William Case Study

“I used to do the weekly supermarket shop at 2am – that was the only time it was quiet enough for me to go.”  

William joined the Army in 1971 and after two years in Singapore, he completed three tours of Northern Ireland.  After serving in the Army for nine years, William returned home to Glasgow.  He got a job with the Post Office, married and had a family.  All seemed OK at the time – William told himself he just had to get back into life on civvy street but looking back he now recognises things weren’t quite right. 

"My mood changes were tremendous - I’d be OK one moment and then really angry or down the next.

During William’s tours of Northern Ireland, he lost two close friends and experienced other incidents as well.  But it wasn’t until many years later that William’s mental health was affected even more. 

“It was after a trip back to Northern Ireland in 2012 to attend a memorial service in Belfast that things really changed. I started having nightmares and flashbacks. Things got so bad I tried to take my own life – I got so low that I couldn’t face things and thought that was my only way out.

“My wife was working for the Ministry of Defence at the time and her boss gave her the number of Combat Stress. 

It took me three months to call – I kept on picking the phone up and putting it down but eventually I called.  

“I started to get help straight away from Combat Stress and attended a residential course at Hollybush House, the charity’s treatment centre in Scotland.  When I got back, my wife said she could see the difference in me. 

Things were much better for quite a few years but then last year, the flashbacks came back and the nightmares started to get worse. Again Combat Stress was there to help me – I attended the six week residential intensive treatment programme in June 2017 and that’s helped a great deal.