9 Popular Books About PTSD

Are you searching for books about PTSD?

When I’m faced with a new challenge, I automatically turn to books with the desire to educate myself. And prepare myself.

But when my paramedic husband was diagnosed with PTSD seven years ago, the idea of reading about the condition made me surprisingly anxious.

Our world had been turned upside-down by PTSD and in a flash everything was different. I told myself that I simply didn’t have the time or energy for reading, but on some level I had to admit that I was deliberately avoiding the topic.

I didn’t want to read about the life that was in store for us because I desperately wanted to believe the bad dream would just go away.

I was told time and again that PTSD cannot be cured, but I secretly felt that it was going to be my husband that would prove this theory wrong. I didn’t need books about this, because this would be dealt with and then we’d move on with our lives.

But as it turns out, PTSD doesn’t just go away.

We had to learn how to manage it. We had to learn how to live with it. And then, almost five years into the journey, I made the pivotal decision to not only begin reading about PTSD, but also writing about it.

I knew I had already learned a lot, but still needed more answers.

 

 

You can also read my post about books for children living in a PTSD family here.

 

 

Love Our Vets

Restoring Hope for Families of Veterans with PTSD

With an extensive background in counselling and a veteran husband with PTSD, Welby O’Brien offers comfort, encouragement, practical help and hope for those who may otherwise feel like they’re grieving for a person who is still right beside them. 

Love Our Vets is unapologetically open and honest, with real-life scenarios and realistic solutions for dealing with a seemingly hopeless future.

The book is divided into three sections. The first covers most challenges that may present when PTSD enters a relationship. The second offers a unique approach for looking at how you can better take care of yourself and your needs. And the third is an extensive collection of personal experiences and wisdom from many others who love a veteran with PTSD.

Although this book is geared particularly for spouses of veterans, I highly recommend Love Our Vets for anyone who has a loved one with PTSD from any cause.

Buy your copy here: Love Our Vets: Restoring Hope for Families of Veterans with PTSD: 2nd Edition

 

 

The Body Keeps the Score

Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat. One in five Americans has been molested. One in four grew up with alcoholics. One in three couples have engaged in physical violence.

In this New York Times bestseller, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world’s foremost experts on trauma, uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust.

He explores innovative treatments – from neurofeedback and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga – that offer new paths to recovery by activating the brain’s natural neuroplasticity. The Body Keeps the Score exposes the tremendous power of our relationships both to hurt and to heal, and offers new hope for reclaiming lives.

Buy your copy here: The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma

 

 

Life Sentence

A Police Officer’s Battle with PTSD

“I’m awake again, shaking, sweating. My heart is racing and I stare into the dark. I can’t close my eyes. I fear the images – too many to count. They swim behind my eyelids; I am drowning in their terror. Suicides, heart attacks, murders, car crashes. The images come again and again. All the dead people… I have to touch their legs, their arms, reach into their pockets, look into their unseeing eyes for clues.”

From childhood, Simon knew he wanted to be a policeman. But his long years in the force eventually led Simon onto a devastating journey with post traumatic stress disorder. His PTSD not only had serious consequences for his personal life and career, but it almost brought his life to an end.

In this powerful memoir – which I highly recommend it to anyone whose life has been touched by PTSD – Simon reveals the details of the cases he worked on, how the police force operates, and how one man’s life can spiral so out of control. He is now working to create awareness about PTSD and has written this book to help other sufferers.

Buy your copy here: Life Sentence: A Police Officer’s Battle with PTSD

 

 

 

 

Irritable Hearts

A PTSD Love Story

“I had nightmares, flashbacks. I dissociated… Changes in self-perception and hallucinations-those are some of my other symptoms. You are poison, I chanted silently to myself. And your poison is contagious.” So begins Mac McClelland’s powerful, unforgettable memoir.

When the award-winning human rights journalist Mac McClelland left Haiti after reporting on the devastating earthquake of 2010, she never imagined how the assignment would irrevocably affect her own life.

With inspiring fearlessness, McClelland tackles perhaps her most harrowing assignment to date: investigating the damage in her own mind and repairing her broken psyche.

Irritable Hearts is a searing, personal medical mystery that unfolds at a breakneck pace. But it is also a romance. McClelland fights desperately to repair her heart so that she can give it to the kind, patient, and compassionate man with whom she wants to share a life. Vivid, suspenseful, tender, and intimate, Irritable Hearts is a riveting and hopeful story of survival, strength, and love.

