Customer Reviews

The Endless Tour: Vietnam, PTSD, and the Spiritual Void

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How is one to understand the erratic behavior, the sudden overwhelming anxiety and unprovoked angry outbursts, and the general difficulty of living with someone suffering from PTSD? Amy L. Snow, an ordained minister with degrees in nursing, psychology, and religious leadership, ought to know, for she married Dwight, who is 100% totally disabled with PTSD. Amy is a kind and compassionate person who can be gentle when appropriate and firm when necessary. Her secret weapon is love, but not love alone, for her love is combined with understanding and an ability to protect her own integrity. She is also an astute observer of human behavior. She tells her story of what it is to live with Dwight and how she tries to understand and help him. In the process she has acquired a great deal of knowledge about the nature of PTSD, and she has gained wisdom about how to live with someone suffering from it without being overwhelmed herself. Dwight has had five wives before Amy. He and Amy have now lived together for 20 years and they are raising a family together, so it is apparent that she is doing something right, and what she is doing right is well communicated in the book. I enthusiastically recommend this book not only to those who wish to be helpful to loved ones with PTSD, but also to professionals, who will find they have much to learn about the nature of PTSD from someone who has been living day in and day out for many years with someone suffering from it...

I had no idea of the scope of problems that the men in my age group that went to Viet Nam have experienced. It wasn't until I met one of them personally that I began to investigate. PTSD is truly a physical and emotional disorder and this book shows how it has affected many men my age and explains a lot of the problems that we have seen and experienced. Any woman or child involved with a Viet Nam vet should definitely read, explains a lot of things.

As a combat wounded, PTSD disabled Vietnam Vet I would like to point out some misinformation within the book. The war ended in 1975. After 1973 there were very few combat troops left in country. The US started pulling troops in July, 1969. Aproximately 3 million men and women served in Vietnam. During the same time frame over 9 million men and women served in the military. The majority of men and women who served in Vietnam volunteered for that specific duty. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is inscribed with the names of over 58,000 who died while serving in Vietnam. About 48,000 were combat fatalities, and the other 10,000 were deaths caused by accidents, suicides, and illness.
Mrs. Snow is accurate in her difinitions, symtoms and problems encountered by someone who has PTSD. Mrs. Snow paints a rather desolate picture of what help is available. The VA has several in-patient PTSD treatment programs, plus mental health programs, and Vet Centers, all of whom assist the Vet and his family in learning how to live with PTSD. The therapists I have worked with are well aware the lack of spirituality found within veterans. Granted, one may not find the right therapist the first time, but I think these programs should have been mentioned in the book as resources.
I will give the Snows credit for doing something right and staying married, but I believe the book is more about Mrs. Snow's ability to persevere.