"My recovery journey"

I competed 22 years military service in April 2012, during my service I completed multiple operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, the Balkans, Central America, and others.

Whilst you are surrounded by the military you are covered in an imaginary safety blanket. It is the gradual disappearance of this safety blanket that I describe as the onset of PTSD. When I returned to the UK in late 2015 this onset was visible to family and friends but not me. The PTSD didn't become visible to me until late 2017.

I was formerly diagnosed with complex ptsd and moral injury in May 2018, at the very same time I was informed that I was too ill to treat by Combat Stress. What followed was that my referral to the community mental health service got lost. So for two years I continued to slump further with little or no help from the NHS. Just very fragmented help from  2 specialist care providers that are best described by me as having a very good shop front, but nothing of substance inside. It is such a shame.

These repeated failures led to my attempted suicide in 2020, and my placement in the acute mental health ward at West Suffolk hospital. It is here in 2020, 2 years after my diagnosis and attempted suicide that anyone seemed to care.

It is since then I have been introduced to the Veterans Complex Trauma Service, and it is with those along side my recovery has finally started.

It is through their continued support and therapy I am now receiving there is a hope to the future.

You have to sit in front of a veteran, you have to listen, you have ask questions to have any chance of understanding where we come from and what we expect for the service we have given.

The Veterans Mental Health Complex. Treatment service from St Andrews Healthcare, continue to save my life every day with their understanding, their empathy and most importantly their willingness to listen and learn from me and not to judge me or throw me on a pile with all the others.

We just to need to share this vital information and understanding with the rest of the country, how else will we achieve a national based best practice?

Thank you