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PTSD: A Spouse's Perspective How to Survive in a World of PTSD
Has PTSD invaded your world? Are you always 'walking on eggshells'? Feel like nothing you do is right. Are you the victim of physical, emotional or verbal abuse? Are you in a relationship with someone who suffers from PTSD? Then this book is a must read for you. There is hope! So many spouses of PTSD sufferers have the false belief that nobody can understand what they are going through. Believe me when I say, you are not alone. There are literally thousands of victims just like you. Facing the same issues everyday that you are facing. This book is written for you, the spouse, to offer hope by giving you detailed knowledge of PTSD and Secondary PTSD and also offer you coping mechanisms for living in a world of PTSD.
84 pages, Paperback
First published January 28, 2011
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63 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 25, 2013
When I logged onto Booksneeze to see what my first book of the year was going to be, I saw this one and read the book description and knew that I needed to read it.
Are you always walking on eggshells? Feel like nothing you do is right? Are you the victim of physical, emotional or verbal abuse? Are you in a relationship with someone who suffers from PTSD? Then this book is a must-read for you. There is hope!
After reading the first chapter, I realized that I myself have low level PTSD for my "other life". It felt good to read the book and realize that I need to set boundaries on those certain things in life that set me off. The book helped me see that I wasn't alone in these thoughts and feelings and that they are just results of the triggers that have been activated.
It was a good quick read. Easy to understand. I did have some moments where I felt like the author was holding something back and not giving all that she wanted to share. There were a couple typing errors that irritated the perfectionist in me. (not that I'm perfect) The last chapter really summed it all up though and I felt that she gave that chapter everything.
Erica David focused on writing it for the veterans and their spouses because there is a great need for more information on PTSD because there are more known cases. She includes a list of books and websites that have been helpful for her research. Erica shares that she has PTSD and also Secondary PTSD from living with a veteran husband who has PTSD. She shares that it's not something that ever goes away. You just need to learn how to set boundaries and take personal time away for yourself.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Are you always walking on eggshells? Feel like nothing you do is right? Are you the victim of physical, emotional or verbal abuse? Are you in a relationship with someone who suffers from PTSD? Then this book is a must-read for you. There is hope!
After reading the first chapter, I realized that I myself have low level PTSD for my "other life". It felt good to read the book and realize that I need to set boundaries on those certain things in life that set me off. The book helped me see that I wasn't alone in these thoughts and feelings and that they are just results of the triggers that have been activated.
It was a good quick read. Easy to understand. I did have some moments where I felt like the author was holding something back and not giving all that she wanted to share. There were a couple typing errors that irritated the perfectionist in me. (not that I'm perfect) The last chapter really summed it all up though and I felt that she gave that chapter everything.
Erica David focused on writing it for the veterans and their spouses because there is a great need for more information on PTSD because there are more known cases. She includes a list of books and websites that have been helpful for her research. Erica shares that she has PTSD and also Secondary PTSD from living with a veteran husband who has PTSD. She shares that it's not something that ever goes away. You just need to learn how to set boundaries and take personal time away for yourself.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
August 23, 2016
[Note: This book was provided free of charge by BookLook/WestBow Press in exchange for an honest review.]
This book is somewhat mistitled, and it is uncertain whether the author's approach is deliberately deceptive or unconsciously cunning. On the surface level, this short book purports to be a guide to women on how to cope with the combat-induced PTSD of their veteran husbands, but this desire to provide help and encouragement is undercut continually by the author's almost desperate desire to escape from what she views as the intolerable situation of living with a spouse with PTSD. As someone who has coped, however successfully it is not my place to judge, with PTSD for my entire life [1], I am sure that the author has no picnic coping with a spouse with PTSD. Yet the author, who herself struggles with both primary and secondary PTSD and major depression, is surely no picnic to deal with either, and given her continual victim stories about herself and her villain stories about her husband, this book is tough to read with anything approaching justice, seeing as its portrayal is so transparently unjust to her husband.
The contents of this book reflect the schizoid divide of the author's intents in this book. On the one hand, the author has read some good books [2], and gives worthwhile advice on how a wife can let her children know about the struggles a veteran is dealing with in the aftermath of war. She points out, quite touchingly, the lack of resources that are provided by Veteran's Affairs to the families of PTSD-afflicted veterans, and also points out the fact that PTSD is something one tends to struggle with for life, and that there are other ways that the syndrome manifests itself, particularly due to rape and abuse. And fortunately, the book is a short one, although as I read the kindle version of the book quickly, it was hard to tell how many pages the book would have been in text. Unfortunately, though, this book is full of whiny attempts on the author to justify her own desire to disentangle herself from a marriage that has been unpleasant to her to herself and to the reader, and to avoid the logical implications of the vows that she has made to love, honor, and obey her husband, who does not appear to be the sort of brute the author wishes to paint him as. One feels sorry for him that he is married to the author, or at least was at the time of writing. This feeling of compassion for the object of the author's ire and frustration is probably contrary to the author's intent.
