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Bill Dillon’s personal story

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Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, or ‘Shell Shock’ as it was caused in WWI, manifests itself in many forms and can take many years to surface. Often the act of simply talking about it to strangers or putting it on paper has the desired effect, and recovery can begin. Some veterans however will never be able to overcome their nightmares, and for them they remain haunted by events that to ‘outside eyes’, may seem trivial or horrendous. Bill has managed to overcome his terrors after 50 years by talking recently about the terrors that affected him for so many years. He expands on it here.

There isn't much I can say about the rat...I was in the habit of sleeping with my mouth open...And to a rat I guess it thought this was just another hole...I woke up choking on the damn thing... that was to be my nightmare for the next 50 years...

I never told anyone especially my wife because...In my mind I thought that she would never want to kiss me again...And with family and friends I was just too embarrassed and ashamed...especially friends..I thought they would laugh and make a joke out of it...

For years I would scare the hell out of my wife waking up screaming, gagging and choking at night trying to dislodge it from my throat...lots times my wife would wake up terrified... and I would be standing at the foot of the bed trying to pull the damn thing from my mouth...And all of this would happen while I was in a dead sleep

I was always afraid of falling asleep when I was with friends or any place other then the privacy of my own bedroom. Once I closed my eyes on my lunch hour at work and I dozed off for a few minutes. You guessed it..

I went into my first class act...The guys that were there were playing cards...As I said we were on lunch break...

And I started to go into my famous act of clutching my throat and gagging...

They thought I was epileptic or some thing...they told me I was choking and gagging in my sleep...

that it only went on for a few minutes then someone woke me...After that I told a close friend about my secret problem...just in case it should ever happen again so he could wake me...But I made sure I never took another nap on my lunch break again..

Bill

 

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