Just a quick update on this. I've been getting counselling about it all for the first time ever and it's going well. I was at a meeting with the Hillsborough Survivors Association last night at Anfield and of the approx fifty people there, three including me were brand new at their first ever meeting, so it's not just me that's felt it hard recently, there must be something in the ether at the moment.
Three is also a significant number because three people who were at Hillsborough and then went to Paris for the CL final a few years ago came home and killed themselves. Three (hundred) is the amount of people who were at Hillsborough alone who have subsequently taken their own lives. Survivor's guilt is one hell of a drug kids. Just say no.
Also want to point out that the HSA do all this voluntarily and have over the years in combination with consultant psychotherapists put together a program to combat complex PTSD. It's so successful that they're now using it to train Merseyside Police. Nottingham Forest supporters who suffer with trauma have benefited too and it's been amended and shared with groups who have survived many other completely unrelated tragic events.
I didn't realise it was a thing but there was a lady from the Notts Forest survivors group who had driven up for the meeting last night. They watched it all happen and got forgotten about and have to put up with all the tragedy chanting in their home end. She was talking about the various banning orders she's had placed on people from her own fanbase by videoing them and reporting them, because every time she hears it it takes her right back to the day.
Anyways I'll shut up now but if you ever see a dude outside Anfield with a tub collecting for the HSA, put a few quid in, they're great people.
