Nicholas Scott-Payne
02-02-09, 13:14
I am brand new to this great site so here is a bit of background on me. My name is Nick, I am 38. I was a Royal Marine for 15 years which as you can imagine took me to many different areas from Northern Ireland, Iraq, Afghanistan, Sierra Leone, to the Balkans and opened my eyes to many things.... some good, some bad. Having left, I now work in the private sector more or less doing the same thing but for myself and for far better money ! I have just returned from the Gulf Of Aden where i was riding on oil tankers (since April) with my team keeping the Somalian pirates from taking the ship and crew for an unscheduled holiday! The reason for my being here is that I had a good dose of PTSD 3 years ago, which is to be expected really given my background but I had no idea what it was. Throw in an eptopic heartbeat to a man that has always been fit, strong and a machine... i was all over the place ! I thought as many of you will that i was going to die and that no one else could possibly feel like this. Sound familiar ? Time to change the channel, I was able to overcome the stress and anxiety just by simply understanding a little about it and i am super happy to pass on tips and advice to anyone that may be temporarily affected by these minor blips . Having also been checked out by cardiac consultants, ECG, echo, traces , treadmills i was given a green light and assured that eptopics are not dangerous or life threatening although unpleasant. They are however stress related for sure which means that they can be dealt with ! Well, I look forward to hearing from anyone and remember you are never alone as we all connected .....