Mindy McCready's PTSD symptoms: what her doctors should have noticed (Part 3) (Photos)

(Continued from Part Two - Mindy McCready's PTSD symptoms: what her doctors should have noticed) '

Mindy McReady had every one of the symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder as listed by the National Institute of Health and the Mayo Clinics. And, it's hard to believe no one noticed nor diagnosed her for proper treatment.

Continuing from the Part Two article symptoms...

Being easily startled or frightened – Again, another symptom of a traumatic event and PTSD. In the wars prior to our most recent wars, it was known as “shell-shocked.” Mindy would have been startled at any sudden movement or sound after the attack.

Avoiding activities you once enjoyed

Mindy’s life became upside down in her relationship with Clemens and with Billy McKnight. Her once former focus to music stardom was heavily overshadowed by being used and abused. This personal turmoil became her blockage to music success.

Location: Heber Springs, Arkansas

35.491901397705 ; -92.03685760498

Hopelessness about the future

Not being able to focus on her music and slipping in the charts could have been from the consistent, hopelessness for any future with Clemens being married
Now, pregnant with McKnight’s child, keeping her fearful and hopelessly caught in the emotional and physical abuse by McKnight.

Memory problems and trouble concentrating

Trouble remembering lyrics? Trying to concentrate on making great songs? Was this a reason for Mindy’s slipping album sales? Her album, I'm Not So Tough, did not sell well. BNA dropped her third record and they parted ways in November 1997. McCready signed with Capitol Records and released her 2002 album Mindy McCready. The album again proved commercially disappointing and McCready was also dropped from Capitol.
Mindy's brother, Josh, is sentenced to four years in prison, for possession of more than 10,000 Ecstasy pills, with intent to sell them. This was another tough spin to continued stress, ever-building. That was in June 2002.
December 2002, that same year of her brother’s incarceration, Mindy parted ways with Capitol Records. The self-titled album peaked only at No. 29. Sadly, her album’s power and sales were not enough.
Now with the vicious abuse after 2003 by McKnight’s 2005 attack, family and legal battles, arrests and trying to numb the emotions, she would certainly have trouble concentrating and memory problems.

Separation from or increased or decreased intensity of emotions

Battered and abused women, became a cause in which Mindy immersed herself. In November 2005, McCready wrote and released the song "Black and Blue," donating the proceeds to Women Against Domestic Violence.
Intensity of emotion? McCready later said this was not the first time McKnight had attacked her. The state of Tennessee issued restraining orders against both McKnight and McCready: McKnight was not allowed to enter the state, and McCready was not allowed to leave it. But McCready soon violated her restraining order by visiting McKnight in Florida.
After the trial for McKnight’s attack Mindy tells People Magazine,"I loved him," she said. "I just loved him. I missed him terribly even though he did terrible things to me. The relationship was very tumultuous. And, even though he did the things he did, I still missed him and wanted to see him. So, I went down to visit him and, of course, we ended up, you know, having sex and I got pregnant (In 2005, Mindy finds out she is pregnant with McKnight’s baby.) and I tried to commit suicide."

Overwhelming guilt or shame - Loss of self-pride

Mindy, a very vunerable 16 year-old aspiring young singer meets 28 year-old Roger Clemens, Boston Red Sox pitcher and married father of two, in a Florida karaoke bar.
She stated that their relationship lasted for more than a decade, ending when Clemens refused to leave his wife to marry McCready. Mindy would also have begun to feel used, as she was by Clemens. She said she had broken it off with him, when he refused to leave his wife. But, as the affair was supposedly a decade long. What did that do to a young teen’s self-esteem?
On November 17, 2008, McCready spoke in more detail to Inside Edition about her affair with Clemens. However, she denied that she was 15 when it began; she said they met when she was 16 and the relationship became sexual only "several years later.". That may have been an initial boost to Mindy’s star-struck teen ego.
The New York Daily News story broke in April 2008 with her affair with Clemens. Mindy responded with "I cannot refute anything in the story." (Ironically, Mindy’s ‘Guys Do It All The Time,” released later in 1996, was a powerful smack-down for used and mistreated women.)
A pornographic videotape of McCready and an ex-boyfriend referred to as "Peter" went on sale by Vivid Entertainment in 2010.
She is then put on “Celebrity Rehab,” adding to her publically-aired guilt and shame and reliving the events.
In early 2010, Celebrity Rehab aired its third season, and McCready made news for having a seizure on camera.

Self-destructive and erratic behavior:

Mindy’s self-destruction began in 2003 during her 18-month relationship with McKnight and the terrifying abuse by his hands.
On May 8, 2005, McKnight was arrested and charged with attempted murder after beating and choking her police said. It's not uncommon. Experts say a woman is beaten every nine seconds in the United States.
Even more self-destructive behavior was shown in the fact that she kept taking McKnight back in to her life, even after the attack on her life in 2005.
In May, 2005, Mindy is arrested and charged with drunken driving in Nashville.
Mindy is discovered unconscious in the lobby of a Tampa Holiday Inn in Indian Rocks Beach, Florida, after attempting suicide in July 2005, a few months after this horrible death struggle in May of the same year.
She was hospitalized for a drug overdose after consuming a large amount of undisclosed drugs with alcohol. In September 2005, while she was pregnant with McKnight's child, she attempted suicide again by overdosing on antidepressants. A four-page suicide note is found.

No resources nor family support given - If you cannot recognize PTSD and avoiding explanations, you feel isolated and alone. The family battles and McKnight were no support. Dr. Drew certainly wasn’t. Apparently, no one did see this for what it was, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

When she is 11 years old, her parents divorced. Her mother remarried. Many reports are that Mindy clashes with her stepfather because she is “rebellious.” But amidst the turmoil and “rebellion,” she graduates high school (with honors) at 16.
Family members were unaware of PTSD – they began to see her as many did – unstable.
No one seemed to understand or notice the root cause of Mindy’s traumatic life even after the attempted murder by McKnight.

An inability to hold long-term close relationships (That runs throughout Mindy’s life.)

1992, she takes a karaoke demo to Nashville. Mindy soon meets -- and falls in love -- with producer David Molloy. That didn’t seem to last long.
Former NHL hockey playerDrake Berehowsky did not last long, as well.
A ray of sunshine, “Lois & Clark” star Dean Cain, kept Mindy on an even keel. Cain and Mindy had fallen in love and in Sept. 1997, Dean proposes marriage to Mindy in Los Angeles. Within a year, the couple call it quits.

With all of this present in Mindy McCready's life, her attacker still around her and attacking her with legal battles could only have furthered her downward spiral.

(The rest of Mindy's story is continued in Part 4)