Tommy Lowther and Residing With PTSD – MQ Open Thoughts
CONTENT WARNING: this episode of Open Thoughts consists of tales about trauma and sexual assault. Listener discretion is suggested.
Within the expertise of psychological sickness, generally the query ‘What occurred to you?’ proves extra helpful than ‘what circumstances do you’ve?’.
Born in Dundee, Scotland, Tommy Lowther’s childhood dream was to grow to be a soldier. Within the Nineties, aged 18, he stood between protestants and Catholics in what he calls a “warzone” in Northern Eire. He talks on this episode concerning the “invincible” mentality he felt within the navy and the way that perspective rapidly changed into concern.
“I used to be a boy in a person’s world… The hostility was unbelievable.”
After Northern Eire, Tommy was posted to Gibraltar. On one night time out in a bar, he skilled an assault and sexual assault.
“Taken what occurred to me in Northern Eire… that was a stroll within the park in comparison with [this experience]. In psychological well being, we discuss our battle, flight or freeze which is our pure response to [threatening] eventualities. I all the time thought mine could be battle. It all the time has been since. Aside from that one night. That was after I froze.”
As a psychological well being analysis charity, MQ is deliberately devoting consideration to analysis into the results of trauma on the mind and nervous system. For extra on our latest research into PTSD please click on right here.
Attributable to misunderstanding and lack of assist on the time, Tommy misplaced his job. Throughout this era his behaviour modified together with elevated misuse of alcohol and aggression, a typical means for these with PTSD to handle the nervous system overwhelm.
“Individuals have been cautious of me. I had this bizarre feeling that it was respect… However it wasn’t respect. It was concern…I had fully the flawed outlook on what respect was.”
Tommy speaks concerning the nervousness and isolation concerned within the stigma he encountered and the signs of PTSD, together with suicide ideation, earlier than his analysis.
“To be sincere, {relating to} psychological well being, I had a fairly neanderthal strategy to it earlier than… I assumed ‘It’s not even actual, it’s not a factor’.”
The turning level for Tommy was the assist he acquired from Assist For Heroes.
“[A psychiatrist] identified me with PTSD. I felt so relieved. I realised I wasn’t a horrible, nasty one who needed to exit and get drunk and battle, there was a purpose.”
PTSD is a vital space in MQ’s analysis. For extra on our latest analysis into stopping PTSD and despair in emergency employees, please click on this hyperlink.
Tommy’s ardour for serving to ex-servicemen and ladies into sport as a catalyst to make constructive change of their lives was the bedrock for his new charity Sporting Pressure. Working with veterans and their households to assist folks in the direction of psychological wellness has helped Tommy and his household in flip with their restoration, contribution and rebuilding in the direction of a vibrant future.
Tommy’s analysis could also be PTSD, what occurred to him could have been a number of traumas however what occurs subsequent is the place his sights are actually set.
Tommy’s story shall be included in a e-book being printed by MQ in Might 2023.