Soldier tells of health problems after friend killed

PTSD does not know nation from nation. It does not know anything other than a human exposed to traumatic events is a target.

Soldier tells of health problems after friend killed
A 26-year-old soldier from Cheshire has told how he was being medically discharged from the Army after developing post traumatic stress disorder as a result of his experiences in Afghanistan.

Private Mitchell Tyler - who was born in Oberon, New South Wales, Australia, but moved to Sandbach at the age of 14 - said he suffered panic attacks, depression and had undergone a "dramatic life change".

Private Tyler, whose wife Larissa, 25, is a member of the American National Guard and comes from Chicago, Illinois, said he had to return from Afghanistan in June after seeing another soldier killed.

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Soldier tells of health problems after friend killed

We understand when a civilian cannot "get over it" when they are exposed to one traumatic event in their lives but we fail to understand when soldiers are exposed over and over again. Is it because we want to believe they are trained to overcome anything? That they are better prepared for all they have to go through?

We fall apart when someone we love, someone we care about dies, yet we don't seem to be able to acknowledge the soldiers see someone they care about killed by bullets and bombs.

We fall apart after a car accident, yet we can't seem to understand that they go through having bombs blow up vehicles in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We get to move on with our daily lives as close to normal as possible but they have to spend their days with the threat of more traumatic events hanging over their heads. Even when their tour is over, they know they can end up going back over and over again. For them the trauma does not end and they carry it all with them while they are expected to just get over it.