Below are just a few of the testimonials received for the book “The Veterans’ Survival Guide” from ex-military, commissioned officers, and others that are suffering, encounter, or are dealing with cases of PTSD.
‘The Survival Guide blew me out of the water.’
Brigadier (retired), Special Air Service (SAS)
‘Thank you so much for the Guide. I’ve read it about five times – it’s dead on. If I had known about it before my court case, I wouldn’t be here now.’
Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Falklands veteran
‘I can’t thank Jimmy enough – the Guide saved my life and also showed me what had gone wrong with my life’
Gary, Northern Ireland veteran and sufferer of combat-related PTSD
‘Only soldiers can talk to soldiers and understand. Thanks, there are a lot of hurt men out there who need help.’
Veteran soldier
‘The Guide is very informative, I related to it. Thanks for letting me open up. I find it helps knowing that someone else knows. It feels very scary reading the Guide and relating it to myself but you are a lifeline.’
Malaya and Northern Ireland veteran
‘Thank you for your Guide. I found it very accurate. I was adamant that I had escaped the conflicts unharmed but after reading your Guide I now know I was far from the truth. Again, thank you.’
Northern Ireland and Falklands veteran
‘If only I had this information before I left the Army, I could have been a so much better person.’
Gulf War veteran
‘Watching one’s child suffering PTSD is a heart-breaking experience. It made me feel totally inadequate as a mother, as I could not take away the pain, fear, hurt, anger etc. of my child. I also believed this anger was directed at me personally and found it difficult to understand. The Survival Guide gave me, in words that I can understand, a greater knowledge of PTSD, showing me how to help myself deal with PTSD and therefore help and support my child.’
Mother of a sufferer of PTSD
‘A magnum opus ’
Major General Dr R. Short, Director General British Army Medical Services 1996–1999
‘Thanks for the excellent booklet on PTSD. Very useful, well done.’
Gulf War and Afghanistan veteran
‘Jimmy Johnson is to be thanked and congratulated for producing such an admirably clear guide, not only on what PTSD means to a sufferer, but on what remedial action could and should be taken by those who are in a position to help veterans. ’
General the Lord Ramsbotham GCB CBE formerly HM Chief Inspector of Prisons for England and Wales
‘The Guide brought me to tears. Now I know.’
Bosnia veteran
‘I read your Guide and it’s taken me days to take it all in. I thought I was on my own. This has opened up another avenue in my mind and given me something. I now know I’m not alone.’
Veteran soldier
‘Jimmy, I got more out of this book, than I did from all my ten years of therapy’
Northern Ireland veteran
‘Thanks. For once there is light at the end of the tunnel, yours is an outstanding and worthy cause, well done’
Northern Ireland veteran
‘I have read the Guide from cover to cover, it’s so accurate and has had a profound effect, and it’s somewhat comforting.’
Gulf War veteran
‘When I read the Guide I started to cry, I could relate to it so much it was unreal. If I had been given this Guide on leaving the Army it would have helped me a lot and also helped my family spot the change in me.’
Afghanistan veteran
‘Many thanks for all you did for the young Para, Jimmy. He said, “It’s as if the guy can see inside my head.” That is what he said to me after he read your Survival Guide. Once again, my sincere thanks.’
A prison ‘listener’, referring to an Iraq war veteran on suicide watch
‘The Guide made me cry and I do have a lot of the problems that are in it. I was amazed at how the Guide is me and my ex-wife said the same. It is appreciated, thank you.’
Northern Ireland and Gulf War veteran
‘Thanks and it’s a good thing you are doing – the Guide explained things to me the psychiatrists failed to do, it made sense.’
Gulf War veteran
‘I don’t think I will ever be able to put into words what the Guide means to me: it has changed my life. From the moment I first read a few pages, to now, reading it in its entirety.’
Tracey, ex-psychiatric nurse and sufferer of PTSD
‘Thanks for the Guide, I think it’s great and the first time I read it I thought you had wrote about my life, I could see so much of me in it.’
Northern Ireland veteran
‘My congratulations on the Survival Guide. I think it is quite outstanding, and for my welfare and clinical staff a really helpful insight into many of the things that they encounter as they go about their work. I will commend this work to anyone who shows more than a passing concern in the issues that you raise.’
Commodore Toby Elliott, Chief Executive Ex-Services Mental Welfare Society (Combat Stress)
‘Thanks so much for the Guide. The Police, Psychiatric and Probation Services took no notice of my twenty-year service’
Highly decorated Special Forces veteran
‘Many thanks for sending me your Survival Guide to combat related PTSD. The Guide really opened my eyes and hit me like an express train because it showed me what had been happening and how PTSD had destroyed my life. Once again, many thanks for your work. Hopefully your Guide will open a few people’s eyes to the problems that veterans are facing and for action to be taken to help the ever increasing number of PTSD sufferers. Keep up the good work.’
Bosnia and Gulf War veteran
‘Thanks, your Guide has opened my eyes to something even I dismissed before. I was so wrong and I realise now I’ve been suffering for years.’
Gulf War veteran
‘I felt your experiences as if my own, as I had a career as an Infantry Officer in the Punjab Regiment and fought a messy war in 1971 with India. I spent two years in captivity as a POW and your Guide has enormously helped me.’
Veteran captain, Pakistan Army
‘I have tremendous respect for you, Jimmy – for your efforts and understanding of what we have survived as soldiers.’
US Special Forces veteran
‘Thanks for the Guide. I needed this information’
Vietnam veteran
