WORDS: PATRICK CASH
PHOTOGRAPHY: MARKUS BIDAUX
When ex-soldier Philip Riding walks into the room at Soho’s Phoenix Arts Club, his boy-next-door charm lights up the room. But he doesn’t want to be overheard as he talks about post-traumatic stress disorder. “PTSD is such a common diagnosis for a lot of people,” he says. “It’s when you can’t get over a certain experience and it comes in many different forms. A memory may come back through a sound, a smell, a sight or an action.”
Riding joined the army in 2007, aged 16. He was still closeted to his family and wasn’t sure what path to take in life. Having been bullied and labelled gay at school, the army offered him an opportunity to get out of his town, but also a chance to “prove” he wasn’t gay.