Frazer, 18, Was Diagnosed With PTSD After Watching A ‘Violent Video’ In Year 8 At School
There’s a growing call to ban smartphones in schools around the UK, which isn’t a bad idea in itself, but one argument put forth by Sky News involves an 18-year-old who had his life turned upside down after he was shown a ‘violent video’ in Year 8.
Frazer McKenna, 18, was 12 years old when a classmate showed him something on his phone during breaktime.
The video was a live recording of a man taking his own life with a gun – and it had such an effect on Frazer that he was diagnosed with PTSD and has been struggling with it ever since.
Frazer says: “There are no words to express how much of an impact that video truly had on me. My life would have been completely different if I hadn’t seen it.”
“I felt lost, hopeless. I didn’t want to speak up because my friends would have just been… ‘man up’.”
His mental health deteriorated in the years that followed, and he was eventually diagnosed with complex Post‑Traumatic Stress Disorder, directly linked to what he saw at school.
He describes “triggers” he still experiences, including the sound of a Nokia mobile phone ringtone from the video.
He explains: “It would set me off. It would make me anxious, melt down, I went into a state of uncontrollably not being able to maintain normal behaviour and I’d lash out on people because of it.”
He also described being affected by “the sounds from the video of the blood running. It resonates with me a lot whenever I hear fountains, water… and those have been key points to show that this video is a big, big, big part of why I was suffering so much.”
Unsurprisingly, Frazer and his family fully back the campaign to ban smartphones from schools – not just in classrooms, but on the journey to and from school as well. I’m not sure how they’re going to enforce that second part, but there are plenty of reasons why banning smartphones in schools themselves is a good idea.
A lot of people online are accusing Frazer of being a ‘benefit cheats’ and whatnot, but I can emphathise with the guy. It does make you wonder how many other people out there have been similarly affected by videos like ‘2 girls 1 cup’ or everything that used to get posted on bestg0re and rotten dot com back in the day.
In fact there might even be videos and articles on Sick Chirpse that have been f***ing people up over the last 15 years? Apologies if so.
For the Lib Dem councillor who was diagnosed with PTSD over Brexit, click HERE.
