Download or read book When the War Never Ends written by Leah Wizelman and published by Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. This book was released on 2017-11-10 with total page 248 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When War Never Ends: The Voices of Military Members with PTSD and Their Families tells the stories of those who have lived with the symptoms and consequences of PTSD. The stories will help family members better understand their loved ones by vividly demonstrating what a trauma survivor is feeling and going through.
Download or read book Surviving the Bosnian Genocide written by Selma Leydesdorff and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2011 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In July 1995, the Army of the Serbian Republic killed some 8,000 Bosnian men and boys in and around the town of Srebrenica--the largest mass murder in Europe since World War II. Surviving the Bosnian Genocide is based on the testimonies of 60 female survivors of the massacre who were interviewed by Dutch historian Selma Leydesdorff. The women, many of whom still live in refugee camps, talk about their lives before the Bosnian war, the events of the massacre, and the ways they have tried to cope with their fate. Though fragmented by trauma, the women tell of life and survival under extreme conditions, while recalling a time before the war when Muslims, Croats, and Serbs lived together peaceably. By giving them a voice, this book looks beyond the rapes, murders, and atrocities of that dark time to show the agency of these women during and after the war and their fight to uncover the truth of what happened at Srebrenica and why.
Download or read book Tribe written by Sebastian Junger and published by Hachette UK. This book was released on 2016-05-24 with total page 103 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We have a strong instinct to belong to small groups defined by clear purpose and understanding--"tribes." This tribal connection has been largely lost in modern society, but regaining it may be the key to our psychological survival. Decades before the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin lamented that English settlers were constantly fleeing over to the Indians-but Indians almost never did the same. Tribal society has been exerting an almost gravitational pull on Westerners for hundreds of years, and the reason lies deep in our evolutionary past as a communal species. The most recent example of that attraction is combat veterans who come home to find themselves missing the incredibly intimate bonds of platoon life. The loss of closeness that comes at the end of deployment may explain the high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder suffered by military veterans today. Combining history, psychology, and anthropology, Tribe explores what we can learn from tribal societies about loyalty, belonging, and the eternal human quest for meaning. It explains the irony that-for many veterans as well as civilians-war feels better than peace, adversity can turn out to be a blessing, and disasters are sometimes remembered more fondly than weddings or tropical vacations. Tribe explains why we are stronger when we come together, and how that can be achieved even in today's divided world.
Download or read book Evaluation of the Department of Veterans Affairs Mental Health Services written by National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2018-03-29 with total page 467 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Approximately 4 million U.S. service members took part in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Shortly after troops started returning from their deployments, some active-duty service members and veterans began experiencing mental health problems. Given the stressors associated with war, it is not surprising that some service members developed such mental health conditions as posttraumatic stress disorder, depression, and substance use disorder. Subsequent epidemiologic studies conducted on military and veteran populations that served in the operations in Afghanistan and Iraq provided scientific evidence that those who fought were in fact being diagnosed with mental illnesses and experiencing mental healthâ€"related outcomesâ€"in particular, suicideâ€"at a higher rate than the general population. This report provides a comprehensive assessment of the quality, capacity, and access to mental health care services for veterans who served in the Armed Forces in Operation Enduring Freedom/Operation Iraqi Freedom/Operation New Dawn. It includes an analysis of not only the quality and capacity of mental health care services within the Department of Veterans Affairs, but also barriers faced by patients in utilizing those services.
Download or read book Among You written by Jake Wood and published by Random House. This book was released on 2013-01-17 with total page 518 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Among You is the gripping real-life story of a soldier serving on the front line in Iraq and Afghanistan, and an unforgettable, unflinching account of the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder. Jake Wood lives parallel lives: encased in the glass tower of an international investment bank by day, he is also a dedicated TA soldier who serves on the front line during the invasion of Iraq, later returning to the war zone to conduct surveillance on insurgents. Disillusioned with the dullness and amorality of the banking world, he escapes back to the army for a third tour of duty. But in Afghanistan he discovers the savage, dehumanising effects that war has on both the body and the mind. Diagnosed with chronic PTSD on his return, he must now fight the last enemy – himself – in order to exorcise the ghosts of his past. Brutally honest and beautifully written, Among You brings home the harsh reality of front-line combat in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the courage of the troops who risk their lives for their country, as well as revealing the devastating after-effects of service.
