Ok, so i finally managed to get a shower! Once you hear why, you may not be so quick to judge next time.
Yeah: A shower!
A Heart Attack at 41
A heart attack at 41?
For those of you who didn’t know (nearly all of you) – I suffered a heart attack on Friday morning. What I write here not only serves a source of information for others but will allow a record to be kept for historical purposes.
Heart Attack Timeline
Tuesday, 14th April, 2015
My Mobile phone had been playing up for weeks and could only get a signal in a few places so it had to go into Vodafone to be investigated. Estimated timeline for repair: 7-10 working days
Friday, 17th April, 2015
I had an assignment due in for my Open University (OU) degree but had to get an extension as I was too busy and it wasn't ready.
Saturday, 18th April, 2015
Rowan (my son) was being a right pain in the bum which meant that not a single piece of OU work got done. That meant it had to be done over the weekend (Sunday was spoken for).
Monday, 20th April, 2015
I started a new full-time job as at SkyBet as a Software Developer. This was brilliant for me for a number of reasons.
I walked it up to school with Rowan and Ann (my wife) as far as Barnsley train station. From there I was to catch the train into Leeds and start my new job.
Unfortunately that wasn't to be and some scum-bag had stolen all of the cabling out of one of the signalling points in Wakefield. This meant that there were no trains running to Leeds.
This was not a problem as I could just phone my new boss and let him know the circumstances and that I may be a bit late in but I hoped the detour on the train journey that would have taken my via Meadowhall. Then I had a thought:
Whilst Ann was at home off of work the car was sat there doing nothing. Yes it meant that the forty-odd Pounds I had just folked out on for a weekly train ticket would not be used to it's full potential and sure… I would have to folk out another twenty-odd Pound in parking charges but it was preferable to being late on my first day of a new job.
With that in mind I went back, got the car and managed to get to my new job on time.
Shattered!
When I got back from work I was shattered! The OU work would have to wait Im afraid.
Tuesday, 21st April, 2015
Again work was fine and when I got back I was yet again shattered. I had all the intentions of doing my OU course work but was simply too tired.
Wednesday, 22nd April, 2015
Over a week later and still no sign of my phone being back.
The journey to Leeds as well as a full time job would shatter me out again.
I sat down with my OU course work and finally continued with my studies. Unfortunately I was way too tired and Ann had to wake me up every 5 minutes. Even to the point where my head was resting on my text-book looking like I was busy studying. It was only when Ann realised that our dog usually did not snore that loud that it was in fact me making all the noise. Ann told me to go to bed but instead I just put the course work away.
Thursday, 23rd April, 2015
I went to work as usual and came home as usual. I knew that I had to get quite a bit of OU work done on Thursday night. In fact I only did a little as…yes; you guessed it…I was shattered.
That meant that most of the OU assignment would have to be done on the Friday after I got back from work. With that in mind I started putting together what little I had from my assignment together into it's final format.
Not much got done on this end though as I was simply too tired.
Also bearing on my mind was the fact that I still had two months worth of minutes to transcribe and write up for the Honeywell Tennant's and Resident's Association which I am Secretary for.
Friday, 24th April, 2015
I knew exactly what had to be done. I had breakfast with Rowan and then we all went upstairs to get ready for work and school. I went to take a shower and once it finished all Hell broke loose.
I got in the shower as usual but this time I stepped out and went really dizzy: my chest went really tight as well. I went for a lie down on the bed with the fan blowing over me. Unfortunately the tightness in my chest did not go away and to top things off I was also finding it difficult to breath.
I knew that this was no ordinary dizzy spell so got some clothes on and went to see Pat next door as she used to be a nurse. She took my blood pressure and pulse and told me that at the least I should go straight up to my GP's surgery and that if they didn't let me see a Doctor straight away then I should go straight to the local A&E department.
Without realising what I was saying I said “OK, I’ll have slow walk up there now and wait to see somebody”. On hearing this I think she herself had a heart-attack and she immediately drove me up the the Doctor's while Ann took Rowan up to school.
Arrival at the Doctor's
When I got to the GP's surgery I explained the symptoms that I had and the receptionist went straight into the back office. She came out a few seconds later and told me to sit down (which I already had). Within seconds a Doctor had appeared; he looked at me and told the receptionist to dial 999 and tell them that they had a heart attack patient at the surgery.
