OT- My Connection To The Model A Community

[1930-Pickup]

Hello everyone.

I've been watching the Ford Barn forum from a long distance away (metaphorically speaking) for the past few years. I wanted to place this post today as an attempt to reconnect.

I had some truly awful experiences, and for many years these experiences were adding up to a point that I emotionally couldn't cope with them anymore. When I developed Complex PTSD (CPTSD), it affected everything, and I mean EVERYTHING...and it still does. And then the serious stuff started to happen.

Right about at that point I experienced a bad day at the forum. I posted a question about brakes, and two people responded with warnings that I was acting irresponsible and that I was leaving myself open for litigious action. Just to be clear, my crime was that I stated that I would continue to drive my A, despite some brake wear and performance concerns that I had. I should say that I'm a FAA licenced aircraft mechanic (A&P), and its programmed into my very soul to be concerned about any mechanical system regardless of its' actual condition.

In the state I was in, I didn't need two 'experts' to tell me much of anything. As an effect of my CPTSD, I tend to push people away if I feel they are being too intrusive, and I also tend to take the intrusion in a personal way. Did I over-react by just leaving the forum? For sure, but controlling my symptoms is like trying to contain an explosion with my bare hands.

So I stayed away from the forum. After a while I was at least watching the forum, and sometimes posting in the classified ads. And then one day (today) I posted on the forum again.

I apologize if I said something that was out of line. I'm trying to do better with how I deal with the world.

I decided to post today because I just read a thread started by someone with a short vague question (was it actually a question?) about a water pump. Some of the forums' knowledgeable veterans (Purdy, Syncro, Brent, and others) responded with such patience; they truly wanted to help this person. There are good people on this site, despite this site also having a couple of ligneous opinionated characters too.

Sorry if this post got a bit too 'wordy'.