UK PTSD:Coping with the trauma of warfare

Coping with the trauma of warfare
BBC News -

By Caroline Wyatt Defence correspondent, BBC News

"I started drinking, I started fighting and I was more aggressive - but I didn't care. I couldn't sleep, my chest felt tight, I felt sick - and then there were the flashbacks.

"I got diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder by my unit's medical officer - and that was it.


"There was no treatment. And they still sent me to fight in Iraq."


Ian, a 27-year-old veteran of Kosovo, Sierra Leone, Northern Ireland and Iraq, was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in 1999, but went on to fight in several more campaigns.



Ian - not his real name - left the Army after Iraq, but he is sure many more British troops are silently suffering mental anguish from Iraq and Afghanistan than official figures suggest.

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