A wheel chair was brought out and I was wheeled into the back nurses station where I was laid on a bed; given some GTN spray underneath my tongue and an oxygen mask was put over my mouth and nose.
Within minutes the ambulance crew were there and it's two young ladies were soon helping out. Everybody then tried to stabilise my condition but decided that I should be taken straight to hospital. They moved me into a wheel-chair again and started to move me to the door. Then I threw up! and when I say I threw up I mean…I THREW UP! At the time I still had me oxygen mask on and as I myself didn’t get any warning it first of all went all inside the mask; then spouted out of the holes in the mask with such force that it went all the way up in the air and down my back, fleece and let's not forget the walls of the surgery! However, at least when I hurled I felt much better.
In the ambulance
Once I was in the ambulance one of the technicians tried her best to get a canular into one of my arms but after trying in both arms and wrists for about 10 minutes she gave up and took me straight into hospital.
Resus!
I was then transferred straight to the resuscitation ward of the A&E department. There they tried to get my heart beat down and after a while I vomited again into yet another face mask and again I felt much better. The Doctor told me that it was a good job I vomited as he was about to pump something into me but now there was no need.
At it's peak my heart beat was at 180 beats per minute and one of the levels that is indicative of a heart attack that should be below 40 was above 3,000 !
Once they got my heart under control they arranged for me to go up to the Coronary Care Unit (CCU) in Barnsley District General Hospital (BDGH).
CCU
Since I have been up here in the CCU I have been treated brilliantly. Initially I didn’t want my Mum to know which meant not telling anybody. The reason was that I am in the bed next to the one my Nanan died in. Imagine my Mum's feelings when she comes in to see her son recovering from a heart attack only to see him in the bed besides the one her mother died in. In the end Ann & I decided that she would never have forgiven me if we hadn't told her. I made the mistake then of not thinking of my Dad and never thought to tell him.
Emergency Contact
While I was in Resus they were trying to phone Ann to let he know what had gone on but I have blocked all anonymous calls and so they couldn't get though. As far as Ann was concerned I had just gone up to the Doctor's to wait and see if they had any appointments to see a Doctor as she thought I was just having a dizzy spell.
God Damn Phone!
Any normal week my phone is very rarely used and now that it is in the shop I have had a quite desperate need for it twice this week. Once on Monday when I found out there were no trains to Leeds and then again on Friday after I had the heart attack and they needed to get in touch with Ann.
I could also do with my phone so that I can use the internet. As it is I have a script ready for when Ann arrives. Then I can tether to her phone and set the script running. It will then do quite a few of the things that I need the internet connection for.
For example: I am using a word processor to write this blog post and I will post it once Ann gets here tonight. Even her connection is very slow though so you have to excuse a lack of pictures. If I can find some stock images on my laptop that I can use then I may use them but if not I shall just post a plain text post to begin with and anybody who is interested will read it.
That it all
Well that is all. If you wish to leave any comments then you can leave them by replying below or simply by replying via Facebook/Twitter etc.
How not to treat the person looking after your parents
A Family That Should Be Ashamed By The Treatment Of It's Own
Unfortunately last year my maternal nanan/grandmother died & since then my mum's quality of life has gone downhill… let me explain.
About 5 years ago my maternal grandparents were at a stage in their life when it wasn't really possible for them to live in their two-storey house by themselves any more. My mum and dad took the decision to put their live's on hold and move in with them. They gave up the flat that they rented, moved in with them and they began a new life in the conservatory and the small bedroom they now had.
This meant that my grandparents could carry on living in the house they moved into when they arrived in Barnsley over 50 years ago and they had both physical and emotional support.
It has to be said that it wasn't easy for my parents to give up their existing lives; put everything on hold and become full time carers. They now had many extra responsibilities and my grandparents could only be left on their own for very little (if any) time by themselves such was the support that they needed.
After a period of time of being really bad my grandad/grandfather died on the 15th November, 2012, leaving my mum; dad and nanan. Things were ok for a while and then came the news that my mum and dad were splitting up after my dad admitted that he had been having an affair. This left just my mum and nanan but unfortunately this didn’t last long and my nanan died shortly after on the 20th June last year (2015).
What seems like as soon as my nanan passed the hassle began for my Mum over my nanan (and grandad)'s will. This stated that my mum could live in the house that was now her home for as long as she wanted rent free. A few of my mum's siblings have pressured my mum into selling the house as soon as possible no matter the price it brings. It has to be said that this pressure was applied in a passive-aggressive way and with no thought for my mum's feelings; financial situation or health and although many of the family are in the building trade there has been very little work done; even though only a small amount of work would increase the property value.
