It it time to stop thinking about taking your own life and know about #TakeBackYourLife

#TakeBackYourLife and Stay Alive

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
February 13, 2020

How many times do we have to read about a veteran suffering with PTSD taking his or her own life instead of healing before we actually change the outcome?

Iraq veteran, 35, struggling with PTSD 'took own life' in children's park

Mirror UK
ByLuke Traynor Matthew Dresch
13 FEB 2020

In a moving post on website Go Fund Me, a close family friend said: "As with many serving and veteran soldiers, Wes had struggled with PTSD and on the 26th January 2020, he succumbed to those demons of PTSD, sadly taking his own life, at the young age of 35.

Wesley McDonnell has been described as 'one in a million' (Image: handout)

An Army veteran was found dead in a children's park after battling post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Wesley McDonnell, from St Helens, served in Iraq, Afghanistan, Cyprus, Kenya, Canada, Germany and the Falkland Islands during his distinguished career.

Friends say the 35-year-old soldier 'succumbed' to his demons and 'took his own life', with one saying 'stand easy, warrior, your duty is done'.

In a cruel twist, Mirror Online revealed how police misidentified Mr McDonnell and ended up wrongly telling another mother that her son had died.

Relatives said Mr McDonnell, stationed with the Duke of Lancaster Battalion, had suffered with mental health worries, specifically post-traumatic stress disorder, the Liverpool Echo reports.
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If you actually think about what "suicide awareness" has achieved, it has delivered the message of other veterans giving up. If you think about what healing awareness does, it delivers a message of hope that they can heal too and their lives can be so much better.

When you hear that the stigma of PTSD is still strong, think about why it is still so powerful when all the evidence has been out there proving there is nothing to be ashamed of as a survivor of something that could have killed you.

Watch this video and you will know what works to support you to #BreakTheSilence and #TakeBackYourLife.

Marine Veteran Mike Damon owned his PTSD. He is using what he learned in his journey to create a guide for anyone to use to conquer their inner battles. The guide is written like guides in the military are written. The principles are easy to understand and implement. Listening to Mike talk about his vision and intent for what he is trying to do makes me believe that there is truly a way to go to 0 for Veteran Suicide.

He is talking about what he went through to take back his life, how he is not only happier, he is helping veterans like you discover what is possible for you too!

Mike,"The Godfather" Damon of Vet Unite

UPDATE
Suicide rates for younger veterans doubles in NYS

There are alarming new numbers about suicide rates among younger veterans. A new report issued by the New York State Health Foundation says rates for those 18 to 34 has more than “doubled” in the state.

7 Eyewitness News met with a war veteran who leads a counseling program at the Veterans One-stop Center of Western New York.

“You feel like you are living on the other side of a pane of glass, like you’re watching everyone around you,” reflected Alyssa Vasquez, program manger, Veterans One-stop Center of WNY.

He joined the military, then police force, and then homeless in the UK?

How DID this war hero police officer end up sleeping rough on the street?: Shocking story that shows why – one year on – the helpline we fought for is needed more than ever

Daily Mail
By IAN GALLAGHER FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY
23 February 2019

Virtually penniless and unable to draw his pension, he slept rough last month, still with his warrant card in his back pocket. In an interview with The Mail on Sunday, during which he repeatedly broke down, he spoke bitterly of abandonment, his belief that his Army and police careers had effectively been ‘for nothing’ and how his life had no horizons greater than finding his next hot meal.

Britain's first homeless policeman, 46, is a former Iraq and Afghanistan veteran
He decided to change careers after the Afghanistan War and joined the Met
The unnamed man was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder in 2017
He has received no support while on indefinite sick leave from the police force

A Metropolitan Police officer, and veteran, has been sleeping rough in a Home Counties town

Having risked his life for his country at home and abroad for two decades, he might be forgiven for expecting recognition for exemplary service.

First he spent 12 years with the Royal Engineers, leading a specialist bomb disposal team on perilous missions in Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Tiring of Army life but determined to put his experience to good use, he then joined the Metropolitan Police, proving a brave and effective frontline officer.

Yet instead of laurels, this dedicated public servant has, ten years on, achieved an altogether different distinction. Like so many who put their lives on the line to keep others safe, he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder in 2017.

Emotionally adrift, his marriage failed – ‘I became impossible to live with’ – and then his life fell apart as his condition worsened.

Shamefully, the state averted its eyes. On sick leave ever since, he remains in theory a serving officer because the Met appears – inexplicably – to have forgotten him, or rather, in the words of the voluntary group fighting his case, allowed him to ‘fall through the cracks’.
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UK Researchers Have Found Signs of PTSD 3,000 Years Ago

Aside from the fact all the signs of what war does are in the Bible, especially in the Psalms of David, this shows PTSD is not new. It just has a newer name.

Did ancient warriors suffer PTSD too?
Texts reveal that battles 3,000 years ago left soldiers traumatised by what they saw
UK researchers have found signs of PTSD up to 3,000 years ago
They say soldiers experiencing horrors of the battlefield is not just a phenomenon of modern warfare
The earliest reference had been from the Battle of Marathon in 490BC
But scientists traced mention of 'shell shock' back to 1,300 BC
Daily Mail UK
By JONATHAN O'CALLAGHAN FOR MAILONLINE
23 January 2015

UK researchers have found signs of PTSD up to 3,000 years ago. They say soldiers experiencing horrors of the battlefield (stock image shown) is not just a phenomenon of modern warfare. The earliest reference had been from the Battle of Marathon, 490BC. Pictured is a Mycenaean Vase decorated with Bronze Age warriors

Ancient warriors armed with swords and spears from 3,000 years ago suffered from shell shock just like modern soldiers, according to a study.

