Iraq veteran nearly lost family over PTSD

Simon Stanley served in the army for 18 years

An Iraq war veteran from Kent said he would have lost everything had he not sought help for post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Simon Stanley, from Canterbury, said the condition left him "angry about everything".

He was helped by the veterans' charity Combat Stress.

The organisation said since 2021 it has seen a 44% increase in people seeking help for mental health issues.

Mr Stanley was in the army for 18 years, serving in Cyprus and Northern Ireland, before being deployed to Iraq in 2003.

It was his experiences there that left him deeply affected.

He said: "What bothered me the most was seeing civilians that had been hurt, injured or in distress and not being able to do anything about it."

It was Simon's 2003 deployment to Iraq which he believes left him with PTSD

However, it took a decade after leaving the army for him to seek help.

"Everything was just confrontational," he said. "I was angry about everything, I would lose my temper at the slightest thing.

“One of my best friends said to me ‘you need to get help, you need to go and see someone, you’re never happy, you’re always angry, you’re always frustrated, you don’t want to be around people, you’re not the Simon I knew five or six years ago’.

“I thought I was going to lose my family and I thought I was going to lose everything that I had.”

Simon says he nearly lost his family as a result of his mental health problems

Robert Marsh from Combat Stress said it takes veterans on average 13 years to seek help for conditions such as PTSD.

He said: "Fighting operations stopped in Iraq and Afghanistan over a decade ago, we are seeing the rump of those veterans coming through to seek support now."

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