Download or read book In Extremis written by Lindsey Hilsum and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2018-11-06 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice. Finalist for the Costa Biography Award and long-listed for the Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence. Named a Best Book of 2018 by Esquire and Foreign Policy. An Amazon Best Book of November, the Guardian Bookshop Book of November, and one of the Evening Standard's Books to Read in November "Now, thanks to Hilsum’s deeply reported and passionately written book, [Marie Colvin] has the full accounting that she deserves." --Joshua Hammer, The New York Times The inspiring and devastating biography of Marie Colvin, the foremost war reporter of her generation, who was killed in Syria in 2012, and whose life story also forms the basis of the feature film A Private War, starring Rosamund Pike as Colvin. When Marie Colvin was killed in an artillery attack in Homs, Syria, in 2012, at age fifty-six, the world lost a fearless and iconoclastic war correspondent who covered the most significant global calamities of her lifetime. In Extremis, written by her fellow reporter Lindsey Hilsum, is a thrilling investigation into Colvin’s epic life and tragic death based on exclusive access to her intimate diaries from age thirteen to her death, interviews with people from every corner of her life, and impeccable research. After growing up in a middle-class Catholic family on Long Island, Colvin studied with the legendary journalist John Hersey at Yale, and eventually started working for The Sunday Times of London, where she gained a reputation for bravery and compassion as she told the stories of victims of the major conflicts of our time. She lost sight in one eye while in Sri Lanka covering the civil war, interviewed Gaddafi and Arafat many times, and repeatedly risked her life covering conflicts in Chechnya, East Timor, Kosovo, and the Middle East. Colvin lived her personal life in extremis, too: bold, driven, and complex, she was married twice, took many lovers, drank and smoked, and rejected society’s expectations for women. Despite PTSD, she refused to give up reporting. Like her hero Martha Gellhorn, Colvin was committed to bearing witness to the horrifying truths of war, and to shining a light on the profound suffering of ordinary people caught in the midst of conflict. Lindsey Hilsum’s In Extremis is a devastating and revelatory biography of one of the greatest war correspondents of her generation.
Download or read book Post Traumatic Stress Disorder written by Charles B. Nemeroff and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-08-15 with total page 841 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This volume brings together the leaders in the field of PTSD research to present an up-to-date summary and understanding of this complex disorder. All of our current knowledge and controversies concerning the diagnosis, epidemiology, course, pathophysiology and treatment are described in detail. The evidence for efficacy for each of the different forms of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy is reviewed. Particular attention is paid to at-risk groups, including minorities, and coverage of PTSD throughout the world is reviewed as well. The authors present state-of-the-art findings in genetics, epigenetics, neurotransmitter function and brain imaging to provide the most current and comprehensive review of this burgeoning field.
Download or read book Post Traumatic Stress Disorder written by David Kinchin and published by Success Unlimited. This book was released on 2004 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A former sufferer of PTSD, David Kinchin tell his story and those of others. He describes in plain language what it is like to suffer from PTSD and explains all the complications the disorder can include.
Download or read book Fighting for the French Foreign Legion written by Alex Lochrie and published by Grub Street Publishers. This book was released on 2009-11-19 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A soldier’s true story of danger and adventure as a modern-day legionnaire in Kuwait, Bosnia, and beyond. With no French language ability, Alex Lochrie approached recruiters for the French Foreign Legion in Paris and embarked on the demanding selection process that followed. When he was accepted, he and other prospective legionnaires were sent to Southern France to begin the harsh recruit training course. The mix of nationalities and backgrounds among his fellows was enormous. New members are traditionally allowed to change their identities—and Lochrie chose to alter his age, becoming twenty-eight instead of thirty-eight. Elite paratrooper training followed in Corsica before Lochrie earned his wings. The FFL is never far from the front line, and in this book he tells of challenging active service in former French colonies in Africa as well as during the first Gulf War, evicting Saddam Hussein from Kuwait, and operations in Bosnia and Sarajevo. This gripping account lifts the veil of mystery and myth, pulling you into the action—and revealing much about the realities of service in the Foreign Legion.
