Thanks Diver, an hour of my time well spent.
This type of information should be presented to EVERY service member returning to Australia. Whether from a war zone or peace keeping mission.
When I departed East Timor in February 2000 I spent about 5-10 mins with a Psych who asked several questions. You just give them the answers you know they want to hear. One less administrative issue to deal with.
On arrival back home...... take a **** load of leave, then back to work. A few weeks later have a medal pinned on your chest.
Defence made absolutely zero effort to reach out, to check in, to even bother once you returned. I had a young soldier in my troop who came back from Banda Ache following our response to the Tsunami in 2004. Dealing with that much death and destruction effected him but there was no monitoring, no follow up by Defence. Then about a year later he started to exhibit some .... strange behaviours which alerted us to his plight. Broke his marriage.
Fortunately I have mostly been able to cope, sure there were a few 'issues' at home, at work (military) and in civilian life after. In my case, thankfully, not to any significant level. Perhaps because I was a civilian longer than I was a soldier, late starter at Kapooka at age 31.
You don't have to be ex-military to have PTSD. You may have had some other kind of traumatic incident in your life.
TALK!! TO SOMEONE!!
There is no eraser on the pencil of life.
Now - Not a Land Rover (2018 Dmax)
Was - 2008 D3 SE 4.0l V6
Was - 2000 D2 TD5 with much fruit.
Ray
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