From the author of The Veteran's Survival Guide, The Veteran's PTSD Handbook addresses the obstacles that veterans face when filing for benefits related to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). One of the greatest obstacles, John Roche writes, is establishing a connection between a veteran's service and PTSD. Because both combat stressors and noncombat stressors can cause PTSD and because of the difficulties in diagnosing the condition, filing a successful claim for benefits based on PTSD is difficult. In the same accessible, self-help style used in The Veteran's Survival Guide, Roche offers detailed instructions on how to prepare a well-grounded claim for veterans' benefits relating to PTSD. He also discusses the four years he spent helping one veteran establish a "service connection" for his PTSD claim with Veterans Affairs. This book will be required reading for any veteran or veteran's dependent who wishes to obtain his or her well-earned benefits and for those officials of veterans' service organizations who assist veterans with their claims.
Now revised and expanded, this state-of-the-science guide is edited and written by leading authorities. The volume covers the full range of effective treatments for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and helps clinicians gain competency for working with service members and veterans.
War and PTSD are on the public's mind as news stories regularly describe insurgency attacks in Iraq and paint grim portraits of the lives of returning soldiers afflicted with PTSD. These vets have recurrent nightmares and problems with intimacy, can’t sustain jobs or relationships, and won’t leave home, imagining “the enemy” is everywhere. Dr. Edward Tick has spent decades developing healing techniques so effective that clinicians, clergy, spiritual leaders, and veterans’ organizations all over the country are studying them. This book, presented here in an audio version, shows that healing depends on our understanding of PTSD not as a mere stress disorder, but as a disorder of identity itself. In the terror of war, the very soul can flee, sometimes for life. Tick's methods draw on compelling case studies and ancient warrior traditions worldwide to restore the soul so that the veteran can truly come home to community, family, and self.
The Handbook of Psychosocial Interventions for Veterans and Service Members is a "one stop" handbook for non-military clinicians working with service members, veterans, and their families.
How much training does the average veteran get to help them transition from life in a combat zone to coming home? Written by veterans, for combat veterans, The Combat PTSD Reintegration Workbook is straight talk about the real life irritants that drain your energy, affect your sleep, guilt or shame, and threaten to prevent you from realizing the American Dream you fought for.
Counseling Veterans: A Practical Guide equips readers with foundational knowledge of military culture and common issues experienced by service men and women. This crucial text helps future and practicing counselors compassionately and competently treat individuals who serve or have served in the United States armed forces. The book opens with chapters that discuss military culture and building a therapeutic alliance, providing readers with rich context for treating service men and women and guidance for relationship-building with this specific population. Additional chapters cover common issues veterans face, including war trauma and PTSD, suicidal ideation, traumatic brain injury, depression, and substance use disorder. Female veteran issues, family issues during deployment, and moral injury are addressed. The final chapter provides guidance for counselors with regard to personal wellness, secondary traumatic stress, and imperative self-care measures. Each chapter features learning objectives, definitions, research-based literature on the topic, treatment options and programs, a clinical vignette, perspectives from veterans, and discussion questions. Designed to help readers build critical competencies, Counseling Veterans is an ideal text for advanced courses in counseling. It can also serve as an essential guide for practicing counselors.
Why would you want to read this book? There are several reasons. First of all, it is my hope that victims of all types of traumas, whether war-related or not, can find some comfort in these pages. If you are a victim of PTSD, you need to know that there is hope for a better quality of life. That is one of the core messages in this book. There is no cure for PTSD, but through medications and counseling, it is possible to exercise more control over the illness. But you must take the first step and be your own best advocate. You will hear me say this more than once. If you do not advocate for your own needs, it is unlikely that you will achieve your goals. I hope that some of the information in these pages will guide PTSD victims to seek the help they need. I feel this book also has much to offer those who don't suffer from PTSD. It is the story of how a normal eighteen-year-old farm boy from a small town in Iowa went to war and, over thirty years later - at the age of fifty-two - became totally disabled with PTSD. It is my hope that this will help the public understand not only Vietnam vets, but also vets from all wars, as well as victims of other traumas such as I mentioned above. There are so many fears that hold PTSD victims back from seeking help or even admitting to themselves that they need help. Even though all those around them can see the changes in the victim, it is hard for the victim to admit a problem. They see themselves as having some kind of mental illness. Victims are often paranoid and worry about what others are thinking or saying about them, even those people who have no inkling that there is a problem. Sometimes, it can seem to the victim that everyone knows there is something wrong, and that everyone is talking about him or her. The public must become aware of the disease and offer compassion rather than rebuke. Vietnam vets in particular have been a source of fear in the general public. The media has exacerbated this situation by its frequent portrayal of the vet as an imbalanced, rage-filled time bomb, just waiting for the circumstances that will set him off. Perhaps this has made for some "entertaining" movies, but it has also kept many veterans from seeking the help they needed, lest they find themselves branded with this ugliest of clichés. Even if the victim knows there is a problem, it is so difficult to ask for help, especially from a government that loaths to acknowledge the existence - much less, the debilitating nature - of this disorder. It should come as no surprise, then, that many victims do not want anyone to know about their "weakness." Very simply, it is time to end the silence and the shame. I realize that parts of this book will be difficult for the public to read. Reading a true account is not at all the same as watching violence on TV or at the movies. In these situations, the dead are not really dead and the cast is not really experiencing the events being portrayed. It is much more difficult when the dead stay dead, bodies are permanently mutilated, and the effects of the war will stay forever with those who experienced them. . The violence presented in modern entertainment should be taken as it is intended (though sometimes the level of violence in our "entertainment" is disturbing). True violence should be taken very seriously because it can happen to any one of us - at war or at home. Where a particularly violent movie can leave one unsettled for a day or so, actually living through a violent situation can produce a nightmare that lasts a lifetime. I do not intend for this book to be political, nor do I want it to be an attack on the Department of Veteran Affairs (VA). However, I do believe that the policies enacted by the government have played a significant part in weaving the intricate web of my life. Nor do I intend this to be a self-help book.
A No-Nonsense Guide, telling How Combat Veterans Get PTSD, What PTSD is, and How PTSD changes Combat Veterans. This book is intended to be useful to five main areas of interest: 1- It is a clinical handbook for the psychology of PTSD, 2- It is a combat veteran's guide to understanding his or her PTSD, and to derive healing, 3- It is a guide for family or friends of a combat veteran to find greater understanding of the veteran's problems, 4-By journaling as the veteran reads this book, he or she can realize real therapeutic gains in reducing the affect of PTSD, and 5- for WWII buffs, it provides true, no-nonsense depiction of the way WWII really was.
Now in an extensively revised third edition with 65% new material, this is the authoritative reference on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Contributors examine the breadth of current knowledge on the mechanisms by which stressful events can alter psychological processes, brain function, and individual behavior. Risk and protective factors across development and in specific populations are explored. Reviewing the state of the science of assessment and treatment, the volume covers early intervention and evidence-based individual, couple/family, and group therapies. Conceptual and diagnostic issues are addressed and key questions for the next generation of researchers are identified. New to This Edition *Thoroughly revised to reflect the accelerating pace of scientific and clinical progress; includes a range of new authors. *Chapters on new topics: treatment of PTSD with comorbid disorders, and postmortem brain banking. *New chapters on previously covered topics, including DSM-5 and ICD-11 diagnostic criteria, the psychoneurobiology of resilience, and challenges in implementing clinical best practices. *New or updated discussions of such timely issues as treatment of refugees, telemental health, and technology-based interventions.