The situation has now gotten so bad that my mum just wants to get rid of the house and the stress is causing several ongoing health issues to get worse.
The pressure applied by several people to sell the house has changed my perception of them quite a bit. It was my parents and nobody else who offered to move in with them. If it had been up to a few others then my nanan and grandad would have had no support or had to live in a nursing home. It was my parents who moved and and the stress of putting their own lives on hold ultimately cost them their marriage. Despite this my mum has stayed strong and is being repaid by her own family with a total lack of gratitude for the sacrifices she has made.
I personally feel that the members of the family should be ashamed of how they have treated one who gave such a personal sacrifice to care for the major figure-heads of the family empire “for something as common as money” (Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, 2005).
Let me be clear: My family and I are not blameless in all of this! Although my mum knows that if ever she needs us we will be there for her, we don't spend anywhere near as much time with my mum as we should do. My wife and I work at least 60 hours each per week (including work at night at home and work at weekends) and by the time weekend comes we are shattered and we just want to spend time relaxing at home chilling out with our son. Most weeks we have very good intentions of visiting my mum but these never come to fruition for a variety of reasons. We have also been living on our own for many years and have learned to be very independent (as one is supposed to be when one has had a career in the army).
We were however all prepared to offer my mum a place in our home if things came to the worst (I am not sure if we actually did or not): we had the housing arrangements all sorted and everything but mum wants to go back to being independent so there you go.
As always I would really like your thoughts: Do you agree with me that people should be ashamed or can you see an alternative viewpoint?
Thank God for my legs and my life
How a discussion with my 5 year old son led to me finding the soldier who lost his legs instead of me. A post to thank God for my legs and my life.
Swimathon 2014 – challenges, training and goals
Sponsor form link is the logo above
My Training
Week 1 Review
Well, my first training week has finished and I’ll pleased to say that I’m still with it although currently I have lost all hearing in my left ear which puts training in jeopardy.
This week’s training involved 3 sessions at 750m and 1 session yesterday of 1km. Here are the bulletin points of what I’ve discovered this week.
Bad points
There are more bad points than I care to mention: as a backstroker I have never had to concern myself with the finer details of the breast stroke.
- Breathing – It has been so long since I undertook an exercise regime that my lungs have lost all their restive qualities and this is holding my technique up.
- I can only go for half to three quarters of a length with a proper breathing technique (head underwater and looking down to breath out then lift head up to breath in). This is due to the above point – breathing.
- My technique – although this is getting much better I am still struggling to get the details of the arms/leg techniques correct. Like I said this is getting much better with practice and from watching videos on youTube etc.
- Times – As the lengths I have to swim increase (the next one will be 55 lengths/1.3km/0.8 mile which will take an estimated 1 hour 1 minute but when I get up to 106 lengths/2.7km/1.7 miles it will take me 2 hours (at my current pace) this will obviously put a major scupper in the works as the lane swimming is only open at certain times and may have to adjust my swimming times to go for the very longest sessions I can get.
- Not being able to hear anything in my left ear – this started after my swimming session yesterday and a shower. The very worst thing that can happen is the Doctor (if the problem gets that far) says that I should lay off of the swimming for a while. If this happens I will have to practice my technique on chairs and try and recreate the muscle groups exercises.
Good points
- Practice makes perfect (or better) – The more I practice the more I get better. This is evident even after a single week (or 3 swimming sessions) and the more I concentrate on the breast stroke the better I will become at it. Once I have mastered a decent breast stroke I shall be moving onto the front crawl. I have concentrated on the breast stroke first as this is the hardest. By the time I have mastered the breast stroke my lungs will be string enough to cope with the breathing style of the crawl and this should hopefully be much easier to learn as the breast stroke as it is MUCH more like the back stroke that I am used to.
- Determination – If there’s one thing that I have it is a determination to finish what I start
- Support – I have a fantastic support team around me. I know that my lovely wife is always there for me and should I ever need encouragement then my social media circle of friends is always ready to offer some words of encouragement.
- Finances – I/my family are in the lucky position to be able to afford the gym membership that is required for me to carry on training. The very thought of doing 200 lengths without these training sessions terrifies me. The theory of train hard – race easy is one that I believe in and planned for. This is visible from my training structure and I have planned to swim up to 6km/240 lengths/3.7 miles) in training but this of course depends on my timings and the time I can get in the pool.
