I am setting up this website to , hopefully provide a forum for serving and ex forces to exchange experiences and ideas to help each other deal with PTSD and manage its symptoms.
I have suffered form PTSD for seven years and my own experience of the help available, especially in civvie street is not good, only now am i "getting treatment" which so far has made it worse and now realise the only "experts" in PTSD are the sufferers themselves.

My son, you know no one will help you in this world.
You must run to that mountain and come back , that will make you strong.
My son, you know no one is your friend, not even your sister, your father,your mother.
Your legs are your friends , your brian is your friend , your hands are your friends,
you must do something with them.

From An Apache Life,
By Morris Opler.


I have a room for us to meet in my area [Liskeard in Cornwall] at 6.00pm every friday at The Liskerrett centre in liskeard.
I have chosen 6.00pm on a friday as if you have a job or not then most people would be able to come at this time and could serve as a de- brief to let off steam before the weekend.

Feel free to leave comments , experiences, whats worked for you and what hasnt and remember;

You are only human
Your not a failure
You are not alone
There IS hope !

My name is Hamish Whannell and spent seven years in the Army [REME] and served in Bosnia [Sarajevo] in 1995-6 and Kosovo in 2000.
I now live in Cornwall with my wife and three children , well teenagers now !
if you want to leave a personal message my E- mail address is hamishwhannell@hotmail.com.

So far i have been put on betablockers , prozac , citalopran , diazepan , triazepan , valium , and a few other anti-depressants i cant remember the name of , i am now on amitriplaline which i found is the best so far, it helps me to sleep anyway.
I have had counselling for alcohol abuse and for PTSD, i just spent sunday night in hospital after overdosing on my meds and other prescription meds and getting through six litres of cider in one evening and after my wife said some really hurtful things decided that its up to me and me alone to live my life to the best of my abilities.
I have found that as i cant sleep at night i might as well get a job working nights and now i sleep much better in the daytime.
I found that keeping up my weight training and running and especially martial arts [jikishin ju jitsu] has helped keep me sane , well almost !.

Hope to hear from you soon , i know your out there and maybe suffering on your own, i hope we can help each other lead semi -normal lives.

Regards

Hamish