Using war memoirs, war journalism, and the personal experiences of John Paul Wallis as a Marine with two tours of duty in Iraq, Wallis and Mechling analyze the folklore shared by male warriors in the combat zone to understand how the traditional everyday practices of these men in groups serve as a form of psychological first aid for relieving the symptoms associated with the stress of living, working, and fighting in the combat zone. The authors study how boys and men are socialized in American culture, the context for their examining the folk traditions, including pet-keeping, rough-and-tumble play fighting, video game play, masturbation, dark play, and deep play.
The relationship between autism and PTSD has historically been neglected in research and understanding but impacts the lives of many. Autistic people are intrinsically vulnerable to traumatic social situations and relationships, which can later manifest as PTSD. Navigating situations where one feels entirely at odds can lead seemingly commonplace events to be processed as traumatic experiences. In this unique collaboration, Lisa Morgan and Mary Donahue explore PTSD in autistic adults as patient and practitioner. Lisa shares her personal experiences as an autistic adult, reflecting on emotionally traumatic events and their effect on her daily life. Mary examines the challenges surrounding diagnosis, reworking and developing communication and clarifying the symptoms of PTSD within the autistic population. Combining lived experience with professional expertise, this clear and accessible guide will provide a better understanding of autism and PTSD, providing support and direction to autistic adults processing trauma and those involved in their care.
How empathy can jeopardize a therapist's well-being. Therapist burnout is a pressing issue, and self-care is possible only when therapists actively help themselves. The authors examine the literature from neurobiology, social psychology, and folk psychology in order to explain how therapists suffer from an excess of empathy for their clients, and then they present strategies for dealing with burnout and stress.
Medical researchers have known for decades that survivors of accidents, disaster, and childhood trauma often endure life-long symptoms ranging from anxiety and depression to unexplained physical pain and harmful acting out behaviors. Drawing on nature's lessons, Dr. Levine teaches you each of the essential principles of his four-phase process: you will learn how and where you are storing unresolved distress; how to become more aware of your body's physiological responses to danger; and specific methods to free yourself from trauma.
In this groundbreaking book, a leading clinical psychiatrist redefines how we think about and treat victims of trauma. A "stunning achievement" that remains a "classic for our generation." (Bessel van der Kolk, M.D., author of The Body Keeps the Score). Trauma and Recovery is revered as the seminal text on understanding trauma survivors. By placing individual experience in a broader political frame, Harvard psychiatrist Judith Herman argues that psychological trauma is inseparable from its social and political context. Drawing on her own research on incest, as well as a vast literature on combat veterans and victims of political terror, she shows surprising parallels between private horrors like child abuse and public horrors like war. Hailed by the New York Times as "one of the most important psychiatry works to be published since Freud," Trauma and Recovery is essential reading for anyone who seeks to understand how we heal and are healed.
This book brings together an Iranian Iran-Iraq War veteran and an American Vietnam War veteran, both mental health professionals, to exchange war stories and discuss self-help strategies for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They engage in forms of self-help therapy for treating PTSD. Each chapter contains an exchange of stories, a discussion of therapy in progress, and self-help assignments for readers.