General
This is about it. I have already started work on myswimathon.co.uk site and I am looking for feedback as to what features people would like to see in this site.
Monday, 3rd February, 2014
Today was the start of my rather harsh training program. I initially got the timetable for my training milestones incorrect and accidentally added another 2 months on. When I discovered this it came as a major shock when I had to re-calculate and compress the training schedule.
One mistake I made today was to trust in my memory for the amount of distance I had to cover in the session. I believed it was 30 lengths (which I did) but when I got back I discovered it was actually only 20 lengths and so I’d swum/swam an extra 250m.
The training itself
Today I re-discovered the long forgotten muscles that are needed for swimming. I was mainly concentrating on the breaststroke and about 95% of the lengths I did were exclusively using that stroke.
I now know what I must do in order to progress with my training in 2 days time (Wednesday). I desperately need to concentrate on stroke technique as my stroke today was terrible. I was not sitting well in the water at all. My body was far from horizontal and I had an aversion to putting my head fully in the water. I have no doubt that when my stroke technique improves then the rest will fall into place. I need to get on the internet and look up training videos and ‘dry’ training stroke exercises to do tomorrow night.
My timings are also massively off. I took my timings for the distances that I have to do from my native backstroke times. These are 3 times faster than the breaststroke times I achieved today. This means that should my current times not get any better – the final 5km swim would take me a whopping 5 hours. Again: Once my breaststroke improves I am confident these times will drop.
My session on Wednesday involved swimming 30 lengths (the distance I did today) and so I’m confident in my abilities though maybe my muscles may not agree come Wednesday.
Thanks for your support in all of this and don’t forget to sponsor me.
General
So this is all about the 2014 Swimathon. Yesterday I decided to enter and I set myself the goal of 2.5km (1.55 mile). This was to be a major challenge for me as I have never swum anywhere near that sort of distance before. Today I decided to increase the challenge by going from the 2.5km up to the maximum of 5km (3.1 miles) – a huge distance that will require all my mental as well as physical effort.
Challenges
- The most I have swam in the past has probably been about 500m during the short time that I was competing. These were 30m & 50m sprint events though.
- By nature and by training I am/was a back-stroker. During the Swimathon I am not able to do the back-stroke and as such have to train on the strokes that have only used when forced to go slow on lane swimming.
- Finances – In order to complete a 3 mile swim I am going to have to train quite a bit. This means a gym membership as well as some new goggles and a length counting watch. There is no way I’m going to manually count the 200 lengths that I have to swim so I have bought a relatively cheap automatic length counting watch off of eBay.
Followers
I hope to take you all on a journey from start to finish with a range of video as well as literary (well, an attempt at literary) posts.
Next month I should be getting my new phone which by coincidence will take not only photos but videos underwater. This will give me a great tool to allow you to join me on this journey.
MySwimathon.co.uk
I’m proud to announce that I’ve already purchased the name myswimathon.co.uk so that after this year’s adventure is over I can set up a portal so that anybody who takes part in the Swimathon next year will be able to give their friends, family and supporters a web address to look up. The fundraisers will then have a portal in which to upload content of their own and write their own blogs. Needless to say there may be the odd additional option such as for the corporate teams wish to make the page their own corporate identities on the page instead of the site’s own . This is for after I’ve done my bit this year and I see what’s possible.
For this year I will probably use it as the base for my event updates but I’m busy working and once I catch up I’ll get to work on that
I hope you will all stay with me through this.
Training Milestones
| Date | Distance (kms) | Distance (miles) | Lengths (25 meters) | Time (hh:mm) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 February 2014 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0:00 |
| 8 February 2014 | 1 | 0.6 | 40 | 0:20 |
| 15 February 2014 | 2 | 1.2 | 80 | 0:40 |
| 22 February 2014 | 3 | 1.9 | 120 | 1:00 |
| 01 March 2014 | 4 | 2.5 | 160 | 1:20 |
| 08 March 2014 | 5 | 3.1 | 200 | 1:40 |
| 15 March 2014 | 6 | 3.7 | 240 | 2:0 |
| 22 March 2014 | 5 | 3.1 | 200 | 1:40 |
Living with PTSD
Contents (this is a long page)
PTSD Post Introduction
After having PTSD for around 4 years now I thought I’d share with you what life is like as a PTSD sufferer. I consider myself to have a mild case of PTSD and I’m aware of many more people that have the condition much worse than I.
