ptsd

Explosives Officer Lana Washington is set to face some daunting times in Trigger Point’s third series as Vicky McClure teases another high-stakes season for the ITV hit series.

Vicky McClure promises more adrenaline, danger and depth in the explosive third series of Trigger Point – but her alter ego Lana is set for a gruelling addiction and PTSD battle.

“It’s more exciting,” she says, “We made it bigger. We’ve got new cast members. People that weren’t on series two were really excited to be on the show.”

This year, the hit ITV show doesn’t just go bigger – it gets bolder. “We’re moving with the times,” Vicky McClure adds, “We’re making sure that it feels epic.”

Once again, the Line Of Duty star returns as bomb disposal expert Lana Washington – while also taking the reins as an executive producer.

Series three opens with a nerve-wrecking emergency: Lana is called to a wasteland where a man is trapped inside a taxi. A sign nearby orders him to “confess” to a mysterious crime – or die trying to escape.

What first appears as a one-off hostage crisis quickly spirals. As panic builds up, Lana realises she’s hunting a serial perpetrator. New actors have joined the line-up. Lost Kingdom star Mark Rowley plays Rich Manning, and Primeval actor Jason Flemyng is villain Steven Wyles.

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“I always play a lot of baddies and I look like a baddie but the truth is he’s another little man that is fighting the system and that has been hard done by,” Jason says.

“He’s had enough of the capitalist system putting profit before people. He takes retribution.” The villain quickly develops a complicated bond with Lana.

“She’s not battling him, it’s just that he’s breaking the law and doing something which puts other people in danger. That’s the essence of that relationship,” Jason says.

Their bond culminates in a brutal face-off – one Jason vividly remembers. “We shot in this town hall in Wembley and we parked underneath it,” he says.

“I went to see Oasis recently and went to the town hall because that’s where Vicky and I had a fight. I parked right outside because I knew the town hall.”

This season also digs deeper into Lana’s personal trauma. After surviving a kidnapping by a terrorist group in season two, she’s still grappling with the aftermath.

“When we first started talking about series three, we wanted to touch on PTSD for sure and how that was for Lana,” Vicky says. “It’s so unique to everybody. We all know Lana’s lost a lot of people close to her throughout the series. There’s no way that’s not going to have an effect on her.”

The emotional toll takes unexpected forms. “We’ll see Lana going through an addiction while she’s working and how she handles that, who picks up on it,” Vicky teases, “She’s incredible but she’s also human. She makes a lot of mistakes. That’s the downfall of being a heroic character.”

Vicky also gets an upgrade – literally. “We’ve had three different bomb suits now,” Vicky says, “This was the lighter version and it was still bloody heavy . It was much easier to walk in.”

Despite the physical and emotional intensity, Vicky thrives on bringing Lana’s vulnerability to the surface. “It’s been nice because Lana’s having to lean more on other people,” she says.

“There’s a much closer knit between the EXPOs (Explosive Officers),” she adds, crediting former British Army bomb disposal expert Joel Snarr for his insight. “There’s a lot of life in it. It feels real. We’re trying to get into the mentality of an expo and speaking to people like Joel, you get that.”

Even the smallest details matter to Vicky. “One thing that drives me nuts is watching people drink tea on telly without tea or (carrying) bags without anything in them,” she says, “I’ve got this bag on my back every day, so I fill it with anything that Lana needs. I feel like I’ve got the weight of Lana on me.”

She even recalls a particularly funny moment on set. “They’d made a foam breezeblock for me. I know I’m 42 and cracking on but I can still pick up a breezeblock,” she says.

“Cut to take five and I was like, ‘what the hell did I choose the real one for?’ But the foam one looked terrible. After Trigger Point, I feel fit as a fiddle, which is rare for me because I’m not a massive fan of the gym. I went there once this year.”

Production for series three rolled straight into filming for series four, after ITV swiftly renewed the drama. The cast and crew spent a total of nine months shooting in London. “We just strap in and get the job done,” says Vicky.”

Trigger Point airs on Sunday 26th October on ITV.

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KATIE Price has said that her ‘PTSD and anxiety’ has been triggered after Peter Andre and Alex Reid publicly lashed out.

The former glamour model, 47, has been making headlines over the past fortnight.

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Katie has been embroiled in ongoing rows triggered by the launch of her 18-year-old daughter Princess Andre‘s new reality show, The Princess Diaries.

