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post traumatic stress disorder

Discussions and general chat about PTSD. Feel free to introduce yourself or if you need help, please reach out and ask.
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harry hackedoff
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post traumatic stress disorder

Post by harry hackedoff »

I see that 260 members/ex-members of the services are to commence legal action against the MOD for compensation for the effects of P.T.S.D.that they suffered in conflicts ranging from N.I.,Bosnia, The Gulf and The Falkland Islands. Whilst the MOD acknowledges that this condition does exist, it contends that it`s proceedures for treatment are adequate.
So we can expect all the armchair experts to argue the merits of service men and women, who are all volunteers,claiming compensation once again. Mean while the sad fact remains, that allthough 255 boys were killed during the Falklands Conflict a further 264 Falklands Veterans have committed suicide since 1982.
Ufortunately boys,I think this one will run and run whilst the lawyers cash in.
yours Aye, Harry Hackedoff
Last edited by harry hackedoff on Sun 12 Sep, 2004 4:45 pm, edited 1 time in total.
SYB
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Post by SYB »

Lots of people suffer from PTSD. I didnt take my case through the legal circus because I was lucky enough to have good family support and didnt wish to increase my own stress by a long court case.
Lawyers will always make money off other peoples misery.
Some victims though have suffered in silence for years and paid a very heavy price. Dont they deserve some kind of recognition and compensation to help get thier lives back to some kind of normality. We are all volunteers but the support should be provided. When DAvid Beckham gets injured, they dont just leave him on the pitch and say well you choose to play?
see http://www.books4publishing.com
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harry hackedoff
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Post by harry hackedoff »

Simon, hi there I`m only posing the questions. For a more informative view visit minnesota directory of wellbeing site @ http://www.mnwelldir.org/docs/mental-health/ptsd,htm If that doesnt work bin everything after dir.org and use the site index, wounds aren`t only visible on the outside.
On the other hand, I am sickened by the Hillsborough disaster, where the Plods got compensation for an event that they created, whilst the Liverpool fans who suffered did not.
This is not to take away from my main thread that PTSD is a fact that has been acknowledged to exist from the days of WW1 with it`s"pull yourself together" attitude through WW11 and the "lack of morale fibre" bollocks to todays,apparently ,more enlightened attitude.
Once again, the MOD seems to have a head in the sand attitude instead of listening to the people who really matter/know.
yours Aye Harry Hackedoff
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Post by harry hackedoff »

As an after thought, for every victim, there is a victim`s familly. We all react in differant ways to stress and the comment "effing wimp" only adds insult to injury. These guys demand our admiration for finally standing up and saying" enough"
yours HH

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: harry hackedoff on 2002-03-05 00:12 ]</font>
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Post by barrybudden »

Is there no support / families group in existance for this problem? I think it is starting to be taken more seriously now by the powers that be. I had a lecture and watched an SSVC video a few months ago. It was given by the MO. People were encuraged not to suffer in scilence but to report it, and the signs / simptoms were explained.
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Post by Nomad »

The Ministry of Defence has been accused of failing to
prepare service personnel for the "horrors of war" at the
start of a lawsuit at the High Court.

Former servicemen and women, suffering from post-traumatic
stress disorder, are suing the MoD in a contested case
before Mr Justice Owen in London.

Opening the case on their behalf, Stephen Irwin QC told the
judge that the group action before him involved nearly 2,000
potential claimants who had registered an interest.

Full story:
http://www.ananova.com/yournews/story/sm_535557.html

Other Stories include...

Veteran calls for action over Falklands suicides - 18:01 18/1/02
Falklands War veteran Simon Weston says something must be done about the number of former servicemen who have killed themselves since fighting in the conflict....

Commander to lead Falklands travel tour - 05:37 13/1/02
A Falklands War commander is to lead a travel tour to the South Atlantic islands to mark the 20th anniversary of the conflict....