My PTSD thought process
An example
The other day I was having a discussion on Twitter which involved my usual extremist ways of dealing with people that break the law. The tweet that set my brain in a descending spiral of anger had mentioned that if I had my way the Army would have been brought in for the London riots of 2011. This set off a trigger that made my brain go down a similar route to previous episodes.
I start to think that some people (in this case the rioters) are very ungrateful of the sacrifices that I and others have made. Had it not been for people like me willing to risk our very lives being completely obliterated leaving those that we love totally mortified, they would not be able to enjoy the freedom they take great pleasure in flouting.
This increases my anger
I then start to think about the things that I and people like me have done in order to ensure that these morons retain their freedom (by this point they are the lowest form of scum on the planet and my mind is stuck in a downward spiral).
This gives my brain a chance to feel sorry for itself
The Favoured Incident
The time in history my brain usually decides to bring to the front and push in front of my eyes; nose; ears (& parts of my body that technically do not have senses) is a specific job when I was a member of the Bomb Disposal Team on my third tour of Iraq.The job involved going to suicide bomber that had already decided to share his hatred for the world with others. Whilst they were a few lifeless bodies laying on the floor, they were nothing that we didn’t see day in; day out.
After a short time on operational tour you forget that these lifeless bodies that you see in front of you are actually someone’s Son; Daughter; Mother; Father; Brother; Sister; Wife or Husband. Instead you see what is logical with the emotions stripped from the situation: you see an empty shell/corpes.
The reason that this job stands out is the sensory overload that was actually left after the operation had finished. Although at the time it was something that shocked me in many different ways, it was something that was quickly put to the back of my mind as we moved on with the various jobs that we received.
The Onset of PTSD and Depression
I went on to finish my fantastic career in the Army and left to start a business dedicated to providing a courier service to the members of the Armed Forces and their Families based outside the United Kingdom.
After a year or so my business failed which co-coincided with the re-occurrence of two recurring injuries I picked up in my time in the Army. The fact that my business had failed and I had nothing to occupy my time meant that for the first time in a long time my mind had a chance to relax. As it turned out this happened to be a negative outcome. My mind was now relaxed and I was starting to suffer from depression from the failure of my business and the loss of my only means of income.
It soon became apparent that my mind was suffering more than it was telling me. I would avoid having a shower for a week at a time as when I got in there the feel of the water running down my face caused flashbacks of another bad job that we had (on the same tour) when we had to wash the blood and dirt from our faces. Even the thought of a shower and the flashbacks would fill me with dread. This meant that my depression got worse which in turn led to my physical conditions getting worse and so started the downward spiral.
Luckily my fantastic GP and the support team around him quickly diagnosed that I was suffering from PTSD and gave me the tools to cope with it. I would like to say that they have cured me of it but I don’t think the condition will ever leave me and I believe it is now about managing with it as best I can.
A good friend of mine Bill Waters also pointed out that
Drinking is not frowned upon as much as it is in civvy street so we are able to use it as an emotional crutch under the guise of work hard play hard. I think a lot of service men and women will suffer when they leave the service because that life style/comeraderie can not be replicated in civilian life and I believe that that in itself could be a trigger.”
How PTSD affected me – Self harming
In me it wasn’t evident straight away what was wrong with me. Obviously not showering and flashbacks were a good indicator but the general depression brought on my PTSD also led to a lack of patience and with a new son this was not a good thing.
Things came to a head when I had been self harming for a few weeks. By this point It looked like I’d been having an affair with Cat Woman (incidentally one of my Wife’s nicknames). In order to cope with one of my toddler’s tantrums I had to leave the room and drew every fingernail on my right hand from my left shoulder all the way down in one diagonal stroke to the right side of my stomach as hard as I could. Although it drew blood and hurt it wasn’t enough and so I filled my hands with hand sanitizer and spread it all over my torso – now that hurt. This was the first of the self-harming incidents that was visible to my Wife and she then became very worried (even more than she already was). I have to say that my son never saw me self-harm although he witnessed the outcome of the above incident.
The outcome of my self-harming was a calm feeling and a massive release of tension in my body. I am unable to explain it but when things got bad I just wanted to hurt myself and when I did I felt much better; as if a great big weight had been lifted from my shoulders.
