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Continue reading →: Post-Traumatic … Sunday? …
I just finished showering. At 02:30 in the morning, I awoke without the assistance of an alarm, and after a few moments of gathering my thoughts from a groggy haze, I made my way to the shower. After my shower, I returned to my bedroom, stripped the bed of its…
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Continue reading →: Submerged.
Today started like so many others; being rudely awoken by the twisted manipulations of memory that plague my wounded mind. A sensation that felt like drowning, forced me to sit forward on my bed, gasping into the air, intaking as much of it as possible. Beside me, swirled heaps, from…
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Continue reading →: “Hey, Henny” …
“Henny, your gym shoes smell like – gym shoes!” This statement was followed by a child like laughter between brothers. We had just returned from an early morning run with the unit. To state that it was unpleasant would be a slight, if not completely egregious understatement. The weather had…
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Continue reading →: Lost Boy
Without the stethoscope that used to hang around my neck, who am I? My hands no longer hold a C7A1, standard issue rifle. I no longer dawn a cap badge and stand at attention. My dress blues hang lazily in my closet. Who am I? You see, I have identified…
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Continue reading →: Boom! Boom! Boom! In My Room
Beneath my eyes there are bags. Within those bags, a collection of awful things once seen. Terrible things. The things people like to pretend don’t exist. They pretend it doesn’t exist and yet, they lock their door at night anyway – just in case. Because the reality is, it does……
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Continue reading →: Thanks Mum…
I am awake again, deep into the night. I have barely slept. If at all. I did not wake from a nightmare but, I awoke with a memory. A memory that the aching in my stomach remembers well. It was from a time in my childhood or rather, adolescence, when…
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Continue reading →: Bad Date
I had a date today. Although I have been sick for the past three days, I decided that I needed to go outside, and rejoin the world. So, I did just that. I wandered about for a while with no clear destination in sight. My ears were protected by my…
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Continue reading →: The Stars in the Sky, and the Boy in the Back.
This evening has been one filled with a complexity of emotions. It started out with myself venturing into the evening air for an innocent walk about just to get out of the house for a while. It would see me walk to the local shop and get a tea, and…
Hello,
I’m Matthew
Welcome to the official blog of Matthew Heneghan — author of A Medic’s Mind and Woven in War, and host of the trauma-focused podcast Unwritten Chapters.
As a former Canadian Armed Forces medic and civilian paramedic, I’ve lived through the raw edges of trauma, addiction, grief, and healing. Through honest storytelling and lived experience, I write and speak about PTSD, trauma recovery, mental health awareness, and resilience — especially from the lens of veterans and first responders.
If you’re searching for real-life stories of overcoming adversity, the effects of service-related trauma, or insight into the recovery process after hitting rock bottom — you’re in the right place. My goal is to foster connection through shared experience, break stigma, and offer hope.
Explore the blog, tune into the podcast, and discover how writing became a lifeline — and might just become yours, too.
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Author Matthew Heneghan 