Download or read book At Hell s Gate written by Claude Anshin Thomas and published by Shambhala Publications. This book was released on 2006-01-10 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this raw and moving memoir, Claude Thomas describes his service in Vietnam, his subsequent emotional collapse, and his remarkable journey toward healing. At Hell's Gate is not only a gripping coming-of-age story but a spiritual travelogue from the horrors of combat to the discovery of inner peace—a journey that inspired Thomas to become a Zen monk and peace activist who travels to war-scarred regions around the world. "Everyone has their Vietnam," Thomas writes. "Everyone has their own experience of violence, calamity, or trauma." With simplicity and power, this book offers timeless teachings on how we can all find healing, and it presents practical guidance on how mindfulness and compassion can transform our lives. This expanded edition features: • Discussion questions for reading groups • A new afterword by the author reflecting on how the current wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are affecting soldiers—and offering advice on how to help returning soldiers to cope with their combat experiences
Download or read book Returning Home from Iraq and Afghanistan written by Institute of Medicine and published by National Academies Press. This book was released on 2010-03-31 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Nearly 1.9 million U.S. troops have been deployed to Afghanistan and Iraq since October 2001. Many service members and veterans face serious challenges in readjusting to normal life after returning home. This initial book presents findings on the most critical challenges, and lays out the blueprint for the second phase of the study to determine how best to meet the needs of returning troops and their families.
Download or read book Invisible Injured written by Adam Montgomery and published by McGill-Queen's Press - MQUP. This book was released on 2017-05-01 with total page 347 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Canadian soldiers returning home have always been changed by war and peacekeeping, frequently in harmful but unseen ways. The Invisible Injured explores the Canadian military’s continuous battle with psychological trauma from 1914 to 2014 to show that while public understanding and sympathy toward affected soldiers has increased, myths and stigmas have remained. Whether diagnosed with shell shock, battle exhaustion, or post-traumatic stress disorder, Canadian troops were at the mercy of a military culture that promoted stoic and manly behaviour while shunning weakness and vulnerability. Those who admitted to mental difficulties were often ostracized, released from the military, and denied a pension. Through interviews with veterans and close examination of accounts and records on the First World War, the Second World War, and post-Cold War peacekeeping missions, Adam Montgomery outlines the intimate links between the military, psychiatrists, politicians, and the Canadian public. He demonstrates that Canadians’ views of trauma developed alongside the nation’s changing role on the international stage – from warrior nation to peacekeeper. While Canadians took pride in their military’s accomplishments around the globe, soldiers who came back haunted by their experiences were often ignored. Utilizing a wide range of historical sources and a frank approach, The Invisible Injured is the first book-length history of trauma in the Canadian military over the past century. It is a timely and provocative study that points to past mistakes and outlines new ideas of courage and determination.
Download or read book Military Life written by Thomas W. Britt and published by Bloomsbury Publishing USA. This book was released on 2005-12-30 with total page 1071 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With global commitments and combat duty, our armed forces face life-threatening challenges on a daily basis. However, less visible threats also impact the mental health of our military men and women. Experts examine challenges on the battlefield, such as women coming to terms with life after being prisoners of war, or soldiers dealing with mistakenly killing civilians. But life in the armed forces presents less dramatic, daily challenges. Away from the front lines, soldiers have to raise their families, sometimes as single parents. Children have to learn what it's like to be in a military family, and to make sense of war. Gay or lesbian officers cope with a don't ask, don't tell policy. An unprecedented range of contributors—military officers, medical doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, and professors—take us onto the bases and the battlefields and inside the minds of military personnel who face far greater challenges than most of us ever see in the headlines. These volumes also highlight factors that make members of the military resilient and stable, as well as programs and practices that can ease the psychological burdens of military personnel, families, and children. Readers can better understand how society views our military and military operations, and how each one of us can play a role in supporting our armed forces.
