South West

Eight years ago Hamish Whannell served in Kosovo with the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers.

One of his jobs was to move the bodies of some of the many thousands of Muslim men, women and children massacred and buried in mass graves by the Serbs.

Hamish Whannell's family want their life back.

Two years after he returned home Hamish's condition developed gradually until he had his first breakdown.

Four years on from that and he's still suffering: "I live in my own little bubble, I don't feel that people can relate to me, I get extreme anxiety, panic attacks...

"I don't feel comfortable out - I don't feel safe, so I live in my own little house, in my room, most of the time."

His children want back the daddy they used to know. And wife, Nikkie's helplessness spurred her to write to a newspaper for help.

They put her in touch with Combat Stress.

Combat Stress

Inside Out follows Hamish as he leaves his family in Cornwall to spend a week being assessed at a centre run by Combat Stress.

Hamish is hoping they can help him at last to find some relief from the crushing anxiety and depression that have dogged him for six years and led him to three suicide attempts.

Although the term 'Post Traumatic Stress Disorder' has only been in use since 1980, doctors have been treating the condition for more than a century - as 'Shell Shock'.

Combat Stress still receive referrals for people who served in the Second World War and might have just received a diagnosis of PTSD for the first time.

So they help veterans who are in their 90's and people from every conflict since the Second World War, including those, like Hamish, who were in non-combat roles.

As Combat Stress Psychologist Dr Imogen Sturgeon-Clegg says:

"Peacekeepers witness some horrific events - the end results of massacres, burnt bodies in churches, dead children in orphanages.

"And they will see things as bad as if they were serving as soldiers fighting in a war."

Optimistic future

Combat Stress are helping the Whannells find a way back to being the happy family they used to be.

Hamish Whannell - a brighter future.

So what are Hamish's feelings after the week's assessment?

"Optimistic. Much more optimistic," he says.

He is going home knowing there are other people out there who care.

"This is the first time I've met other guys suffering with PTSD and you think - 'I'm not alone'.

"I'm not going mad. There are other people going through exactly the same thing."

We wish them luck and hope that Hamish has now found a way back from his troubles.