The Good News About PTSD

I'm going to f****n kill this c**t! That was my first thought when a civie boss clicked his fingers at me and pointed at me to "come here!" (He backed off at speed when he saw the look in my eyes.) If we were on live ops I would have put 2 rounds centre mass and 1 in his head! Out here in the world, if he was within arm's reach I would have already punched him in the throat! My reactions are automatic because my subconscious bodyguards are highly trained. Unfortunately, after one of my best mates was killed in Iraq, reacting to a perceived threat with violence was a common occurrence which I had to get under control...especially when my daughter snuck up behind me to give Daddy a fright... She saw the look in my eyes and I saw the fear in hers...and the journey that resulted in this book began. YOU ARE NOT ALONE, YOU ARE NOT CRAZY AND YOU CAN BEAT THIS. How do I know? I've been there. Through the Army, Police and Iraq, combined with the normal life challenges we all face, I would display signs and symptoms that would match the clinical terms for PTSD... but I disagreed that these behaviours were a disorder at all. Don't get me wrong, the trauma you went through is real, you may be suffering nightmares, flashbacks, insomnia or you are a werewolf like I was, but these are perfectly normal responses to what you have been through. I found that PTSD signs and symptoms are a result of how EFFECTIVELY you have trained your subconscious bodyguards to keep you alive. This is the GOOD news. When you understand what I have discovered in this book, you will be able to re-train, re-brief and re-deploy 'Your Subconscious Bodyguards.' "The book does not merely share his own story, but more than that, Dion applies CBT (cognitive behavioural therapy) techniques as well as soldier imagery and Jungian warrior archetypes to access more complex and richer emotional material in regards to PTSD." Ingo Lambrecht PhD M.A. (Comp. Lit.) M.A. (Clin. Psych.) Wits SA