Katie was not allowed to participate on the show, which she admitted her annoyance about on her podcast, The Katie Price Show.

Shortly afterwards, Peter broke his 16-year silence to speak out against his ex-wife, making public for the first time that the kids were court ordered to live with him since 2019.

This then set off a chain of events which included reports she had got into a ‘rift’ with Princess, her second husband, Alex Reid, making his own public accusations against her.

And now, after 10 days that have “been a lot” for the star, she has spoken out about her mental health.

Katie has shared how her PTSD has been “triggered”, as well as her anxiety.

Getting candid in a new Instagram post she shared on Thursday night, Katie uploaded a video and caption.

In the video she explained how she was at the horses which she calls her “safe place” because of how relaxing she finds it.

She added how her mental health had been “triggered like you would not believe” over the past 10 days.

In the caption of the post, she elaborated further when she penned: “The past 10 days have been a lot, thank you to everyone who has messaged me.

“I have came to the horses for some me time as my anxiety, PTSD and mental health has been triggered a lot.”

She added how she was happy to have a visit planned to the Supreme CBD warehouse to top up on “oil and gummies” which have been “such a massive help”.

“If anyone out there is feeling similar to me right now, the anxiety, lack of sleep, PTSD then stay strong,” she added.

Reacting to her honest post, fans flocked to the comments to show their support for the former glamour model.

“Everything is gonna be okay you are so loved,” said one person.

“Keep your chin up beautiful, keep working on yourself and being the best version of you that you can be and the world will shine on you,” penned a second.

A third wrote: “You have so much love and support. Keep doing what you’re doing.”

While a fourth said: “Stay positive.”

And a fifth added: “Never underestimate the pricey!”

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An Army veteran who grew up in Van Nuys and was awarded a Purple Heart self-deported to South Korea this week as he was threatened with being detained and deported by federal immigration forces.

On Monday, veteran Sae Joon Park, who legally immigrated from South Korea when he was seven years old, grew up in Koreatown and the San Fernando Valley and held a green card, flew back to his homeland under threat of deportation at the age of 55. He said he is being forced to leave because of drug convictions nearly two decades ago that he said were a response to the PTSD he suffered after being shot during military action in Panama.

“It’s unbelievable. I’m still in disbelief that this has actually happened,” Park said in a phone interview from Incheon early Wednesday morning. “I know I made my mistakes … but it’s not like I was a violent criminal. It’s not like I’m going around robbing people at gunpoint or hurting anyone. It was self-induced because of the problems I had.”

Sae Joon Park, an Army veteran with a Purple Heart.

(From Sae Joon Park)

Asked to comment on Park, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Park has an “extensive criminal history” and has been given a final removal order, with the option to self-deport.

Park said he suffered from PTSD and addiction in the aftermath of being wounded when he was part of the U.S. forces that invaded Panama in 1989 to depose the nation’s de facto leader, Gen. Manuel Noriega.

But now Park, a legal immigrant, is targeted by federal authorities in President Trump’s recent immigration raids that have prompted widespread protests in Los Angeles and across the nation. Federal authorities have arrested more than 1,600 immigrants for deportation in Southern California between June 6 and 22, according to DHS.

A noncitizen is eligible for naturalization if they served honorably in the U.S. military for at least a year. Park served less than a year before he was wounded and honorably discharged.

Since 2002, over 158,000 immigrant service members have become U.S. citizens.

As of 2021, the Department of Veteran Affairs and DHS are responsible for tracking deported veterans to make sure they still have access to VA benefits.

Park’s parents divorced when he was a toddler, and his mother immigrated from South Korea to the United States. He followed her a year later. They first lived in Koreatown, moved to Panorama City and then Van Nuys. He graduated from Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks in 1988.

Struggling at first to learn English and acclimate with his classmates, he eventually became part of the Southern California skateboarding and surfing scene of the 1980s, which is when television editor Josh Belson met him. They have been close friends ever since.

“He’s always got a smile, a very kind of vivacious energy about him,” said Belson, who attended a nearby high school when they met. “He was the kind of person you wanted to be around.”

After graduating, Park said he wasn’t ready to attend college, so he joined the military.

“The Army provided not only turning me into a man, but also providing me with the GI Bill, so you can go to college later, and they’ll pay for it. And the fact that I did believe in the country, the United States,” he said. “So I felt like I was doing something honorable. I was very proud when I joined the military.”

