Push-ups highlight struggles

"The whole idea is to raise awareness of guys and PTSD and we in New Zealand aren't immune to it." Major Rodger Kidd

A challenge put to military personnel and civilians will see people complete 22 push-ups a day for 22 days to highlight post-traumatic stress disorder.

The challenge was started in the United States with the number 22 highlighting the 22 exservicemen who are said to commit suicide daily in the US.

Major Rodger Kidd started participating in the challenge in New Zealand and said every day you nominated a friend to participate. ’’The whole idea is to raise awareness of guys and PTSD and we in New Zealand aren’t immune to it,’’ Kidd said.

PTSD is mental and emotional stress occurring as a result of injury or severe psychological shock. Kidd said army personnel were not the only workers who could suffer from PTSD, with fire, police and victims of child abuse also vulnerable to it.

After a deployment overseas, Kidd said a comrade had taken their own life, so he had a personal connection to the issue. ’’Even two or three of our guys doing it is two or three too many.’’

Kidd said he had challenged a lot of his high school friends, who had never served in uniform, to participate in the challenge as they didn’t realise it was even an issue. ’’So again it raises that awareness amongst civilians.i think there is a greater awareness now.’’

However, Kidd thought there was still a while to go before civilians realised what soliders went through overseas. ‘‘When it comes to the awareness of what some of our young people, when they go offshore, see and do, I don’t think there is that awareness.’’

Kidd said a quote from the recently released documentary Afghanistan: The Soldiers’ Story summed it up well.

‘‘The guys when they come home [they] can’t unthink, unsmell, unsee what they’ve gone through.’’

He said participating in the challenge was not about the quality of the push-ups.