On July 10, 1981, David Mellor was just a baseball-crazed kid, a star high school pitcher preparing to go to college and dreaming of one day taking the mound in Fenway Park for his beloved Boston Red Sox. His dream was derailed as he crossed the parking lot of a McDonald’s. He heard the racing engine, but couldn’t defend himself against the car coming straight at him. It sent him flying through the air and into a wall, where it hit him again and pinned him, severely damaging his knee and destroying his hope of ever being a Major League pitcher. In the wake of the accident, even as he reached the major leagues as a groundskeeper, David was tortured by the aftermath of his injuries and additional traumas, including being struck by a car again, this time in the outfield of Milwaukee’s County Stadium while he was working on overhauling the field for the Milwaukee Brewers. He suffered terribly from anxiety, nightmares and flashbacks, completely unaware that he was experiencing the debilitating symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, commonly known as PTSD. One Base at a Time recounts in vivid detail his subsequent twenty-nine-year struggle with PTSD. This harrowing but inspiring story, documents the remarkable journey of a man debilitated by physical and psychological injuries who refused to give up even when everything seemed hopeless. After a fortuitous event, he admitted to needing help, sought effective treatment and turned his life around. It’s a powerful, helpful outline of the steps one needs to take to overcome the powerful hold PTSD has on one’s life. One Base at a Time is a must read for anyone suffering in silence or anyone who knows someone suffering in the wake of severe traumatic events. Those who seem broken can be fixed and live a happy, fulfilling life. “Dave is a truly unique person. His passion, hard work, creativity, and love for baseball gives life to Fenway Park. It gives intensity to us as ball players and pushes us to put on a show night after night. Dave is as much a part of the Red Sox team as anyone and his life and the adversity he has overcome is really inspiring.”—David “Big Papi” Ortiz “The true star of Fenway Park is not one of the Red Sox players; it is the esteemed groundskeeper David Mellor. This is a powerful memoir, taking David from his days as a potential big league pitcher through the time when, after his dreams came to a traumatic halt, he battled PTSD and eventually returned to the diamond after conquering his demons. It is an inspiring story, and I encourage all baseball fans to read this motivating book.”—Tom Werner, Chairman of the Boston Red Sox “Every now and then someone really special comes into your life. David Mellor is one of those special people. Whether he’s hand cutting the infield grass or making it possible for 30,000 people to run across the plate at Fenway you know you are in the presence of greatness. If you feel the need for inspiration or motivation, read his book, get up off the couch and get back in the game.”—Lenny Clarke, Comedian/Actor “David’s long battle with PTSD and chronic debilitating pain, all while he worked a demanding job full time, is a powerful story that will help many who suffer silently with these conditions. You cannot help but be captivated and inspired by his road to recovery, fueled by a determination to never give up, never give in.” —Padma Gulur MD, Professor of Anesthesiology, Vice Chair, Operations and Performance, Department of Anesthesiology, Duke University “The reality is that PTSD is not only found in men and women returning from battle. It rears its ugly head in all aspects of our society, from those abused as children to people scarred from having observed a terrible crime…. If you have PTSD or know someone who does, read this book!”—Jeff Arle, MD, PhD, Neurosurgeon, Harvard Medical School
As traumatic events, disasters, and war pervade everyday life around the globe, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) inevitably affects many people. The Clinical Manual for Management of PTSD provides clinicians with the latest information on PTSD. In 16 well-organized, accessible chapters, world leaders in research on epidemiology, neurobiology, psychotherapy, psychopharmacology, and other somatic therapies outline the most up-to-date evidence-based approaches to assessment and management of patients with PTSD. This practical guide covers modalities for therapeutics and management ranging from pharmacotherapy to cognitive processing therapy to virtual reality exposure therapy. It can be used as a complete text for residents and students to gain a solid understanding of PTSD and current treatment modalities, or as a desktop reference for experienced clinicians in daily practice to consult for specific information. The Clinical Manual for Management of PTSD provides clinicians and students with a consolidated and thoughtful reference that can be used to complement and enhance their everyday practice. This book bridges the gap between the research community and the clinician by providing a comprehensive resource of clinically relevant information on PTSD.
This book, written and edited by leading experts from around the world, looks critically at how culture impacts on the way posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and related disorders are diagnosed and treated. There have been important advances in clinical treatment and research on PTSD, partly as a result of researchers and clinicians increasingly taking into account how "culture matters." For mental health professionals who strive to respond to the needs of people from diverse cultures who have experienced traumatic events, this book is invaluable. It presents recent research and practical approaches on key topics, including: •How culture shapes mental health and recovery •How to integrate culture and context into PTSD theory •How trauma-related distress is experienced and expressed in different cultures, reflecting local values, idioms, and metaphors •How to integrate cultural dimensions into psychological interventions. Providing new theoretical insights as well as practical advice, it will be of interest to clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, and other health professionals, as well as researchers and students engaged with mental health issues, both globally and locally. For mental health professionals who strive to respond to the needs of people from diverse cultures who have experienced traumatic events, this book is invaluable. It presents recent research and practical approaches on key topics, including: How culture shapes mental health and recovery How to integrate culture and context into PTSD theory How trauma-related distress is experienced and expressed in different cultures, reflecting local values, idioms, and metaphors How to integrate cultural dimensions into psychological interventions. Providing new theoretical insights as well as practical advice, it will be of interest to clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, and other health professionals, as well as researchers and students engaged with mental health issues, both globally and locally.