In reading this book, it was clear that there were at least a few areas where this book could have been vastly improved. Perhaps all pretense of offering guidance and counsel to other women should have been dropped, as it is clear that the author is not in a place where she can write with the sense of necessary justice and detachment to provide advise to others that is unalloyed by her own bitterness at her own life. Perhaps the author should have written a straightforward memoir, in order to better process and handle her own life and her own story, and where no pretense at objectivity would have been needed in the author's mind by the conventions of genre. This book is not objective in any sense of the word, and reads more like an argument in divorce court than a fair-minded examination on how a spouse can cope with a partner's PTSD. In addition, the book would have better served the largely Christian audience of its publisher by seriously addressing the biblical state of marriage and the mutual obligations of husbands and wives. Perhaps if she did a better job at being loving and gracious herself, she would have less to complain about with her husband. This book does not serve spouses well, unless they are seeking to use their spouse's PTSD as an excuse for an unpleasant separation, and those struggling with this horror deserve better from those who love them than the approach of this misguided authoress.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
[2] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
This book is somewhat mistitled, and it is uncertain whether the author's approach is deliberately deceptive or unconsciously cunning. On the surface level, this short book purports to be a guide to women on how to cope with the combat-induced PTSD of their veteran husbands, but this desire to provide help and encouragement is undercut continually by the author's almost desperate desire to escape from what she views as the intolerable situation of living with a spouse with PTSD. As someone who has coped, however successfully it is not my place to judge, with PTSD for my entire life [1], I am sure that the author has no picnic coping with a spouse with PTSD. Yet the author, who herself struggles with both primary and secondary PTSD and major depression, is surely no picnic to deal with either, and given her continual victim stories about herself and her villain stories about her husband, this book is tough to read with anything approaching justice, seeing as its portrayal is so transparently unjust to her husband.
The contents of this book reflect the schizoid divide of the author's intents in this book. On the one hand, the author has read some good books [2], and gives worthwhile advice on how a wife can let her children know about the struggles a veteran is dealing with in the aftermath of war. She points out, quite touchingly, the lack of resources that are provided by Veteran's Affairs to the families of PTSD-afflicted veterans, and also points out the fact that PTSD is something one tends to struggle with for life, and that there are other ways that the syndrome manifests itself, particularly due to rape and abuse. And fortunately, the book is a short one, although as I read the kindle version of the book quickly, it was hard to tell how many pages the book would have been in text. Unfortunately, though, this book is full of whiny attempts on the author to justify her own desire to disentangle herself from a marriage that has been unpleasant to her to herself and to the reader, and to avoid the logical implications of the vows that she has made to love, honor, and obey her husband, who does not appear to be the sort of brute the author wishes to paint him as. One feels sorry for him that he is married to the author, or at least was at the time of writing. This feeling of compassion for the object of the author's ire and frustration is probably contrary to the author's intent.
In reading this book, it was clear that there were at least a few areas where this book could have been vastly improved. Perhaps all pretense of offering guidance and counsel to other women should have been dropped, as it is clear that the author is not in a place where she can write with the sense of necessary justice and detachment to provide advise to others that is unalloyed by her own bitterness at her own life. Perhaps the author should have written a straightforward memoir, in order to better process and handle her own life and her own story, and where no pretense at objectivity would have been needed in the author's mind by the conventions of genre. This book is not objective in any sense of the word, and reads more like an argument in divorce court than a fair-minded examination on how a spouse can cope with a partner's PTSD. In addition, the book would have better served the largely Christian audience of its publisher by seriously addressing the biblical state of marriage and the mutual obligations of husbands and wives. Perhaps if she did a better job at being loving and gracious herself, she would have less to complain about with her husband. This book does not serve spouses well, unless they are seeking to use their spouse's PTSD as an excuse for an unpleasant separation, and those struggling with this horror deserve better from those who love them than the approach of this misguided authoress.
[1] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
[2] See, for example:
https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress...
January 20, 2018
Too specific to the author's perspective, too many broad strokes
February 9, 2016
In this book, the author tells her story, about her family, how her husband came home from war and was a different man. After all, that must have happened there he had some difficult issues that took her some time to understand because he wouldn't talk about it, like most people with PTSD. Him being like that made her depressed, and a secondary PTSD from her marriage. Not only that but she also suffered some childhood trauma that also caused her to have PTSD. So the book goes on explaining what is PTSD - It explains in details the traumatic event that happens during her life. Even though the cause of PTSD can be when you're a child you can still suffer as an adult. Some people never realize the impact that the event has on them until they start counseling sessions. When the therapist asks about the event and they have to recall all the traumatic event back. For some sleep is unpleasant, a lot of people has panic attacks. Every chapter of the book she gives you an answer and teaches you how to deal with some key points. I guess I expected a little more I don't know if it's because I suffer from PTSD and wanted more details for myself and she's more on the " Veteran Spouse " side of the story.
July 5, 2013
I enjoyed hearing someones view who both has ptsd and lived with someone who has ptsd. very helpful.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews