I have suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Stress and Anxiety for the last 20+ years of my life. I have had some dreadful moments, even amongst the happy times that families and friends try to share.
Like many people I find Christmas and the New Year particularly stressful. Unlike many others, I find confrontation in any of its many forms, terribly difficult to handle. I speak openly about my mental ill health and hope that by doing so, others will feel less anxious about talking with family and friends or a health professional about their problems and anxieties.
I was attacked by an intruder inside our property in 2017 and that affected me badly. The Police where of little use even though there was an independent witness present who gave a statement and was willing to go to Court. Instead the Police deemed it fit to give my attacker an Adult Caution and didn't even have the common sense to ask my GP for a Medical Report regarding the injuries that I sustained and the trauma that I suffered. It was an unprovoked but yet planned attack, whereby my attacker was known to me and he made a conscious decision to leave his property, walk along an external landing, down a staircase and across a yard before stepping over our threshold uninvited with an intention to attack me, an intention that he successfully executed. I have had too many problems in my life to be dealing with more. To find that he was let off, was an astonishing blow. They may have just as well taken my attacker to the pub and bought him a few pints. I have little to no faith in the Police since this attack and (what I and many others regard as their) fumbling response.
My PTSD problems still manifest themselves with real nightmares where I am immersed in an actual event and need to turn on the light and check my environment. Sometimes it's what I've seen or dealt with in my career in the fire and rescue service, sometimes it's the intruder.
I see a professional counsellor monthly and that helps to stabilise my problems. I self manage with an awareness that exercise, interaction with others, and lots of art helps me to function. It's not normal, but it's my normality. I have a wide network of good friends that are aware of my problems and how these problems manifest themselves.
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