'More Falklands veterans have committed suicide than died during the war' - 01:36 13/1/02
More veterans of the Falklands War have taken their own lives than were killed in the conflict itself, a veterans support group claims....

British troops withdraw from South Georgia - 18:08 22/3/01
British troops have withdrawn from South Georgia, almost 20 years after its invasion by Argentinian soldiers sparked the Falklands War....



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<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: nomad on 2002-03-05 13:35 ]</font>
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Post by SYB »

HArry, I understand your comment on Hillsborough. "I know" the law is an ass at times. Victims of crime recieve little in the way of compensation, yet we see trivual matters going through civvy court and getting massive payouts. Its all wrong..
I couldnt do it in my case. I was also a victim of a serious assault. A blood clot in the skull, lost teeth and 4 operations latter I got very little in return...
Its about time some service men/ police officers stood up and questioned the system. Its just ashame that so many good blokes couldnt get help in time. Fortuneatley
I did.
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Post by ratso »

The sad fact is that many of the ones who really needed this case to air, Have over the years sought their own refuge and now cannot speak.
My career was shortened due to the Corps lack of understanding even though my reports all clearly show my need to shut out anything that felt wrong after the trip south. This is still the case today.
I have tried to end it a number of times and even now I still say at times I should have been left not the guys we did leave behind. It seems as though I am guilty of being alive and it still makes me ill and have restless weeks not nights.
I dare say there are many like me who never had any idea this was going into the courts. I believe there are two levels of claim at the moment soon to be three as the action has outlined the fact that there are those who have not had the opportunity to come forward within this claim.
How will they decide who gets what at the end of it. Perhaps they should just think about getting it right from now on... All we need is support and a willingness for understanding, after all most of those who go to fight are just boys as many of us were...
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Post by Yorkie Malone »

OK I'll put my hand up and yes I'm one of them that is involved with the case.

It's not really the money, although it would be handy.

It's more the principal that I had something wrong when I was in, and had for a long time, but no one said anything.

Having said that if someone had said I was a "nutter" then I would have poo pooed it, and talked my way out, or gone drinking even more.

Yes I knew I could have been shot, wounded, injured etc but to have the mindgo wrong was/is against everthing we were taught.

I have had to learn to cry, cos the stiff upper lip, was just a case of bottleing it up even more.

Eventually I cracked in the Doc's surgery in 1992, but he just thought Falklands. I went back to Aden, NI, Warrenpoint was ment for my lads, and FI's.

Luckily I went to the psychiatric wing RNH Haslar, and was under teatment there for about 18 months. Also to Combat Stress at Trywint house.

Nowdays I am a lot calmer, but can easily flip. Mainly at home "as you always hurt the one you love".

But one big thing is that in 1981 the British Armed Forces Medical Branch hosted an international psychiatric seminar.

The representitives from USA, Israel, Egypt, Australia, New Zealand etc all stated that if forces are involved in any conflict you are going to suffer X% (I can't remember the number but it quite high)of psychiatric casualties.

We had been in NI since 1969 and the next year we went to FI.

But the good old civil servants in MOD. No I do not blame the Maj Generals etc but the admin men and women ie civil servants, who will not admit to anything.

And the classic example is Gulf War Syndrome. The yanks have come clean. Not our gang. Need to know.

Lots of jabs of everything problem. MMR jabs of three in one. Sounds familiar.

All I want is truth, but I'll not get it from on high.
or just a simple sorry would be nice.

Then try getting war pensions to believe you.
More civil servants.

You have to fight for everything all the way.

So you now know why I am one of those going for it.

Come clean....tell the truth... help the families who are made to suffer, as there was nothing set up to help.