Buy your copy here: Irritable Hearts: A PTSD Love Story

 

 

Loving Someone with PTSD

A Practical Guide to Understanding and Connecting with Your Partner after Trauma

If your partner has PTSD, you may want to help, but find yourself at a loss. The simple truth is that PTSD can be extremely debilitating – not just for the person who has experienced trauma first-hand, but for their partners as well.

And while there are many books written for those suffering from PTSD, there are few written for the people who love them.

In this book, renowned trauma expert, Aphrodite Matsakis, presents concrete skills and strategies for the partners of those with PTSD.

With this informative and practical book, you will increase your understanding of the signs and symptoms of PTSD, improve your communication skills with your loved one, set realistic expectations, and work to create a healthy environment for the both of you. In addition, you will learn to manage your own grief, helplessness, and fear regarding your partner’s condition.

Buy your copy here: Loving Someone with PTSD: A Practical Guide to Understanding and Connecting with Your Partner after Trauma

 

 

Resurrected

A Story of Hope

For those who want to overcome the life sentence of mental illness and have the courage to step out on the journey of coming to terms with finding their new identity.

This story is a raw account of Andy, a man whose love of adventure and loyalty to his country leaves him broken, and of Zoe, his beloved wife, and their journey through the dark times, the hurt, the fears and the challenges that are very real for a couple and a family dealing with the trauma of modern warfare and the continued battle that rages on at home.

Andy was diagnosed with PTSD following multiple deployments to Afghanistan. Zoe was forced into the position of sole parent of their four young children. Andy eventually ended up in a mental hospital falling into a dark depression that very nearly cost him his life leaving Zoe to pick up the pieces of the broken family. Together they fought their way through the many challenges living with PTSD brings.

Told from the perspectives of both veteran and wife, Resurrected gives a unique insight into the realities of war and its effects on marriage and family.

Buy your copy here: Resurrected: A Story of Hope

 

 

Among the Walking Wounded

Soldiers, Survival, and PTSD

A gripping account of PTSD, and a stark reminder that, for many, wars go on long after the last shot is fired.

In the shadows of army life is a world where friends become monsters, where kindness twists into assault, and where self-loathing and despair become constant companions. Whether you know it by old names like “soldier’s heart,” “shell shock,” or “combat fatigue,” post traumatic stress disorder has left deep and silent wounds throughout history in the ranks of fighting forces.

Among the Walking Wounded tells one veteran’s experience of PTSD through an intimate personal account, as visceral as it is blunt. In a courageous story of descent and triumph, it tackles the stigma of PTSD head-on and brings an enduring message of struggle and hope for wounded Canadian veterans.

This book is a must-read for anyone who cares about Canadian veterans and the dark war they face long after their combat service is ended.

Buy your copy here: Among the Walking Wounded: Soldiers, Survival, and PTSD

 

 

Curse of the Coloring Book

A Novel Inspired by a True Story

When Herald Lloyd, an attorney and family man, learns he’s been cursed with a catastrophic legal-malpractice lawsuit, his recurring Vietnam War flashbacks flood his consciousness, and he medicates his post traumatic stress with alcohol.

He was reckless to quit college to join the Army. Mocking the war, he bought a GI Joe Coloring Book and half-gallon of whiskey, for a drunken send-off with his fraternity brothers.

Vietnam hurls Herald into becoming a decorated combat platoon leader, commanding stressed oddballs and misfits like Dogman, who walks point and only barks to communicate. Now he must fight again, this time to save his client, law practice, and family.

Was the coloring book cursed?

Buy your copy here: Curse of the Coloring Book: A Novel Inspired by a True Story

 

 

On Eggshells and Through Minefields

Living with the Psychological Effects of Trauma

On Eggshells and Through Minefields is for anyone who has been through a trauma and found their lives profoundly changed, but most importantly it explores the psychological impact upon intimate relationships.

The title reflects how loved ones, particularly the partners and children, often live their lives – treading warily and afraid that one wrong step may cause their whole world to fracture and crumble. Or alternatively like waiting for something to explode and blow apart all they love.

This book was my first introduction to reading about the experiences of other PTSD partners and how their families have been uniquely affected by PTSD.

 

 

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Any comments about or suggestions of other great books about PTSD? Please share them in the comments box below!

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