PTSD & ASD
"PTSD is like a brick wall around me."
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder is believed to affect one in every twenty UK troops. And there is no real, long-term cure – you learn to live with it. The symptoms can take a long time to develop – fourteen to twenty years perhaps. They can creep up on you or be triggered by a noise, an image, a smell or certain words.
“I had three or four flashbacks a day. I would sweat and become very nervous as I remembered the events 20 years ago.”
However, if the condition manifests itself more immediately, then it is Acute Stress Disorder. Nevertheless whenever it strikes, the effects are just as devastating: flashbacks and nightmares, difficulty sleeping and concentrating, and uncharacteristic aggression, depression or withdrawal, a loss of self-esteem or self-worth.
"Once I shouted 'Incoming!' in my sleep. I gave my then girlfriend a black eye and broke her nose. I even tried to suffocate her with a pillow. When she woke me I was oblivious."
Thank goodness PTSD and ASD are acknowledged conditions now. Gone are the days of untreated and misunderstood ‘shell-shock’. Survivor guilt is recognized and not only are serving and ex-military personnel encouraged to overcome their macho environment and seek assistance non-judgemental, but their carers and partners are also supported. Bear in mind, however, that the majority of these organizations are not funded – think about that on November the eleventh or when you pass a Help the Heroes street collection.
Links:
Talking2minds www.talking2minds.co.uk
Combat Stress (Ex-Services Mental Welfare Society) www.combatstress.com
Anxiety UK www.anxietyuk.org.uk
ASSIST (Assistance Support and Self Help in Surviving Trauma) www.assisttraumacare.org.uk
SAS/Army jargon (and slang) which might make things a tad more intelligible
ASD – Acute Stress Disorder
Badged – accepted into the SAS (and given badge)
The Big Four - Number, Rank, Name & Date of Birth - the only information a soldier is permitted to give to his captors during interrogation.
Black op - deniable missions that would be disavowed by the British government
Beating the Clock – At SAS HQ Credenhill there is a cenotaph which above the lists of Regiment’s losses, has a clock. If you survive a mission, you have ‘beaten the clock’
Bergen – soldier’s backpack
The Box – slang for MI5 (as the organisation used to be known colloquially by their PO Box number)
Brew – Always used for tea or coffee
Cammed – camouflaged
Carrying – armed
Click – kilometre
Crow – new-joined inexperienced soldier
Double tap – controlled shooting – one to stop, two to kill
ERV – Emergency Rendezvous Point
The Firm – MI6 (or SIS)
Flashbang – stun grenade (also stunnie)
Frag – shrapnel
Green Slime-military intelligence
HALO – High altitude, low opening. Covert parachute method.
Head-Shed – CO
HVT – High Value Target (place or person of special importance)
The Increment - SAS and SBS operatives who have been specially trained to work with MI6
Intel – intelligence information
Keffiyeh – arab scarf usually black and white or red and white. Also called a shemagh by the troops
The Killing House – Building at Crendenhill, Hereford where the SAS train
Medivac – medical evacuation
OP – Observation Post
Pencil-necks – military geek rather than active soldier
Pinkie - desert patrol vehicle painted pink, which colour, surprisingly, blends in with the sand
PTSD – Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Rag-heads – disparaging terms for any arab enemy
The Regiment – a semi-official name for the SAS
Rupert – officer
Scallies - used to describe an individual or group of people felt to be beneath contempt – usually officers
Scaly – member of military intelligence
SIS – Special Intelligence Service (MI6) - Britain’s external espionage agency
Slotted - killed
SRR – Special Reconnaissance Regiment – ultra-secret organisation used for surveillance and intelligence gathering operations thereby supporting SAS/SBS special operations
The Stan - Afghanistan
On Stag – on watch
Stoppage – jammed weapon
SECRET SMILE
And then for something completely different.
After Unmapped Country and In Her Fashion, the Victorian corsets were beginning to creak – I longed to hear my own voice. So out spake Janey Pullinger. She's mouthy, funny (well she makes me laugh), compassionate and ill-fated.
I have to say it – I love her and I love the story. Part of that euphoria is probably being able to breath again – oxygen whirring round the blood cells – but I did get very involved in some aspects of the research and John Sadler’s story became so real to me that deaths in war zones have become much more personal.
Set when the Iraq war was at its height and Afghanistan was raising its troubled head and yet not just a war story; chronicling Janey’s rocky love life and yet not merely a romance; with more than it’s share of humour, but not a just comedy.
The one thread that ties all this together is, I guess is, the struggle to cope with loss, whatever that loss may be.
To read the First Chapter . . . click here
If you want to know more about life uncover in Iraq or post traumatic stress, I can recommend the following:-
Task Force Black: The explosive true story of the SAS and the secret war in Iraq Mark Urban - British journalist, author, broadcaster and diplomatic and defence editor of BBC Newsnight.
Bravo Two Zero: The true story of an SAS Patrol behind enemy lines in Iraq Andy McNab - English novelist and former SAS operative and soldier.
Coping with Post Trauma Stress Frank Parkinson – consultant, trainer and university lecturer, specialising in coping with stress and trauma.
