1. My tweets past, present & future do not represent the government or
any agency (civil or military), they are my personal views. Imagine
being in a convoy with fellow soldiers, it’s so hot by this time of
the year in the north east Nigeria. You feel like dozing off having

2. stayed awake all through the night but you must stay sharp & alert, you never know if the insurgents are watching your convoy from the surrounding hills. Then it happens, your lead vehicle is flung over 6 feet above ground after an ear shattering explosion! The light body

3. vehicle was carrying 6 solders including the driver. You watch as
gravity makes the mangled truck drop down to the ground with the men inside confused, wounded and in pain. The solder manning the machine gun at the back of the truck is thrown far away, badly injured. All these

4. happen in a flash as you & the other men quickly exit your
vehicles; some taking defensive positions while a few rush to the aid
of their wounded comrades. You are taking cover behind a truck while scanning the horizon with your binoculars for fighters. Its 20 minutes since

5. the lead vehicle stepped on an IED, except for men groaning in
pain, there’s relative calm. The wounded are loaded into the other
vehicles & as the commanding officer orders everyone back inside the remaining cars to leave, it happens! A big explosion & you are thrown several

6. meters from the car you
were about to enter as a 40mm RPG round destroys the vehicle. This was actually an ambush they wanted you thinking the IED blast was a random one. As you recover
from the blast that threw you down, you point your gun in the direction they are shooting

7. from. You & your men displayed gallantry & were able to repel the attack but8 solders paid the ultimate sacrifice, 11 injured. You are one of the 11 but nothing serious; you are busy trying to stem the blood flow from your colleague’s stomach as shrapnel’s had him torn open.

8. Your hands are covered with
blood as you try to not only stop
blood flow but push his intestines inside; he dies minutes later in
your arms. Weeks later another attack, this time your unit hunkers
down at an army forward operating base (FOB) only for the base to get hit. An

9. hour-long rocket & machine gun barrage. They were trying to overrun the base most likely to get weapons & supplies. All you all could do was take cover, return fire & hope
reinforcement comes. 3 men died in the attack. This is your life
for approximately 2 years; a life of

10. madness, death, smell of charred, rotten human body,
explosions, carrion eating the body of dead insurgents left where they
fall. You see entre villages burnt down, people beheaded, babies cut out of the bellies of pregnant mothers. Some days you feel deranged/angry, other

11. days you are numb & others
you are indifferent. Then rotation happens & your tour of duty is over. You get back home & military authorities put you through routine debriefing/checks, you are certified okay. In a few weeks its December, your commander signs your pass & you are

12. free to go spend time with your people in the village. A lot of visitors come to see you, you are tired and just want to be left alone so you leave them at the front of the compound & go inside the house. Your nephews & nieces won’t allow you get peace in the living room so

13. you move to the bed room. All these while, you have avoided
thinking about any of the horrific things you had seen & experienced
at the frontline; your brain enters self protective mode &buries all of it. You try to sleep & then you hear the explosions & gunfire. You jump up,

14. head for the door & enter the living room, your eyes wide open with shock & fear all over you. You see some visitors in the living room & you scream as you head outside
only to run into more explosions! It takes the effort of family & friends to hold you down before you

15. realize that the explosions & gunfire were nothing but
pyrotechnics/firecrackers the kids were playing with.  You are experiencing what you now understand to be post-traumatic stress disorder. At first you just think you are going crazy. For the next several days you kept

16. having panic attacks whenever you are in a small gathering with plenty people. You return back to the city & go see a doctor who refers you to a psychiatrist, after long talks he says “that’s called
post-traumatic stress disorder.” Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a

17. psychiatric disorder that can
occur in people who have experienced or witnessed a traumatic event such as a terrorist act, war/combat. But PTSD does not just happen to combat veterans, victims of rape, a natural disaster, a serious accident or violent personal
assault can

18. also suffer PTSD. It’s normal for the human mind to be in shock after experiencing horrific events, but this normal response becomes PTSD when your nervous system gets stuck in it & keeps replaying shock when triggered. People who suffer from PTSD often suffer from difficulty

19. in sleeping; when they eventually sleep they end up having nightmares. Flashbacks, feeling emotionally numb are all symptoms of PTSD & can significantly impair a person's daily life. Other symptoms of PTSD include substance abuse, depression, memory & cognition problems,

20. and physical/mental health problems including anger management issues or feeling of despondency. The disorder is also associated with difficulties in social or family life. Because PTSD is a natural response to danger, it’s almost unavoidable in the short term & mostly

21. self-correcting in the long term. Different people react differently to PTSD; while some get over it early others take a longer time. A good doctor & asolid support system are needed by anyone with PTSD.

(The affixed video in this thread is purely for illustration purposes

22. & I make no claim to the video. I feel making this clear is necessary because twitter has the highest amount of stupid people I have ever seen. Soon someone will come to ask why I am using a video of brown/white fighters & not Nigerian ones.)