Robert Case Study

Robert (age 29) joined the Army in 2004 when he was 16. Serving for almost 11 years with 32 Royal Engineers regiment, he was a combat engineer and undertook two tours of Iraq and two tours of Afghanistan. He now lives in Kilmarnock, Scotland and works as a British Gas dual fuel engineer.

“When I left the Army in 2014 and came back home to Scotland, I became short tempered, I started drinking and gambling, I was impatient, I started to have nightmares which affected my mood. I didn’t want to go out – I started sitting in and making excuses for not going out. This was very different to how I used to be but I thought it was normal to feel like this. I used to think I was just having a slump for a bit. 

“I didn’t know it then but these were all signs of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It never occurred to me that it could be that – I didn’t feel I had been involved in a serious incident during any of my tours.    

“I now know that it doesn’t have to a serious incident for something to have a huge effect on your mental health. It is how the individual processes it. Towards the end of my first tour in Afghanistan, we had come under fire when we’d harboured up for the night part way through a mission to search and clear a route. No one was hurt and I really didn’t think anything of the incident. I always looked back at that time and laughed about it. It was my way of dealing with the situation - I hadn’t processed it properly and realised the real danger of the day.  

All I wanted was to be on my own – I used to go to work and then come home and lock myself in my room and go to bed every night. I pushed everyone away, including my girlfriend. I distanced myself from friends and loved ones as the idea of being alone was a happy one.

“It was my girlfriend who suggested I contact Combat Stress – the dad of one of her friends had received treatment from the charity and it was his wife who had spotted the same signs in me. 

“I called Hollybush House in February 2016 and, after hearing about how I was feeling, I was reassured to be told that ‘this wasn’t the end, just the beginning. “I started to get help from the charity soon after that first call and it wasn’t long before I was diagnosed with PTSD. I was taken aback – how could I have it? I hadn’t been involved in anything serious enough to get it.