Author: DerekThompson

Writer of non-fiction, fiction and comedy, and is available for hire. www.alongthewritelines.blogspot.com www.professional-writer.co.uk

PTSD – the long road home

“The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”

…So said Mahatma Gandhi, but there are other means of discerning a country’s moral compass. Some would offer a more human example and point to the way a nation treats the armed forces personnel who make it back home.

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan simultaneously polarised society and reacquainted it with the concept of ambiguity. Ed Milliband, the leader of the Labour Party – the opposition to the Coalition Government for the next few years – has called the Iraq invasion a mistake.

At a time when fewer British people than ever seem to support the continued military presence in Afghanistan (and Iraq before it), conversely, support for the UK armed forces personnel has never been higher.

At Wootten Bassett in Wiltshire, UK, crowds regularly lined the street, respectfully silent as the fallen were conveyed through from the local RAF base. The media has also played its part, keeping the spotlight on those who have suffered horrific injuries, in the course of their duties, and who now strive to rebuild their lives.

There is another category of injured personnel, which harkens back to the First World War – those suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. PTSD is not exclusive to those who have been in combat situations. It can affect anyone – military or civilian – who is or perceives themselves to be in a traumatic incident: accident, attack or abuse.

In WW1 it was called ‘Shell Shock’ and in WW2 personnel were sometimes branded as having a ‘Lack of Moral Fibre’. The realities are far more complicated. A range of symptoms includes: hyper-vigilance, mood swings, depression, aggression, anxiety, phobias, an inability to handle changes to routine and flashbacks. PTSD affects not only the service personnel, but also their family, friends and their day-to-day relationships.

In the UK, a charity called Combat Stress, founded in 1919, offers short-stay clinical treatment and community outreach services. They also offer help and advice to the families of Veterans. In the US, there is a National Center for PTSD.

But the very nature of PTSD means that sufferers can often have difficulty recognising their condition and taking the steps to get the help they and their families need.

One person who found his own way forward is a friend of mine, former serviceman Villayat SnowMoon Wolf Sunkmanitu. He was stationed in Northern Ireland and his PTSD went undiagnosed for years. While being supported by Combat Stress, he has also explored his condition through photography and poetry in Words of a Wolf: Poetry of a Veteran, in which he aims to raise awareness of PTSD and encourage other PTSD sufferers and their families to seek help and support.

Some of the funds raised from the sale of the book will go towards financing a national exhibition of poetry and photography with the same aims.

For information about PTSD:

http://www.combatstress.org.uk

http://www.ptsd.va.gov/

http://www.ptsdresolution.org/

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200708/cmselect/cmdfence/424/424we13.htm

Words of a Wolf is available in bookshops and online. Villayat’s blog also features regular pieces about his ongoing journey.

 


One Man’s View of the Political Scene

The Chinese proverb, ‘May You Be Born In Interesting Times’ is often applied to a period of economic, political or social upheaval. Yeah, but tell that to the people of Tibet, or those poor buggers who work night and day making trainers for obese Westerners to wear around the house. My point being, context is everything and life is at best ambiguous; at worst it’s a bad mutha with an attitude problem.

Let’s take politics. Yeah, I know, sleep city. But it does matter because the people in power are making decisions every day that affect the like of you and me.

The new coalition government is definitely at the ‘tail end’ of the honeymoon period, still screwing the country day and night, even if the country isn’t really in the mood. Pretty soon the country is gonna feel sore and empty, and want to just cuddle for a bit. Then it will start demanding changes. Small things to begin with – more jobs, better healthcare, a greener economy and some hope.

Naturally, like the new boss of a department, this government plans to ring in the changes. Promises have already been made to adequately equip the troops and to downsize military personnel (might these two objectives be linked…). Elsewhere, the government scrapped the plan to replace NHS Direct with a ‘111’ information service, staffed primarily by trained call-handlers instead of expensive nurses. That word ‘expensive’ is likely to rear its head frequently over the years to come, along with that other much loved term, ‘value for money’.

The capitalist model is based upon profitability, but whether everything can be made to run at a profit (state healthcare, utilities and rail services to name but three) remains to be seen. Certainly, under Labour, it never quite came together.

So we’re in a state of flux, past the shock that wasn’t so much a shock to some, but more a disappointment. It’s still early days in the relationship and lots of promises are being made. Every new government defines itself, at least in part, by earnestly telling the electorate what it is not. And it’s always the same basic song-sheet: we are not the last load of bozos who messed everything up.

One thing that’s perhaps different this time is that, thanks in part to the proliferation of 24-hour media content, the electorate is much more aware of the impact of world politics and global economics on a nation or sovereign state.

Having started this piece with a Chinese proverb, it seems fitting somehow to find another piece of wisdom a little closer to home. As the French say, ‘plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose.’ For the non-Europhiles among you, ‘the more things change, the more they stay the same.