Australian Soldiers returning home with PTSD

Protecting those who serve to protect us

By Madonna King

Updated Tue Mar 8, 2011 8:46am AEDT


Paula' s voice faltered a few times, but she'd thought long and hard about what she wanted to say.

She is the wife of an Australian solider, who served in Timor and Afghanistan. She's proud of Glenn and what he does. And his bosses, given his glowing references, are proud of him too.

But now Glenn has returned home, a man Paula often doesn't recognise, and the question raised by Paula is this: who is responsible for him now?

Glenn has Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, a horrible illness that is making him almost impossible to live with. His mood swings, nightly bouts with the alcohol bottle and aloofness from his wife and three sons, are making his life, and theirs, hell.

Paula doesn't know what to do. And she says our army doesn't know either - and doesn't want you to know just how common it is that our soldiers, returning home, are caught in a mental nightmare.

Her words this week prompted a landslide of commentary, but the most chilling was from other soldiers, some of them still serving, who revealed a problem they believe is being buried under army protocol and political spin.

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Protecting those who serve to protect us