The above incident was the final straw for me and the sheer thought that there was a possibility that my son may witness such an incident or start noticing the results meant that I had to seek professional help.
How I reversed the downward spiral
Again – thanks to the brilliant help my Barnsley Primary Care Trust /NHS and after seeing several different people I was given access to the back to fitness program. This gave me a 6 month gym membership for free to do anything I wanted in the local leisure centre. As a former swimmer and given the chronic back pain that I had I decided to concentrate on just swimming. I went most mornings and I saw the benefits almost straight away. I had to use a walking stick to walk with less frequency and after a few months I was actually able to look for work that would help me get even better.
I began to deliver Betterware and then Avon books. This allowed me to carry on the physical side of the treatment and the very fact that I was once again earning money and contributing to society was a massive Phycological step forward.
There it was, the downward spiral had been reversed. I was exercising again – this gave me a better mood and the fact that I was earning contributed even more. My physical conditions got much better and I no longer had to spend 18 hours a day laid on a floor unable to move.
PTSD Coping Techniques
Grounding
My second (more specialised councillor) taught me about a technique called grounding. I had to decide on an item or aspect of my life that would remind me that I wasn’t surrounded by sandy climates or in danger but was instead back in my home Town of Barnsley and was surrounded by the people I love.
Rowan Evans: Come on Down!
As I was a new Father at the time and I was a house-husband (with not so much emphasis on the house) I chose my lovely baby boy. He would always be there and at the time this was quite literally true. If I went somewhere, so did he and visa versa.
From then on, If I experienced an episode or flashback I could look at him or (if I was away from him) take something out of my pocket that belonged to him and I knew that the grounding strategy was working. This in itself would relax me and as I would always be extracting myself from the cause & go straight home to where I was safe – things would soon get better.
Music
I find that music is a great help when I’m feeling down and particularly when having a PTSD “episode”. For me it has to be chilled out classical music: usually (unless I’m in a really bad state of affairs) chilled out classical music will calm me right down and make me forget my troubles. To a lesser extent there is music from the lovely voices of Alison Moyet and Adele.
Modern Times
Moving onto more modern times. I still have bad memories and flashbacks. The latter are the worse and are a common occurrence in dreams and they often immerse me in the world I was once in. I see what I saw then; I hear what I heard then; I smell what I smelled then; I feel what I felt then (the sense of trying to anticipate what was going to happen next etc); this is even extended to senses that aren’t well…senses (hard to explain so I won’t try).
There are many days when I actively suffer from PTSD and there are many days (like today) when an incident happens and I know it’s one of my triggers so I do my best to try and keep calm. I am not in a position to carry my son around with me all the time and so I have to try and manage it myself. It is not easy.
Today I walked past to late teens/early twenties males walking down from Town and they each had a bottle of alcohol with them, openly drinking them during the early hours of the afternoon. It may be that they had just finished a shift but more than likely they had spent the money that we pay in taxes to buy booze instead of getting a job. This is a very common trigger for me. It helps if I’m not alone but if I am I find that listening to music through headphones whilst walking provides a decent distraction and gives me something to focus on when I encounter a trigger.
In general the lives of my family has been changed. I can no longer watch any programs that could involve exploding cars or things on fire and if I manage to catch a news report that contains something along these lines my mood changes for the worst for the next few hours at least.
My Wife – My Saviour
My lovely Wife has told me that she knows I dream of these times as she can hear me crying in my sleep. She is also aware of what sort of visual queues set my PTSD off and gives me warnings when I am out of the room. My Wife has stuck with through me all the bad time regardless of how bad I have been or how bad my condition(s) have gotten. Even when I had to spend 18 hours a day lying on the floor unable to earn money she has been the unflinching concrete post that has been supporting me and offering both emotional as well as physical help.
PTSD Facts
- According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs 11%-20% of veterans of Iraq and/or Afghanistan will suffer from PTSD. Read More
- Interestingly, it also says that only 5% of all men will suffer from PTSD where 10% of all women will suffer from PTSD in their lifetime.
- According to the Royal College of Psychiatrists PTSD does not have to related to a specific event. It can
also be triggered by less acute, but equally distressing and longer-lasting traumas, such as ongoing mistreatment, and physical or sexual abuse in the home.”
Links
- View the Twitter conversation that sparked the incident in question
- NHS page on PTSD
- Royal College of Psychiatrists facts on PTSD