Scotty Darroch has been a civil servant for the last seven years working in MT Control in Aldergrove flying station as a MT supervisor and Road Safety Advisor. Before that he served as a corporal and training instructor for 10 years in the Army’s Royal Logistic Corps. It took 18 years after leaving the Army for Scotty to be diagnosed with depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD); something which has had a devastating impact on the lives of himself and his family.
Having now found that sport and having an active lifestyle can play a massive and positive role on his mental health, he has a new found belief that he can start to focus positively on the future.
Scotty says – “Well what a busy week after being invited to talk about my journey at the defence academy to highlight the life of living with PTSD and the reality of conflict. Then on Thursday, headed to the Heads Together BBQ with Jess from the Help for Heroes team.
Started off with the custom hello and quietness then the volume went up as everyone there didn’t have to hide behind any mask or guise and it was a nice noise listening to people talking openly for once not ashamed to speak about living with a mental illness
Then arrived the sporting elite, Iwan Thomas, Dame Kelly Holmes, Rio Ferdinand, Victoria Pendleton and Jonathan Trott.
Listening to their stories and their experiences and how regardless of fame and fortune, depression can affect us all, “I describe it like lightning you never know when or who it strikes and once it strikes it affects us all differently and our family’s also.”
Then we got down to a sporting challenge joined with Prince Harry, French cricket, I know, what? Once Prince Harry explained the fine art of how to play we got stuck in, young, old, veteran, civilian, famous, royalty and all with one goal, to empower others to speak up and get the help you need and never suffer in silence.
None of us ever want a hand out, just a hand up.
Scotty has been supported by organisations that are members of Contact, including Help for Heroes and Combat Stress. Contact, a core partner in the Heads Together campaign, is a coalition of state and charity organisations. They are working collaboratively to raise awareness of military mental health and to help the Armed Forces Community access the most appropriate and best possible mental health and wellbeing support, relevant to their needs.
To find out more about Contact, visit www.contactarmedforces.org.uk