Advertisement
Christmas Special - Get your first 12 issues for just £12
SUBSCRIBE
Opinion

PTSD: How I turned my life around on a potter’s wheel

Suffering with alcoholism and PTSD, army veteran Craig Mealing became homeless – but found salvation in pottery

Craig Mealing joined the army when he was 16 and completed tours of Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq and Afghanistan during his 23-year service.

After leaving the army, he turned to alcohol and found home life difficult. He was aggressive and had night terrors. He became homeless as a result of his mental health problems and in November 2015 was diagnosed with PTSD.

I thought I was fine but I was drinking to cover up my mental health issues

“When I left the Army in 2013, I was drinking heavily but I still managed to get, and hold down, a good job,” Craig says. “I thought I was fine but really I was using drink to self-medicate and to cover up my mental health issues.

“Alcohol really got a hold of me – I’d go to work, do my job and then come home and drink on my own. It was my partner at the time who said I needed to get help after there were a couple of occasions when I lost it with her.

“I was diagnosed with PTSD but just after this I became homeless as, due to my behaviour at home, my partner had kicked me out.”

It was at a two-week residential course with Combat Stress that Craig first sat behind a potter’s wheel.

Advertisement
Advertisement
Craig Mealing at the potter's wheel
"It's hard to throw a pot with a can of Foster's in my hand!" Craig Mealing at the potter's wheel

“I first tried out working with clay as part of my occupational therapy,” he says. “One of the occupational therapy technicians helped me get started and that was it, I was hooked.

“For me, working with clay and ceramics is the ideal distraction to keep me off the drink. It’s hard to throw a pot with a can of Foster’s in my hand! I find it relaxing and it helps to reduce my anxiety – all food for helping with the symptoms of PTSD.”

Craig went a step further to take ownership of PTSD, naming his business Pots The Soldier Designed. Items he has made – from mugs to honey pots – can be bought via his website.

“I’ve lost everything but I’m happy with what I have now,” Craig says. “I still have up and down days but I now have plenty of tools to help me. I’d never have thought working with clay could help me so much, but it’s changed my life.”

Journey’s End is out now in cinemas

Watch the Pride special collection.

Our LGBTQ+ film playlist offers a new and interesting angle on LGBTQ+ love and struggle – giving an international overview by taking us inside some of the most and least sexually liberated countries in the world.  

Sign Up Now
Advertisement

Change a vendor's life this Christmas

This Christmas, 3.8 million people across the UK will be facing extreme poverty. Thousands of those struggling will turn to selling the Big Issue as a vital source of income - they need your support to earn and lift themselves out of poverty.

Recommended for you

View all
PIP is a lifeline for me as a disabled person. Here's a great way to claim for the DWP benefit
alicia cartwright
Alicia Cartwright

PIP is a lifeline for me as a disabled person. Here's a great way to claim for the DWP benefit

'We are breaking barriers': People facing mental health crisis need safe spaces and community
mental health
Jo Armstrong

'We are breaking barriers': People facing mental health crisis need safe spaces and community

We run free football sessions for kids – but the impact of our work goes well beyond the pitch
sportsfun4all
Kieran Connolly

We run free football sessions for kids – but the impact of our work goes well beyond the pitch

Why climate activists went undercover to show COP29 chief putting future of our planet up for sale
Polluting smoke coming out of a chimney
Alice Harrison

Why climate activists went undercover to show COP29 chief putting future of our planet up for sale

Most Popular

Read All
Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits
Renters: A mortgage lender's window advertising buy-to-let products
1.

Renters pay their landlords' buy-to-let mortgages, so they should get a share of the profits

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal
Pound coins on a piece of paper with disability living allowancve
2.

Exclusive: Disabled people are 'set up to fail' by the DWP in target-driven disability benefits system, whistleblowers reveal

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over
next dwp cost of living payment 2023
3.

Cost of living payment 2024: Where to get help now the scheme is over

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know
4.

Strike dates 2023: From train drivers to NHS doctors, here are the dates to know