Combat Stress....A plea for help!

Apologies in advance for this!

In July I am cycling from John O'Groats to Lands End, a route of over 1000 miles raising money for Combat Stress, the ex services mental welfare charity.

I am finding it incredibly hard to get sponsorship so am turning to this site for help.

Please, if you can help in anyway yourself, or if you can pass on my details to anyone else who can, I would be most grateful.

www.justgiving.com/com...tresscycle (safe payement system on this)

many thanks in advance.

 

Link doesn't work, mate.

 

www.justgiving.com/combatstresscycle

Don't know why the link won't work. I tried typing it in full and it does open. Bizarre.

just giving dot com slash combat stress cycle

 

I fully appreciate that you must all be inundated with requests for money for various charities.

So far one or two people have been incredibly kind with various offers to help from this site, but this note is to ask you ALL to please think about helping.

The statistics are horrendous, 329 suicides amongst those who served in the Falklands, 20 so far from the Gulf. Combat Stress is working with over 8,000 serviceman and women, and is the only charity supporting the mental welfare of ex-servicemen and women in the way they do.

The programmes which have been aired recently on television, which have had many discussions in the forums about, have shown the smallest glimpse of the situation, so please, please help the Charity continue it's work. I am cycling a route of over a thousand miles for them in July and would really appreciate it if people could donate on my site www.justgiving.com/com...tresscycle whether it is 20p it doesn't matter!

Many thanks in advance, and apologies again, but this is such an important issue, and I would have thought close to the hearts of all users of this site.

 

Remember...

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) is a natural emotional reaction to a deeply shocking and disturbing experience.
It is a normal reaction to an abnormal situation.

 

Hi Nick78,

I recall you posting this a few months ago somewhere in this site and also posting the same link, which then as now was reported to you as not working? Please could you address this problem if you want sponsorship, or there is not much point in requesting sponsorship. :roll:

I'm always happy to donate to Combat Stress though, they do good work which is underappreciated by the general public, but as yet have been unable to sponsor you.

Best wishes,

Steve.

 

I can uderstand combat stress from something like the falklands, but the gulf war???? how did that happen? Mystified.

 

Anyone?? It's a serious question..

 

PTSD affects all in different manners, from what seems trivial to some, is a mega pain in the arse for others.

from experience, people go through their lives without realising there is even a problem that exists.

 

Apologies to all for not replying sooner. I have just infact got back from completeing the ride, all done in eleven days.

I am sorry that there have been problems with the link. It is posted on the army side of this site and works without any problem. I will add itn again here and will write out in full so if the link fails again anyone wishing to sponsor can simply copy and paste or type the address in to the address bar at the top of the page.

I read Lingyai's message asking about Combat Stress in the Gulf and found this an interesting discussion to start. When I was fundraising before the ride I was finding it incredibly hard to find sympathetic responses to my aims. Shockingly I found many servicemen and women who would ask why I was bothering to do something for Combat Stress, couldn't people just laugh off their experiences. Civvies would often say to me they would not support my cause for they believed servicemen and women know what they are signing up to......

My answer to them and as a response to Lingyai's question is the folllowing; You can train a human to soldier, you can train them to kill, jump out of aeroplanes do whatever it is to carry out their duties. What you can never do over short periods of time is train every human mind to accept acctions and visions all on the same level. That is to say that people react differently, this is what differentiates us as individuals. Some people feel like crying when they see a sad film, the very same people may laugh at a funeral. We all accept things in different ways. Thus Service personnel do the same and nobody will ever really know what triggers PTSD or depression from one man to another.

The British Military is increasingly finding itself in incredibly difficult circumstances. Ask anyone who witnessed the horrors of Ahmici and they will understand fully how people can suffer mentaly.

It is indeed very easy in barracks, surrounded by your mates to laugh things off, and asume an air of mental sterility. Once you have left the military and are a civilian this is often when problems arise and it is thus it takes on average 14 yrs of suffering before a serviceman/woman seeks psychologocal help.
Spare a thought now, in an age of incresed useage of the reserves. men and women who return from duty, hand their kit in to the stores and are expected to slip back in to the life of nine to five civy job and popping in to Tesco. Not an easy transformation to make.
It is for these reasons that Combat Stress has seen a marked increase in people turning to them for support. They work very closely and have a good relationship woth the MOD and other military organisations, but they need financial support to keep going, and as CS are currently taking on average 700 new patients each year you can see clearly and increase in funding needed.

And so to make a microscopic difference I decided to cycle the length of Britain, having had both my knees operated on last January. It was a hell of an effort, carrying all your kit etc, and one which I hope will be seen by all reading this as a worthwhile cause. I hope this post answers some of the questions raised.

Nick

www.justgiving.com/combatstresscycle

www dot justgiving dot com / combat stress cycle

 

Combat Stress & P.T.S.D

Mate i have turned to the bottle, as it is an easier way of getting to sleep, with out having to see all the crap i have seen ,

imagine walking down the street, then the next minute your back in a frigging fight, only thing is it aint there except in your head.

you can call it many names,but it all comes down to the same thing, were all fucked up, my refuge is my bottle, better than the frigging pills i was given.

hope all goes well for your bike ride, make sure you pack the vaseline.

