Remembrance Day is a wonderful thing. It's lovely to see so many of the UK population pull together to remember people many of us never had the pleasure of knowing, and donating money to offer support to modern day veterans.
The reason behind Remembrance Day, on the other hand, is a horrible thing. The way it has an effect everyone, even years afterwards is quite terrifying. This effect can be mental or physical health worries, financial worries, even down to worrying about people's opinions about you, whether they're against war or not makes a huge difference to people's views on soldiers. My family were affected by the war, as my Great Grandpa fought in the First World War. He was a handsome and proud man, whilst he was out there he was looking after his family back home and hoping to make them proud of what he was doing. But that unfortunately wasn't how it worked out, for he returned home a broken man, suffering from shellshock which is today recognised as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
After suffering from a shocking event such as being in or witnessing a serious car accident, or being involved in war people are at quite a high risk of developing Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. After such a shocking event many if not most people suffer from symptoms very similar to that of PTSD but these symptoms are temporary and are known as an Acute Stress Reaction. Most people go through this after trauma but for around one in three the symptoms continue, which is then known as Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.
PTSD affects around 1 in 25 Regular Army members, and 1 in 20 Reservists. An average of 1 in 25 veterans are also affected. The general public are also at a risk of suffering from PTSD with around 3 in 100 said to be affected but this average is higher again for certain groups such as female rape victims and firefighters (1 in 2 and 1 in 5 respectively). It's not just a war related mental illness, as many people believe.
In the UK, the charity Combat Stress works closely with veterans to ensure they're getting the help and support necessary to overcome this illness plus the army offers support too, which shows that the world has come a long way in accepting mental health issues from the First World War, when men were sent home from the war and openly mocked for being 'soft'.
My Great Grandpa came home from the war unable to work, or to provide for his family. This meant my Great Gran had to find some way to earn money, so she opened up a small cafe out of her front room. This in the eyes of many made her husband less of a man, but she stuck by him and she cared for and loved him as did all of his family. I'm certainly glad we've moved on from that kind of thinking now.
http://www.combatstress.org.uk
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