Crisis and Chaos: Life with the Combat Veteran. The Stories of Families Living and Coping with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) [Paperback]

Colleen McCarty-Gould (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1560726172 | ISBN-13: 978-1560726173 | Publication Date: 1999 | Edition: 1

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder is marked by symptoms following exposure to extreme trauma. For loved ones of combat veterans unable to shake the grip of war, the homefront is indeed a battlefield. For many families, the memories of the departure, and all the plans and hopes for tomorrow, are shattered when the loved one returns. He comes home, but he's different. He returns from that faraway place, but yet a part of him seems to be there still, thousands of miles away. For centuries societies have shipped their youth off to war, fully expecting them to return home the same, to pick up where they left off, to carry on and to "fit in". Though this extraordinary book focuses on the uniqueness of war and PTSD, the disorder is also associated with other large-scale traumas like natural disasters and personal traumas like rape, sexual abuse and domestic violence. Although the severity of the veteran's trauma, and therefore the effects of that trauma vary from home to home, certainly one principle universally applies: Young people who see or participate in the atrocities of combat do not come out of the experience unscathed. This unique book brings their plight home.

Product Details

• Paperback: 189 pages
• Publisher: Kroshka Books; 1 edition (1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1560726172
• ISBN-13: 978-1560726173
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,986,299 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars A celebration of codependency, June 15, 2001

By 

Carole Larsen (Tempe, AZ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Crisis and Chaos: Life with the Combat Veteran. The Stories of Families Living and Coping with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (Paperback)

I live with a vet who is 100% disabled from PTSD. I picked up this book hoping for some helpful insights. Instead, I read page after page, story after story, of veterans who could only be described as self-centered, inconsiderate to the point of sociopathy, violent and with few redeeming qualities. To compound the harm done by this image to the many PTSD sufferers who are nothing at all like the vets she describes, her tone suggests that the wife (typically) is expected to somehow live through these atrocities almost no matter what it does to her life. Her image of the vet is almost a cruel continuation of the negative image much of society already has about Vietnam vets. In my experience, the kind of violent PTSD sufferer she describes is in the minority.

Her concluding chapter about the possibility of getting better appears out of nowhere and she gives little suggestion how this change is supposed to occur.

If you want to read a book that intelligently explains PTSD to both the sufferer and significant others, try Recovering From the War: A Guide for All Veterans, Family Members, Friends and Therapists by Patience H.C. Mason, also sold on Amazon.com. Give Crisis and Chaos a pass; you're missing nothing.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A heartfelt book about the plight of VietNam vets., March 23, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Crisis and Chaos: Life with the Combat Veteran. The Stories of Families Living and Coping with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (Paperback)

Many will recognize neighbors, friends, ex-spouses, and relatives who were never recognized for their sacrifice made during the unpopular war in VietNam. This book helps us understand why war does not end for veterans who served in combat zones; the war lives forever for veterans and their families. A book that cannot be "put down"--must reading for anyone who knows a veteran or wants to understand the legacy of war.

5.0 out of 5 stars A sensitive, compassionate look at a hellatious problem, November 14, 2006

By 

Charlene Rubush "author and book lover" (Donalsonville, Georgia) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Crisis and Chaos: Life with the Combat Veteran. The Stories of Families Living and Coping with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (Paperback)

This book is a tell-it-like-it-is, no holds barred look at the true, often ugly nature of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, and the many troubling, often anti-social behaviors that can accompany it.
As one who has been there, I am most grateful for the author's concentration on the effects of PTSD as it relates to the families of combat veterans. She writes "To the spouse, child, parent- this book is dedicated to those who have helped our country's warriors to face the pain of their past, to mourn and to heal. You have suffered terribly on the homefront. For your unselfish love and care, you, too, are deserving of the purple heart."
As a wife of a combat veteran, Colleen knows of where she speaks. There are many personal examples of situations that are common to the problem.- Reading these stories have helped me feel a kinship with all these people brave enough to share their stories.
The author explores secondary PTSD, depression, suicide,the healing power of spirituality, among many other relative subjects.
This is a hopeful, helpful book touching on a subject that begs for more exploration in the public arena. An excellent, courageous resource.