Download or read book War and Redemption written by Larry Dewey and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-03-02 with total page 204 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Much has rightly been written about the physiological and psychological symptoms, known as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), suffered by combat veterans, and their treatment. Much less has been written about the moral, spiritual and existential pain that soldiers experience as a consequence of carrying through the stated purpose of war for the common soldier - kill the enemy until the war is won. Based on his 20+ years' experience of treating combat veterans, Dr Larry Dewey explores the war trauma and life adaptation of combatants over two decades of intensive treatment. He addresses moral, spiritual and existential issues while also attending to the important physiological and psychological symptoms. Using case material, thoughts, experiences and, literally, the words of 65 veterans of various wars, he portrays in depth and with meaningful detail the process of successful treatment and the eventual positive adaptation for these veterans. The volume explores the deep pain and burden of killing and the role of propaganda and love in starting and maintaining war. Through the veterans' stories the author portrays the personal war of the ordinary combatant and the burden of guilt, grief and pain they often carry afterwards. The second part tackles the actual healing process, and part three explores the concepts of sin, confession, mercy, forgiveness, redemption and love, and how veterans have used them in aiding their own recovery from war's grief and moral pain. War and Redemption provides an invaluable tool in the understanding and treatment of PTSD for therapists, veterans and their families. It will also be a fascinating and valuable resource for all those interested in PTSD more generally.
Download or read book Shook Over Hell written by Eric T. Dean and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 1997 with total page 364 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vietnam still haunts the American conscience. Not only did nearly 58,000 Americans die there, but--by some estimates--1.5 million veterans returned with war-induced Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). This psychological syndrome, responsible for anxiety, depression, and a wide array of social pathologies, has never before been placed in historical context. Eric Dean does just that as he relates the psychological problems of veterans of the Vietnam War to the mental and readjustment problems experienced by veterans of the Civil War. Employing a multidisciplinary approach that merges military, medical, and social history, Dean draws on individual case analyses and quantitative methods to trace the reactions of Civil War veterans to combat and death. He seeks to determine whether exuberant parades in the North and sectional adulation in the South helped to wash away memories of violence for the Civil War veteran. His extensive study reveals that Civil War veterans experienced severe persistent psychological problems such as depression, anxiety, and flashbacks with resulting behaviors such as suicide, alcoholism, and domestic violence. By comparing Civil War and Vietnam veterans, Dean demonstrates that Vietnam vets did not suffer exceptionally in the number and degree of their psychiatric illnesses. The politics and culture of the times, Dean argues, were responsible for the claims of singularity for the suffering Vietnam veterans as well as for the development of the modern concept of PTSD. This remarkable and moving book uncovers a hidden chapter of Civil War history and gives new meaning to the Vietnam War.
Download or read book Two Wars written by Nate Self and published by Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.. This book was released on 2011-04-21 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Former army ranger Nate Self, a hero from the Robert’s Ridge rescue in Afghanistan, tells his whole story—from the pulse-pounding battle in the mountains of Afghanistan to the high-stakes battle he has waged against post traumatic stress disorder. This book will become a go-to book for understanding the long-term effects of the war on terror. Thousands of families are fighting this battle, and Nate opens up his life—including his successes, tragedies, struggles with thoughts of suicide—to show how his faith and his family pulled him through. Includes 8 pages of color photos. In a nutshell: Excellent book for military familes trying to cope with the family pressures of a soldier's active duty. Inspirational book for a soldier struggling with post traumatic stress disorder . Helps readers understand the importance of faith in dealing with the war. An up-close-and-personal account of the war on terror; and the story of one soldier’s faith. An insider’s account of Robert’s Ridge Rescue in Afghanistan.
Download or read book Armed Peacekeepers in Bosnia written by Robert F. Baumann and published by DIANE Publishing. This book was released on 2004 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
