PTSD: an unspeakable situation

One of my long-term project is about veterans and servicemen suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I’ve met some of them in 2010 and did a series of interviews while they were following a therapy programme. Since then, I’ve been following a couple of them and met new veterans on the way.

I called my project ‘PTSD: an unspeakable situation’ because of the difficulties servicemen suffering from PTSD face to talk openly about what they are going through within the military or on civvy street. PTSD symptoms are still a taboo subject within the military because they are seen as signs of weakness and, on the other hand, once on civvy street, veterans’ war experiences are so ‘abnormal’ that they can’t or don’t want to talk about them. As Dr Shay, author of Achilles in Vietnam, tells us, ‘the painful paradox is that fighting for one’s country can render one unfit to be its citizen.’

More images will be added soon, in the meantime, you can view them on my blog here: http://florenceroyer.wordpress.com/ptsd-an-unspeakable-situation/

PTSD sufferers in GB
Lee has been in the armed forces for the past 20 years. Three years ago, after a couple of tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, he started losing his temper at home and at work; he also had a lot of nightmares and suffered from paranoia. He took part in a 5 day alternative therapy programme for PTSD sufferers called Synergy in August 2010 without telling his boss. To listen to his story click on 'listen' below.

Listen

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"I spent 2 years in Ireland during the 1990 tour, I came back from there and I had PTSD then. But what happened is that I was quite violent with it, and I ended up having a fight with a senior NCO, so they put me into the army psychiatric unit, and treated me for violent disorder instead of treating me for the right thing, and then they released me from there and I was under an army psychiatrist, but as an outpatient and he said to me, ‘you have PTSD, but I’m not allowed to diagnose it as that’, because the army did not accept that it existed at that time! It was in 1992.”(Clifford) To listen to his story click on 'listen' below. Audio soon available

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"What I do find is that the people that have been chemicalised are often the most difficult to work with purely because their perception has been distorted by chemicals. They soon start to lose grip of what is real and what isn’t real and some of their perceptions are over exaggerated by the use of chemicals.” (Mick Stott, creator of the Synergy programme for PTSD sufferers)

Steve Pratt during a Creative solution programme he organised as part of Mick Stott' Synergy change programme in Leigh, Manchester, in September 2010.
From soldier to artist: Steve Pratt became an artist after 17 years in the armed forces: "I started using the pencils to express how I feel, I usually have quite a lot of anger anyway, but even though I’m better, I still have the anger in there. In a way, the anger comes out…I suppose it is quite positive because it’s getting things out, and in fact, once I start, it is not anger anymore, the anger turns almost instantly to unconscious flow, so I suppose that is where the catharsis is, in the actual doing.” (Steve Pratt)

Woman in striped dress looks at one of Steve Pratt painting during the private view of his exhibition in the Aine Art Museum in Tornio, Finland, in June 2011.
Steve’s latest exhibition started in June 2011 in Tornio, Finland, in the Aine Art Museum. I asked him what art had done for him: "When I was at university, I was studying fine art, I wasn’t somebody doing therapy, I wasn’t somebody with problems, I was making paintings…but I did realised that the painting conventions were kind of limited for me because I wanted to have actually a real explosion in a painting, the paintings were never enough. But now, I have come to learn more about where these things come from, I understand more now that these images or issues were locked in my head and art actually – although I was constructing – it was also enabling me unconsciously to get things out. When you see the size of some paintings, the large figures and the large guns, the size of that problem in my head must have been quite big and the art work enabled me to see that, it brought it out and here I am now thinking: oh, that’s gone, I can move on now as an artist.” (Steve Pratt)

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In October 2011, Steve Pratt took part in a Culture Show programme on BBC 2 entitled Art for Heroes; he produced a few pieces of artwork for the show including this one he made using toy soldiers:

"They are in a bubble, they are there forever, they will never get out of that, even if they do get out physically, they’ll be trapped in that bubble forever.” (Steve Pratt)

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"I was doing courses and such and I started to feel not right, I didn’t understand PTSD, I was not aware of it, and obviously the last thing you want to do is to go and talk to the guys in the unit about it…I mean, you can talk with your pals, some of your friends in the army become more or less your brothers, but you tend to not talk about how you’re really feeling inside it’s just the way it is unfortunately, so I suppose in a way, I suppressed it myself, and I thought well, I don’t want to think about it, so I’m just going to crack on with things and actually, looking back on it now, it was made worse by that.” (Joe)

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"I suffered from PTSD and on a trip to California, I discovered that in America, they are using surfing and the beach environment to help sufferers of PTSD. So I came back to the UK and decided that this needed to be done here and I started Surf Action, the charity. Going back 3 years, I had to start off just by working 2 jobs, I was working with wood, and I was surf instructing as well; and the money then would go to help the families come down; [...] and then I got a partner and another director, Chris Hines and Russ Pierre, and they help me with the admin side of things. [...] The advantage of me going through PTSD is that I understand how to help the others in a better way. I don’t give them sympathy, I give them empathy which is a little bit different: I totally understand where they are because I’m still there as well.” (Rich Emerson, founder of the charity Surf Action) Note: Daren is not a veteran but was injured in a car accident.

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"I’ve never surfed before and I had a fear of cold water that goes back to my service, but as soon as I got into the water I realised there was nothing to be frightened about, nothing to be worried about and I just enjoy the surfing; I’m not much good at it but it doesn’t matter, you’re in the water, you come out with a smile on your face and for me that’s all I really want. I’ve been doing it for 18 month now. The idea is not to cure people, it is purely to signpost them to somewhere where they can then get themselves sorted out, so really, it’s very much a recuperation thing and we’re just helping them on the way.” (Trevor Luttrell)