[Cav]

I have thought about posting here for some time.

Like many people, I have suffered trauma and it is still with me today.

What we have to learn is how to live a normal life regardless of what happened in the past.

I am a Vietnam Veteran and I served as an infantry soldier for 1 year and 3 weeks in Vietnam in 1970/71 and I have PTSD.

I sought help over the years once you fight and overcome the denial.

Psychiatrists tend to want to medicate and attend courses.

A specialist in North Sydney helped me immensely when I was about 50 years of age.

I was then referred to a local psychologist in Wollongong where I was living at the time.

He was fantastic. He conned me into helping him with some training courses for veterans, so I agreed to have a look at them and I made a report and detailed how I thought the courses could be improved. Well, it was just a ruse.

In explaining my ideas I ended up breaking down over some issues that were buried deep inside me.

From there, he worked on me for 12 months and in the end, I could talk about my issues without breaking down.

This was brought home to me in Feb this year where I attended a commemorative service at Ennogara Barracks in Brisbane with all my mates commemorating the death of a mate 50 years after the event.

I was heavily involved with my mate. He was a machine gunner and I was his number two. We practically lived together for more than 12 months side by side until a mine incident killed him and seriously injured another mate.

I was MC for the event at Ennogora Barracks and as a few mates stepped forward to say a few words, they were overcome with grief.

Although many memories came flooding back to me, I was still OK to carry on the service and it occurred to me that the other blokes had not come to terms with my mate's death.

You see, we all suffer from 'survival guilt' - a common problem with veterans.

Well in a roundabout way, I'll tell you how the psychologist cured me.

It was with the use of pressure points and positive reinforcement.

That is, tapping various parts of the body and saying positive statements.

It sounds rather silly.

I had forgotten this until I came across this video



So if you are suffering from depression or anxiety, why not give this a shot as detailed in the video - it won't happen overnight, but what have you got to lose?

When I was really suffering a friend got me to attend a Yoga Nidra course. I did this for about 12 months and I found it really good although they were a bunch of weird people doing this and looked at me, a Vietnam Veteran in their midst, a little bit funny-like. Maybe they thought a jungle-trained baby killer didn't fit in.

Don't be afraid to try new things.

You only get one shot a life - make the most of it.

Cheers

Cav

ps I have written a book about my experiences in Vietnam I can send you a digital copy if you message me. But be warned there are plenty of pictures of me.