Bob has lived in Saskatchewan for some forty years. Prior to that, he had served in the Army infantry for about four years.
The Army recommended Bob for officer training and he was on an accelerated promotion list but prior to officer promotion he left the military to take up policing. It was while on exercise, just prior to mustering out, he lost a son Phillip to crib death. This was a major blow and led Bob into using alcohol as his escape from the pain of that loss. Unbeknownst to Bob, there were also undiagnosed signs of PTSD... but there was no help for that because there was no such thing as PTSD back then. This first marriage eventually failed.
For the first fifteen years as a resident of Saskatchewan, Bob served as an officer with the Regina Police Service while also attending university and studying for a degree in Adult Education with an emphasis on sociology. After leaving the police force, he attended school full time and completed his degree and worked as a teaching assistant and a race relations consultant/trainer. The past twenty four years have been spent working in the business world - first learning about and then building a business which covered four cities and which employed one hundred sixty employees. The business consisted of janitorial and security guards contracts with more than four million a year in revenue. During this time he lost a second son Alex to respiratory failure. This son health had challenges most of his life.
The heavy burden of the loss of Alex drove Bob back to his addictive behaviors and his second marriage eventually failed.
In his business life, Bob learned some valuable lessons from working closely with janitorial and security guard staff: no matter where people are in their life - whether working for a low paying job or not - is that most people respond well if you treat them with the same respect you want for yourself. The summary of that lesson was the understanding that you cannot get respect if you do not give it.
Bob also worked with kids in the cadet program as well as other youth groups over the course of some thirty years and again observed that kids respond much like adults; treat them well and they respond well, treat them with respect and task them like adults and most will respond well.
Along the way, Bob attended a clinic in the United States that is operated by Dr. Daniel Amen, and was diagnosed with ADD and began a treatment program consisting of diet, exercise, and supplements. Bob also attended counseling as yet another relationship was in imminent danger of failing.
During these times at work and in his volunteer activities, he learned an incredible amount about ADD/ADHD from observing how kids respond to training, how they react to medications, and how much of their problems come from poor diets, improper medications and enabling parents.
Bob also figured out that he was the problem in his relationship failures, but psychological counseling was leaving him bitter because of the continual rehashing of old wounds and finding many others that had been buried very deep since childhood. The good thing was he got involved with AA and learned much about addiction, ADD and Neuro Linguistic Programming.
He became friends with George Bissett who helped him find ways to overcome those painful memories and his addictive behavior. Bob and George began working together from the common belief that certain types of people were prone to problems such as addiction, stress-related problems (including PTSD), and could be treated successfully by teaching them how to overcome painful memories and then how to cope with the stress in their lives.
In his writings, Bob shares with you the experience of how you can change your life to overcome any obstacles.
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Is there a link between Attention Deficit Disorder, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and addiction?
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Author Bob Bray shows remarkable transparency in his record of a painful journey toward recovery from PTSD - including significant self-discovery in the process.
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