Adapting to living in the wake of trauma can mean maybe you aren't ready to hear positive affirmations, and that's ok too.

A recent article had a PTSD survivor describe it as “your own version of hell”, while another said 40% of NHS staff showed signs of PTSD.

There are many paths to healing. If you throw that at anyone, most will nod and agree with you.Yet, if you dig deeper, how many understand.

In the second excerpt of his book, Paul introduces his story, the cast of characters, and also explains why he decided to write this book.

We’d all love to see the back "grim milestones". But I've got a challenging milestone on the horizon. One year in my own personal lockdown.

In The Struggle Continues, Paul tells the story of C-PTSD, the life that led to it, and the long, hard road back to health.

Talking is fundamental to mental health. Yet we must do better at how we talk about it, more aware and prepared to have those conversations.

So far this year I have experienced all the modes of loneliness, and this has raised new challenges as the pandemic enters it’s second year.

Please take some time to consider that even after such a crappy 2020, for some of us, this can be the most difficult time of the year.

Amongst the many misconceptions about PTSD, the most difficult for people to accept is the realities of recovery from psychological trauma.

My friend, my brother. You taught me my strength, and mental resilience, is not in being stoic in the face of tragedy, but to be vulnerable.

Most of what people think they know about PTSD, is wrong. So, what thoughts appear in your head when I say I was diagnosed with C-PTSD?

Suicidal thoughts and suicide is not selfish. We wanted help, but didn’t know how to ask. We wanted to talk, but didn’t have the words.

It’s no secret in my family that I’ve had my struggles in life. I don’t have the heart to tell them the truth: My battles are far from over.

The family who lived at no.2 wouldn’t have fit the stereotype, if the truth had come out. But this could have been any house, in any town.

While wrestling with my problems, I’d pushed away two innocent people. I’d lost their closeness, and I had no one to blame but myself.

If you are asked to describe what home means to you, how do you answer? Is it the childhood home, or where you live with your loved ones?

When he was diagnosed, I was 19, and had no idea what it was or what it meant. Just that he was in therapy, and battling something terrible.

At age 7 my mother had convinced me I was capable of killing. I was raised to believe that my anger was evil and had to be caged.

I was six years old when I was diagnosed with autism, and that discovery would in time destroy my already fragile self-esteem.