Not a hope in hell's chance.
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Post by SYB »

Yorkie, I hope everything goes well for you. There will be ups and downs over the next few months?
Like you I had a beakdown in my GPs surgery. It was like a massive pressure release valve had been opened when I finally sought help?
Like all of us, I had grown up and been trained not to winge and get on with things. I thought I had failed in life and was going mad.
I have been treated for 18 months but still have ups and downs. My wife is a nurse and has seen me change through the years. Without her and my children I do not know where I would be.
Remeber to talk if times get tough?
Regards Simon.
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Post by Mutley »

Yorky's message prompted me to recall Horace a writer from whom I found great strength and understanding.

Horace speaks better than I:

For all those involved
homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto
I am a man: I count nothing human indifferent to me

For all the sceptics
quid rides? mutato nomine de te fabula narratur
Why do you laugh? with change of name the story is about you.

For everyone
quicquid deliant reges plectuntur Achivi
Whatever madness possesses the chiefs, it is the Achaens who suffer

(chiefs= senate, Achaens= common soldier).
Last edited by Mutley on Wed 19 Jun, 2002 4:34 pm, edited 1 time in total.
harry hackedoff
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Post by harry hackedoff »

Yorkie, well done mate,I agree it`s not the money it`s the principle that is at stake. The fact that Joe Public likes to think of us as saviors in time of strife and a bloody nuisance the rest of the time is going to be blown wide open by this case. When the story breacks and they realise the sheer numbers involved, it will make a lot of them start to take notice. I wish you and the rest of the boys involved in the case all the best luck in the world. The Whitehall bean-counters will be shitting themselves in anticipation of your victory in court.
Simon, thanks for your comment about Hillsborough, the point is P.T.S.D. can affect any one.
Ratso, feelings of guilt about your survival are a perfecly natural reaction to the very un-natural situation you were part of and I hope you can sort out your own personal demons.Any time you want a chat to someone who can listen , drop me an e-mail.
Finaly members, I have been away from my PC for a while because my team were taken for a run ashore Wed night by our consultants. We had a very pleasant meal and the craick was excellant. After the meal I was told we would be going to a Lapp dancing club. I didn`t realise there were that many Lapplanders in Birmingham,let alone so many of them that they could form their own dancing club!
I was looking forward to meeting them so that I could try and remember some Norge phrases and sayings.Imagine my surprise when entering the establishment to find it was full of young ladies dressed mostly in their underwear and not a Lapp in site! The young ladies seemed to have an extreme avertion to sitting on the furniture, prefering to throw themselves down on my knee instead.My frequent requests to meet one of the Lapps resulted in my being asked to leave the premises by a rather fit looking young man with a shaven head. I did receive a business card from one of the young ladies who promised to give me a private dance (whatever that is) for twenty quid.Does any one know what this means, and should I take up her offer?
yours Aye, Harry Hackedoff


<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: harry hackedoff on 2002-03-07 22:02 ]</font>

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: harry hackedoff on 2002-03-09 23:15 ]</font>
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Post by harry hackedoff »

Further to my last, Horace may put it better than you,Mutley, but I`d love a pint of what he`s drinking,
yours Aye HH
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Post by Mutley »

Actually, although he's been dead for a few thousand years he became a good drinking partner for awhile. Until all of what he said started to make sense and I began to learn to appreciate what was around me, and to sort my life out.

Then, a couple of years ago, my lad asked why I hide my medals and only get them out once a year. I surprised myself, somewhere came the words "I wear them for those that can't" and I was crying, in public. But, it didn't matter, no-one was bothered.

For the first time after a service, I went home and talked quietly and calmly to my wife, instead of going to a Legion and getting minging.

Now I remember those no longer with us with pride and gratitude. Now I look to a future and make plans.

Good luck to everyone

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<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: Mutley on 2002-03-08 09:52 ]</font>
harry hackedoff
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Post by harry hackedoff »

Simon, I`ve just linked to your website and read the extract from your first chapter, all sounds yery familliar . I shall look out for the book in the summer
Mutley , I wasn`t taking the piss, yours Aye Harry

<font size=-1>[ This Message was edited by: harry hackedoff on 2002-03-09 23:37 ]</font>
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