the broader Vietnamese community: "Yes, terrible things did happen, but how do we make sense of that and continue to live, and to continue to live and still find joy?"
Part of the answer for Masequesmay came during a recent hike through L.A.'s Griffith Park, where she paused while looking out over the city that has now become her home.
"You have to begin with yourself," she said.
Listen to more stories featured in Take Two's "After Saigon" series
This post has been updated to clarify the sequence of events after Masequesmay's family left Vietnam.
Mental health healing continues among Vietnam War survivors
Jumping on planes and overcrowded boats to destinations unknown, thousands fleeing the end of the Vietnam War in 1975, opened a new chapter of their lives.
Some Vietnamese refugees recall abuse in holding camps while awaiting entry into willing host countries; others struggled with the emotional upheaval of re-settlement in a strange land.
“You do not have a choice what to bring with you or who to be with you and how things will be and even a choice to say goodbye to your friends and family,” said Dr. Suzie Dong Matsuda, a clinical psychologist who worked with Vietnamese refugees for 19 years at the Orange County Health Care Agency.
Dr. Matsuda left her family and Vietnam by boat and lived in a camp in Indonesia before settling in Orange County in 1984.
“My mom said, ‘I want you to have a future, just go.’ And so I did. I was a teenager,” said Matsuda.
Dealing with stigma
Cultural stigma caused many to struggle silently with depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress – especially among the first wave of refugees.
“People may speculate that in your past life you did something wrong, maybe in your family there is something wrong,” said Matsuda. “They do not think mental illness is a brain illness, but [think of it] more as contributing to one’s character. In an interdependent culture, it makes the family look bad.”
In Orange County today, home to the largest community of Vietnamese outside of Vietnam, there is a growing movement toward removing the stigma of mental illness through awareness.
Though there is still a great need for more culturally competent providers who speak the language of their clients, Matsuda says, it is still possible for a provider who cannot speak Vietnamese, to help.
“When I was in college, I was saved by a psychologist who knew that I went through depression and I was quite suicidal at the time…and it did help me to get through my school year and graduate. He was not Vietnamese. [He was] not speaking my language, but the empathy and compassion did make a difference.”
Resources
For more on where to access mental health services and information, see below.
Orange County Behavioral Health and Referral: (855) OC-LINKS/ (855) 625-4657
Los Angeles County Mental Health Services: 877-344-2858
Los Angeles County Substance Use Treatment Services: 800-564-6600
For those who have private health insurance, call your insurance provider and ask for Behavioral Health Services.
The NFL announced it's dropping its tax exempt status
On Tuesday, the NFL league office announced it was going to drop its tax exempt status, which has been in place since the 1940s. Officials said that they want to "eliminate the distraction" that the status brought on.
What does that mean?
who writes for Forbes SportsMoney joins A Martinez for a discussion on the topic.
Examining the LAPD's body camera policy
The Los Angeles Police Commission that oversees the LAPD on Tuesday approved the police chief's rules for how officers would use the cameras and video.
KPCC's Frank Stoltze covers the LAPD, and he joins Take Two with a look at the department's policy.
'Death on Diamond Mountain' chronicles death on Buddhist retreat
The new book, "A Death on Diamond Mountain: A True Story of Obsession, Madness, and the Path to Enlightenment," explores the dark side of mystic practices that can lead to anxiety, depression and mental illness.
It chronicles the death of Ian Thorson, a follower of the charismatic and controversial Buddhist teacher, Michael Roach. Thorson died of dehydration while on a silent retreat in a cave on Arizona's Diamond Mountain.
Author Scott Carney joins the show to discuss his book.
Nepal quake: Scientists race against time to retrieve data recorders
As search and rescue teams continue to comb disaster areas in Nepal looking for remaining survivors of Saturday's devastating earthquake, a rescue mission of a different kind is under way.
Scientists are in a race against time to find 28 data monitors scatted through the country. The information will unpack the effects of the deadly magnitude 7.8 temblor, and about whether— and how— Mount Everest has shifted.
Ken Hudnut, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey, says the devices contain information that will help scientists understand why the damage wasn't as bad as seismologists would have predicted, for a earthquake that big and with an epicenter that close to Kathmandu.
And that could be good news for Los Angeles, because there's a similar fault system under L.A.
"Here in L.A., if a flat part of the fault system beneath L.A. breaks in a way similar to this earthquake," Hudnut says, "maybe the ground motions in L.A. aren't going to be as bad as we thought."
The problem is that the monitors only have a two week memory and they're located in remote areas of the country that can only be accessed by helicopter.
"We could have a situation, if we don't get on it fast," Hudnut says, "where we start to overwrite the data and we will lose the data from the main shock. It's such a critical data set, we really don't want that to happen."
To hear the full interview with USGS geophysicist Ken Hudnut, click the link above.
Nepal earthquake: What's ahead for LA County FD's task force
The death toll from the 7.8-magnitude earthquake in Nepal has reached more than 5,000.
The Los Angeles County Fire Department sprung into action not long after the earthquake struck, deploying 57 members of the Urban Search and Rescue Team to Nepal. The team is part of the USAID's nearly 130-member Disaster Assistance Relief Team.
Derek Chapman, operations coordinator for L.A. County Fire's USAR Team, is part of that group. He joined Take Two to describe the scene in Kathmandu, and talk about the challenges that lie ahead.
Riverside County mud run cancelled due to record drought
There's more bad news due to California's record-breaking drought. A mud run planned in California's Riverside County has been called off.
The Jurassic Classic, as it's called, is an annual fundraiser for youth recreational programs in the San Jacinto Valley. But Friends of Valley-Wide, the non-profit behind it, says it would be irresponsible of them to use the water they'd need to make the mud.
Friends of Valley-Wide's Executive Director Michele Fox spoke with Take Two about the decision to cancel the event.
KPCC's #ISeeChange: Help track SoCal's environment
KPCC is launching a new reporting project based around a simple question: What kind of changes are you seeing in your environment?
The project is called #ISeeChange. KPCC's environment correspondent Molly Peterson tells more.