 

The link works. Well done. I agree there are a lot of people out there who take the attitude that people knew what they were signing on for - well I'm not sure for teenage recruits if that assertion is remotely reasonable. How many civvies have any real idea about what service personnel actually experience or the psychological impact those experiences can have upon them. Perhaps too few have had relatives who fought in the Far East and were prisoners of the Japanese Empire - had they grown up with relatives who had suffered under this they might have more compassion and insight into this very real and distressing condition.

I remember a few years ago during Chatham Navy Days an ex-Naval Falklands Veteran was suffering from flashbacks when there was a helicopter display. Most people just watched as if he was a nutcase. One of the guys from the Ganges Association's tent* who knew him went over and took care of him. He had to explain to the policewoman on duty what was happening as she didn't have a clue.

Steve.

*I was providing ballast to stop it taking off as it was a very windy day.

 

I think one of the major problems is that in this country the only ones who care for the ex-serviceman are servicemen and ex-servicemen. The public don't care, polititians certainly don't care, there are no votes in it, and the caring services don't care either because one it costs mopney and two they see it as an MOD responsibilty, and the MOD don't care because it costs money.

As for the example quoted by AAC above, the same would apply to many mental disorders that are now considered suitable for treatment under 'care in the communiy'. We know some one who has mental problems, and the only decent care she has had for years was recently when she broke her hip, now she is getting proper care at home, something she never got on release from a mental ward.

Peter

 

I am afraid Peter the care in the community for people in need of psychiatric care has always been a problem. The money just isn't there. Money allocated by central government usually ends up plugging others gaps in the healthcase system. Then there is the accountant mentality that holds sway today.

I've been getting regular help from the same psychiatrist for around 10 years for traumatic events in my past which are still causing me problems. Recently I learned that the managers have been questioning whether I should receive long-term care rather than simply a few sessions of help then be discharged as "cured". These Managers seem to think that you can just return to see anybody and always just refer back to your case history or ask you what happened to you. Nice in theory - but expecting you to relive traumatic events for every new doctor is unreasonable. Whenever I have had crises I have never been able to really get across to the duty psychiatrist why I am suicidally depressed - I just clam up. If your memories result in you killing or hurting other people than everyone want's to know what went wrong - but in reality the lack of joined up thinking & treating psychiatric care as a Cinderella service means that this sort of thing will recur.

There is a myth that service personnel are somehow superhuman and don't have the same feelings as the rest of society. It is the notion that the training brutalises people to such an extent that they become battle-hardened and immune to psychological trauma. After the Second World War this was not the case - there were too many walking wounded, but sadly that living memory has died with the servicemen who experienced it. The British and our newspapers like to remember certain aspects but ignore the psycho-social aspects of conflict, in just the same way that we ignore the social problems experienced by ex-servicemen who leave the forces after several years inwhich their only experience of life after school is the forces. Too many are still ending up homeless on our streets.

End of Rant! :evil:

 

Steve

You are talking to the converted, I am on your side

Peter

 

Sorry Peter, I realise that now!

 

as a sufferer I was lucky I saw an ex-major who sussed me out right away & having been though the experience, I have noticed a change in a mate who was also down south in 82, after trying to speak to him for at least 5 years, this saturday was the first time he's admitted to a problem so hopefully I can get him to see someone or just talk about his problems.
As usual he is hitting the bottle heavily, which was one of my probs & he can't understand why i don't drink now, I simply tell him I'm scared of what will happen if i do.

 

Some one here just said about guys being on the streets, from effects of Combat Stress & PTSD,

I have to agree with that statement, i live on the streets, and have done so since i left the Service, being back in the civvie life aint easy for us lot,

It ainr any better when all the shit going round in your head pops it ugly frigging head every now and then,

Thanks to me being such a ******** when my problems start, i have lost my girl, my son, and most of all any will to keep on going,

Now i just bum around, bumming drinks, and generaly being a grade a asshole.

Every time i se a jet go over, or hear a car backfire i flip out,

Folks think it is quite funny, I DONT.

Any help you can give to guys with this problem by doing that cycle ride, good on you,

As for us that have it and see no end, well we are the ones to forget.

Leaving this area on the 26 of this month, going to sit on a mountain in scotland and get pissed,

Hope you all have a good one

 

Jewishscotsman,

Have you seen CombatStress and tried one of their treatment programmes? Their details are below.

CombatStress have a contact in the South here:

Telephone Number: 01372 841680
Email Address: [email protected]

You can contact them Monday - Friday 0900 - 1700.

Their HQ details are:

Tyrwhitt House, Oaklawn Road
Leatherhead, Surrey KT22 0BX
Telephone Number: 01372 841600

Their website is here: http://www.combatstress.org.uk/default.asp

They have all the information you need on their website including a FAQ section. The average time you have to wait before you see them is 6 weeks but the treatment is free paid for out of donations. Their nearest residential treatment centre to Hampshire is Tyrwhitt House in Leatherhead. Do you have someone who you could go with? If you need any other information or help please feel free to PM me.

Steve.

 

My Thanks to all you guys who have mailed me,

All i am looking for now is an end of this crap i carry around, hence the reason i am off the land of the Jocks, going to yomp up a hill and get rat assed me a bottle or two of pusser, a couple o boxes of tranqs,

keep up the good work boys, there is better ones out there than my sorry ass that can be saved, me, i am just a frigging tramp who sleeps in a graveyard in lymington, i aint worth shit,

Semper Fidelis,