Park’s platoon was deployed to Panama in late 1989, where he said they experienced a firefight the first night there. The following day, he said he was carrying an M-16 when they raided the house of one of the “witches” Noriega allegedly followed. He said they saw a voodoo worship room with body parts and a cross painted in blood on the floor.

While there, he heard gunfire from the backyard and returned fire. He was shot twice, in his spine and lower left back. The bullet to his spine was partially deflected by his dog tag, which Park believes is the reason he wasn’t paralyzed. A military ambulance was delayed because of the firefight, but a Vietnam veteran who lived nearby rescued him, Park said.

“I just remember I’m just lying in my own pool of blood and just leaking out badly. So he actually went home, got his pickup truck, put me in the back of his pickup truck with two soldiers, and drove me to the hospital,” Park said.

He was then evacuated to an Army hospital in San Antonio. A four-star general awarded him a Purple Heart at his bedside. Then-President George W. Bush visited wounded soldiers there.

Park spent about two weeks there, and then went home for a month or so, until he could walk. His experience resulted in mental issues he didn’t recognize, he said.

“My biggest issue at the time, more than my injuries, was — I didn’t know what it was at the time, nobody did, because there was no such thing as PTSD at the time,” he said. Eventually, “I realized I was suffering from PTSD badly, nightmares every night, severe. I couldn’t hear loud noises, and at that time in L.A., you would hear gunshots every night you left the house, so I was paranoid at all times. And being a man and being a tough guy, I couldn’t share this with anyone.”

Park started self-medicating with marijuana, which he said helped him sleep. But he started doing harder drugs, eventually crack cocaine. He moved to Hawaii after his mother and stepfather’s L.A. store burned during the 1992 riots, and married. After Park and his wife separated, he moved to New York City, where his addiction worsened.

“It got really bad. It just got out of control — every day, every night, all day — just smoking, everything,” Park said.

One night, in the late 2000s, he was meeting his drug dealer at a Taco Bell in Queens when police surrounded his car, and the dealer fled while leaving a large quantity of crack in his glove compartment, Park said.

A judge sent Park to rehab twice, but he said he was not ready to get sober.

“I just couldn’t. I was an addict. It was so hard for me to stay clean. I’d be good for 30 days and relapse,” he said. “I’d be good for 20 days and relapse. It was such a struggle. Finally, the judge told me, ‘Mr. Park, the next time you come into my courtroom with the dirty urine, you’re gonna go to prison.’ So I got scared.”

So Park didn’t return to court, drove to Los Angeles and then returned to Hawaii, skipping bail, which is an aggravated felony.

“I did not know at the time jumping bail was an aggravated felony charge, and combined with my drug use, that’s deportable for someone like me with my green card,” he said.

U.S. Marshals were sent looking for Park, and he said once he heard about this, he turned himself in in August 2009, because he didn’t want to be arrested in front of his two children.

He served two years in prison and said immigration officials detained him for six months after he was released as he fought deportation orders. He was eventually released under “deferred action,” an act of prosecutorial discretion by DHS to put off deportation.

Every year since, Park was required to check in with federal officials and show that he was employed and sober. Meanwhile, he had sole custody of his two children, who are now 28 and 25. He was also caring for his 85-year-old mother, who is in the early stages of dementia.

During his most recent check-in, Park was about to be handcuffed and detained, but immigration agents placed an ankle monitor on him and gave him three weeks to get his affairs in order and self-deport. He is not allowed to return to the United States for 10 years. He worries he will miss his mother’s passing and his daughter’s wedding.

“That’s the biggest part. But … it could be a lot worse too. I look at it that way also,” Park said. “So I’m grateful I made it out of the United States, I guess, without getting detained.”

“I always just assumed a green card, legal residency, is just like having citizenship,” he added. “I just never felt like I had to go get citizenship. And that’s just being honest. As a kid growing up in the United States, I’ve always just thought, hey, I’m a green card holder, a legal resident, I’m just like a citizen.”

His condition has spiraled since then.

“Alright. I’m losing it. Can’t stop crying. I think PTSD kicking in strong,” Park texted Belson on Thursday. “Just want to get back to my family and take care of my mother … I’m a mess.”

Times staff writer Nathan Solis contributed to this report.