Soldiers who experienced the horrors of the battlefield and were left with post traumatic stress disorder is not a phenomenon of modern warfare, say the researchers. An analysis of ancient texts shows PTSD became common considerably earlier than previously believed, although the symptoms were explained away as 'the spirits of those enemies whom the patient had killed.'

The earliest reference had been from the Battle of Marathon 490BC but scientists traced mention of 'shell shock' back to 1,300 BC in ancient Mesopotamia.

The study, published in Early Science and Medicine, said that while modern technology has increased the effectiveness and types of weaponry, 'ancient soldiers facing the risk of injury and death must have been just as terrified of hardened and sharpened swords, showers of sling-stones or iron-hardened tips of arrows and fire arrows.'
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UK former sergeant major wanted to go to jail instead of being a burden

Iraq war veteran: Haunted, in prison, now homeless

Case study: Former sergeant major John Dale's life began to unravel two years ago, when 20 years of military service brought nightmares and flashbacks

Karen McVeigh The Guardian, Monday 5 July 2010

John Dale has completed 20 years of military service, in Iraq – the last time in 2006 amid some of the fiercest fighting of the war – and Sierra Leone and Northern Ireland. His plan was to leave the army and join the police or fire service.

But today, aged 40, the former sergeant major and father of three children is homeless, living in a tent in the garden of the Margate house belonging to the brother of his wife, Kerry.

He had been released from prison in April, after being found not guilty of the attempted murder of Kerry. The charge, he says, came about after he lied to police so that they would lock him up, so that his family, who had watched helplessly as he fell apart, would not have to "babysit" him any more.

Dale's life began to unravel two years ago, when his regiment, the 1st Battalion, the Light Infantry, was preparing to return to Iraq on what would have been his fourth tour. He never made it. The nightmares and flashbacks he increasingly suffered but had tried to suppress, became impossible to ignore. He saw dead children everywhere. He couldn't see a way out and tried to kill himself.
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Iraq war veteran Haunted in prison now homeless

UK problem with PTSD is fraction of what US is seeing

While the US troops go to Iraq or Afghanistan for what was a 15 month tour and now they are shooting for a 12 month tour, notice that the UK has a problem with PTSD and it comes from one 6 month tour. Our troops, some of them are on their 5th tour of duty. Reminder, the Army said redeployments increase the risk of PTSD by 50% for each time back. Do you think we're only seeing the beginning of all of this? My guess is we ain't seen nothing yet and we are no where near being prepared for any of it.

April 26, 2009

Scores of troops traumatised by Afghan war


Michael Smith
THE first evidence of the trauma suffered by troops fighting in Afghanistan has been revealed, with scores needing treatment for mental disorders.

More than 230 troops – 4% of the fighting force – were diagnosed with psychological ailments after a single six-month tour, newly released Ministry of Defence figures show.

The figures back up claims by the forces charity Combat Stress that the numbers of soldiers suffering posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and other mental illnesses are dramatically worse than in other recent conflicts.

“We are seeing the bow wave of a much greater problem,” Toby Elliott, the charity’s chief executive, said. “The numbers are beginning to mount up.” The latest data cover the period from March to October 2007 when there were 5,700 British troops in Afghanistan. They show that 234 soldiers were diagnosed with psychological disorders when they returned home.


This was at the bottom of this article,,,,,the UK is not going to send more troops to Afghanistan.

Brown vetoes reinforcements

GORDON BROWN has vetoed any further British involvement in the US troop surge in Afghanistan, according to senior defence sources.

The move has caused dismay within the British Army, whose commanders have requested an extra brigade of up to 3,500 men for Afghanistan.

It is also an embarrassment for John Hutton, the defence secretary, who has criticised Britain’s Nato partners for depending on the Americans to provide the bulk of Nato troops.

The prime minister has decided that since the US was prepared to dispatch 10,000 troops to Helmand, the most dangerous province in Afghanistan, Britain did not need to send any more.

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Scores of troops traumatised by Afghan war

Ex-soldiers surviving post traumatic stress disorder

Once were warriors
After the horrors of war, many servicemen and women find themselves facing another battle: post-traumatic stress disorder. But a radical programme involving t'ai chi, meditation and Hawaiian "forgiveness" therapy is helping many of them find peace

• This article appears in Sunday's Observer Magazine
Louise Carpenter The Observer, Sunday 1 February 2009

Peter Stone was approaching the end of a long career in the army when he witnessed an event in Croatia in 1995 that was to ruin the next decade of his life. Walking through a village, he came across three Croatian children, aged 11, nine and seven. A father of four himself, Stone's instinct was to talk to them. He even reached into the pocket of his uniform and offered them some chocolate. Later, passing back through the village, he saw them again. They were lying in pools of their own blood by the roadside, their throats cut - punishment for speaking to the enemy.

Stone was an experienced soldier. He had served in Northern Ireland, the Falklands and Croatia. He had seen death and despair, and he had endured and pulled through explosions himself. And yet it was this singular, horrific event that was to be his unravelling. "Those children were innocent," he says, his voice faltering, "and I could not get the memory of them out of my mind, I could not get the thoughts to go [away] that I was responsible, that if it were not for me, they would still be alive today."

Years later, Stone was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), a common problem that usually becomes apparent in soldiers years after the experienced trauma. It is often triggered by a second, unrelated trauma. In Stone's case, it was the death of his son in a car crash, two weeks before his son's 21st birthday, in 2001. He had been out of the army for a year then, his marriage having broken down due to the stresses of his job.

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