Description

By Scott Blake

ISBN: 9781847478931
Published: 2009
Pages: 82
Key Themes: fire service bravery, PTSD, post traumatic stress disorder, alcoholism, attempted suicide, recovery

Description

The authors vivid description of life at the sharp end during the fire service strike of 1977/78 is disturbing. Having been given the responsibility for search and rescue, Scott tells of his efforts to rescue a family from a house fire. This incident in particular was to have devastating consequences. What followed was a life of alcohol abuse, only to be replaced by him becoming a workaholic, all to prevent the memories of the strike period affecting him.

16 years later when struck down with mental health problems Scott was thrown into a world where reality and hallucinations merged into one, reenacting his perceived failure to save a young family. After years of psychiatric hospitals, a broken marriage and the incapacity to work he had a near fatal attempted suicide.

Scott was diagnosed with PTSD in 2002. Using his diaries and prompts from his second wife, Sara, he has managed to piece together his life of suffering with PTSD and shows there can be hope, however small, and that life can get better.

About the Author

Scott Blake grew up in the hard lands of Merseyside. Never fitting in at Grammar School or at home, he joined the Armed Forces at 17. Gradually he progressed through the ranks to become an Officer. He left the Armed Forces after the Falklands War and made a career in electronics. He became a company director in 1990 but after four years suffered a sub arachnoid haemorage and subsequent mental breakdown. The ensuing mental health problems totally changed his life.

Scott has four children from his first marriage and now lives in the south of England with his second wife Sara. He is in the early stages of developing a self help group for sufferers of PTSD.