‘Soldiers’ PTSD is exploited’
Former Army officer turned MP Johnny Mercer reveals how OCD and three tours of Afghanistan have shaped his thinking
MILITARY charities are exploiting soldiers by exaggerating the scale of posttraumatic stress disorder “for their own ends”, Johnny Mercer has said.
In an interview with The Daily Telegraph, the Tory MP and former officer said charities were guilty of “abusing” veterans by depicting them as “mad, bad or dangerous”.
He said this had led to a simplistic view of veterans. “You’re either a hero, or you’re broken,” he said. “[In reality], 95 per cent of us are in the middle. Some charities have gone way too far in painting veterans in the UK for their own ends,” he said. “They do it because they are a business, because they want the money.” The MP, who served three tours of Afghanistan and is on the defence committee, warned that soldiers were being swept up in the “culture of victimhood” and falsely “self-diagnosing” PTSD. He is campaigning to change the name of the Mental Health Act to the Mental Illness Act.
Before Johnny Mercer joined the Army, he was haunted by mental illness. Speaking to The Daily
Telegraph, the soldier turned Tory MP is candid about his childhood struggle with a “very nasty case of OCD” which continued throughout his 20s.
The illness manifested itself in obsessive thoughts, compulsively washing his hands and reciting prayers, leaving him utterly exhausted. The lack of sleep (he typically got three to four hours a night) was what “really starts to bite”.
He was, he admits for the first time, a “pretty disturbed young man”.
His experiences have made him sensitive to people who trivialise the condition. “One of the things that really annoys me ... is when someone says ‘I’m a bit OCD because I like my Cokes to line up in the fridge’,” he said. “It’s like they want to wear this OCD badge. Those of us who have had genuine OCD know it is one of the most debilitating illnesses.”
It was joining the Army that helped Mr Mercer finally overcome his illness. He did cognitive behavioural therapy courses, went to an Army mental health hospital and was prescribed fluoxetine, an antidepressant.
Being on the front line helped his condition. “The Army levelled me out very quickly,” he said. “The overloading of senses you get at war drove it out of me.”
Mr Mercer, 36, grew up in a strict Baptist family of eight children, graduated from Sandhurst in 2002, and served three tours in Afghanistan. He says he experienced post-traumatic growth – something that he says happens to a lot of soldiers but is rarely talked about.
The horrors of war, injury and loss are “terrible at the time, but they can be life enhancing”.
However, this growth is not spoken about “because it doesn’t induce feelings of sympathy, raising money and charity”. Mr Mercer is fiercely critical of charities, which he says are over-exaggerating how widespread post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is for their own gains.
“Some charities have gone way too far in painting the picture of veterans in the UK for their own ends, to raise money,” he says.
He accuses charities of “specifically advocating” a narrative that “veterans are mad, bad and dangerous”.
As a result, the MP feels the public perception of the military is: “You’re either a hero, or you’re broken. Ninety-five per cent of us are in the middle.”
But it isn’t just charities that Mr Mercer thinks are painting a bad narrative – soldiers themselves are incorrectly diagnosing themselves with PTSD, having been swept up in a “culture of victimhood”.
He criticises veterans who, “whenever anything doesn’t go your way and you don’t get a job, or you find yourself in police custody” say “I served, this is a result of that”. He believes their behaviour is “disingenuous to those who genuinely have problems”.
“Don’t go around saying you’ve got PTSD when you just need to do a bit of work for your mental health. It takes up resources. Let’s keep that for those who are really poorly.”
The subject strikes a nerve. Mr Mercer’s friendship group from Afghanistan has been “ripped apart by mental illness”.
He feels bitter and let down because the Army’s mental health provision at the time they served was “tokenistic” and failed to properly spot and help vulnerable officers.
It is what drove the former officer, who had never voted before deciding to run for Parliament, into politics. He is now on a mission to change the name of the Mental Health Act to the Mental Illness Act.
The Plymouth MP feels changing the name will help separate out everyday mental health issues from clinical cases of mental illness. Mr Mercer wants to go further after that and change the name of mental health trusts to mental illness trusts. He accepts this sounds like “changing the paint on the wall” but insists it will bring about a better understanding of mental illness.
“I want people to think very carefully about what mental health actually is. When we want to help our physical health, we go for a run, eat better, stop smoking. When we want to treat our mental health, we take time out, we make sure we sleep properly. Mental illness is fundamentally different. You go see a psychiatrist, you get treated by the state.”
He is keen to emphasise that, for him, this is personal. He recalls coming back to his patrol base in Afghanistan and seeing a military policeman he knew sitting at the end of a wall, blankly staring at the ground, surrounded by doctors. He looked “like he’d had a lobotomy – he had had a total mental collapse”, Mr Mercer said.
The pair regularly worked together in 2012 on “grisly” tasks: “My job was to sort of kill them and his job was to take swabs and identify the bodies,” he recalled. One day, they were sent new body armour, with side plates. Mr Mercer refused to wear his because it slowed him down, and the policeman put them in. The next day, they were in a “horrific ambush” and his friend was shot but the bullet pinged off the side plate, which saved his life.
“His mind could not process the fact this happened,” Mr Mercer said, describing his friend’s subsequent mental collapse. “I did everything I could… I spoke to him briefly, hugged him and we got him on a helicopter and got him out.”
Another friend was involved in a “horrific incident” in 2006, and then sent out again on tour in 2010. The fallout had a “catastrophic effect on his life”.
While he says we have made strides in mental health awareness, much more needs to be done. He believes the current health system is “completely unsustainable” and that realistic solutions “are not being openly discussed”. Some of his thoughts are political hard sells – he hints at greater privatisation and even a wealth tax.
Is he lining up his CV to become health minister? He’s coy when asked if he wants the job: “I wouldn’t take any of these jobs at the moment because I have only been here five minutes”, but says in future he wants a brief where he “could have a genuine effect”.
He says Brexit is sapping the Government’s energy and hits out at Theresa May’s detractors. The fact that, whatever she does, she gets a “deluge of letters” from MPS is “really unhelpful”, Mr Mercer says.
Mr Mercer may not feel ready to run a ministry, but he is still thinking big when it comes to fixing the health system. “There is no point standing at the bottom of a mountain and thinking, ‘Wow! That is a big mountain’,” he says. “You have to think – how are we going to get up there?”
‘Don’t go round saying you’ve got PTSD when you just need to do a bit of work for your mental health. Keep that for those who are really poorly’
‘My job was to sort of kill them and his job was to take swabs and identify the bodies’