1/11 PTSD & Ex Gang members -
Common with people who have been involved in a violent lifestyle such as Gang members the long term wounds are more than the physical scars. It’s the wounds that run deep in the mind that you can’t see are the ones that hurt the most.

2/11 To get a diagnosis and a prescription isn’t always the solution to our suffering. Yes once you know the problem you can apply a solution is the usual school of thought?

3/11 Most PTSD sufferers have already found coping strategies to manage their pain in the form of alcohol or drug’s and isolation. They have used these for years to numb themselves and block out reality.

4/11 I was diagnosed at 19 with PTSD and given sertraline to deal with it. However I returned to the same environment with the same coping strategies expecting a different outcome.

5/11 I had been a perpetrator and a victim of violence for years. My mind was on a loop constantly of incidents that I had experienced. My body was in a constant state of stress and fixed into the fight or flight response. My mind was filled with fear and anxiety 24/7.

6/11 when you are involved in a gang it inherently links to violence, and violent experiences strongly relate to post traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and paranoia. Yet to date, gang members mental health has received little attention.

7/11 Mental health deserves more attention in gang research. Moreover, justice responses, via policies and intervention strategies, need to identify and address the mental health needs of ex gang members if successful rehabilitation of gang members is to be achieved.

8/11 There is an assumption that if you give an ex gang member a job that will “fix them” a 9-5 job gives purpose and something to get up for in the morning. A routine changer, However there needs to be more focus on the healing process.

9/11 Therapy, Mentoring (24/7 access), healthy relationships, education on healthy coping strategies. Stress management Abstaining from drugs and alcohol, 12 step recovery, mindfulness. A community of healing is what is needed. We call it kinship

10/11 We focus so much on just getting people to stop offending but we need to focus on helping people recover and heal mentally, and Healing is messy, Healing is a process, Healing doesn’t happen over night it happens in relationships and can take as long as it needs to take.

11/11 Why I’m in writing this ? I’m writing this because yes I still have PTSD however I have learned how to live with it and manage it without medication, drugs or alcohol. People may think I was given a job and it fixed me. It was all the other stuff that helped me recover.