Line in the Sand is a raw, gritty account of my seven-year odyssey to find the best ways to treat my PTSD and moral injury and reconnect with my family. I take you inside the Ward 17 psych unit in Melbourne, where I spent 77 days and nights over a two-year period with scores of veterans and first responders. I show how moral injury fits into the broader narrative of PTSD.

What worked for me was approaching my trauma with curiosity. Total honesty with my partner Mary. Never giving up. Understanding the nature of my identity wound, my anger, and seeking meaning from life. I show how employers are brutalising and abandoning a cohort of workers — veterans, first responders and journalists. But while I focus on those occupations, my book contains messages for anyone living with trauma and mental illness and their loved ones.

I believe my story is a powerful testament to having a strong support network. It might be tough to read. It’s also uplifting. I hope it will inspire and bring about change.

I led Reuters teams that covered the 2002 Bali bombings and the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami in Indonesia’s Aceh province. I was deputy bureau chief for Israel and Palestine in 2006, during the Lebanon War. I was Reuters bureau chief in Iraq, responsible for 100 people, from 2007-2008. It was during this time that a U.S. Apache gunship killed two Reuters journalists in Baghdad on July 12, 2007. Julian Assange published footage of that attack in 2010, shocking millions.