Moving A Nation to Care: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and America's Returning Troops [Paperback]

Ilona Meagher (Author), Robert Roerich (Introduction)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 1, 2007

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in our returning combat troops is one of the most catastrophic issues confronting our nation. Yet, despite the fact that nearly 20 percent of the over half million troops that have left the military since 2003 have been diagnosed with PTSD, and that many who suffer symptoms are unlikely to seek help because of the stigma of this terrible disease, our government and media have remained silent.

Moving A Nation to Care: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and America’s Returning Troops is a grassroots call to action designed to break the shameful silence and put the issue of PTSD in our returning troops front and center before the American public. In addition to presenting interviews with Iraq and Afghanistan veterans suffering with PTSD, such as Blake Miller, the famous “Marlboro Man,” this book will be the most comprehensive resource to date for concerned citizens who want to understand the complex political, social, and health-related issues of PTSD, with an eye toward “moving our nation to care” to do what is necessary to help our fighting men and women who suffer from PTSD.

Ilona Meagher is editor of the online journal PTSD Combat: Winning the War Within and author of the PTSD Timeline, a comprehensive database of PTSD incidents. She has appeared on Fox News and numerous other media outlets.

Robert Roerich, MD, is one of the world experts in trauma therapy and PTSD and a board member of the National Gulf War Resource Center.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Ilona Meagher is editor of the online journal PTSD Combat: Winning the War Within. Her collaboration with ePluribus Media has resulted in the PTSD Timeline, a database of reported PTSD incidents. She has appeared in numerous media outlets, and has been interviewed on Fox News about the issue of PTSD in troops returning from Iraq. Robert Roerich M.D. is one of the world experts in trauma therapy and PTSD, and a board member of the National Gulf War Resource Center.

Product Details

• Paperback: 200 pages
• Publisher: Ig Publishing; 1 edition (May 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0977197271
• ISBN-13: 978-0977197279
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 6.6 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #356,050 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

After reading of a decorated Iraq War soldier's lost battle with PTSD in 2005, Ilona decided to pursue the then under-reported topic.

Her work with ePluribus Media has resulted in the PTSD Timeline -- a database of reported OEF/OIF PTSD incidents -- as well as the 3-part series Blaming the Veteran: The Politics of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and book reviews The Corroding Effect (of Penny Coleman's Flashback) and The Stories They Tell: Iraq War Vets Bear Witness (of Trish Wood's What Was Asked of Us).

The PTSD Timeline, Ilona's main contribution to the study of the after effects of America's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, sprung from information she began collecting in September 2005. Within months, ePluribus Media had offered to fact-check and house the data to make it easily available for further research, reporting, and study.

Ilona's work has received the attention of FOX News, USAToday, Playboy magazine, the New Yorker, the St. Petersburg Times, the Greensboro News-Record, The Raw Story, Veterans for America, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and others.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Must Have Referance, May 20, 2007

By 

James Starowicz "James Starowicz" (Kannapolis NC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Moving A Nation to Care: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and America's Returning Troops (Paperback)

Much has been learned about PTSD but there is much more that should be understood, especially as to Combat PTSD, for anyone who experiances a traumatic event can develope the lasting effects.
Many of us 'Nam Vets and those from that time have been helping our brothers who suffer from and trying to get more of the populations involved, for PTSD knows no borders.
Ilona has written a must have referance book for this generations Military personal, with fighting going in two theaters and multiple tours, and for the Public as well.
War brings on extreme trauma, not only for Military Personal but the Innocents as well. It changes ones being and inner soul, completely reversing what was taught from young age, It Changes Ones Being and Mind!
This generation must come together in better understanding to hopefully save the next generations!

21 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars disappointed, December 8, 2007

By 

Mew (VA) - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Moving A Nation to Care: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and America's Returning Troops (Paperback)

I felt as if I was reading a "report" from the internet and not an informative book on PTSD. Too much political bias for me, could have done w/out that, very slick job. There were a few interesting and valid view points and facts, but the meat and potatoes of this book could have been written in 20 pages in bullet format. I don't care much for reading books that are a compilation of information from other books. I have read many of her sources books and found them far more helpful and valuable.

I am a strong supporter of our military and understand PTSD and it's affects all too well. I have lost two Soldiers to suicide upon return from Iraq. If I weren't already in the mix I am not so sure this book would "move" me to care, I was hopeful by the title and reviews that it would inspire others to do just that "care" more and get involved. At some points I felt like I was reading anti-war, anti-American rhetoric and not about PTSD. The bias in the media and our own politicians wanting this war to be failure has hurt our Troops more than anything. I do agree Rumsfeld was an idiot and screw up in her political expressions.

I found no inspiration in this book, other than to agree the DOD needs to start tracking suicides of our Veterans post deployment, some are hard to call like high speed car accidents late at night, intentional or accident? I do agree more of us need to put pressure on the VA and politicians to force the VA to function properly now and not later, but again nothing in this writing stirred any fire from within. Maybe if PTSD and war is new to you it might, I can only hope.

Enough already w/understanding and research of PTSD, we have enough information and it's time to start progressive, productive treatment and support. As the author points out PTSD has been around since the dawn of war. The VA has always been poorly managed and needs to be cleaned up, this is nothing new, we can't blame all of it on Iraq and the Stan influx or present administration, though they do need to step up. During peace time no one cared what the VA was doing and now our country is paying the price in more ways than one. I did agree that the miitary and gov have created some nice catch 22's for our guys returning so they don't have to spend the money to take care of our Soldiers and Marines.

So I painfully give this book one star, just was hoping for more.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars What do the soldiers & their families think about Moving a Nation to Care?, July 8, 2007

By 

Richard Pierce "Just a Veteran helping a Veteran" (Dixon, IL) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Moving A Nation to Care: Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and America's Returning Troops (Paperback)

Soldiers and their families love Moving a Nation to Care. They look at this easy to read, easy to understand book as a WORKBOOK, a RESOURSE GUIDE, and, in some cases, a MIRROR to their own on-going experiences.

In early May of this year I gave two copies of Ilona Meagher's book to the top Sergeants of two locally-based military units which had recently returned from Iraq. I hoped that they would read the book, but knew they might not. Each of them read it. Their wives read it. It took them weeks to get through it. The material was helpful, the resources excellent, and the information relevent to their own problems and the problems the members of their unit were having. One wife was afaid that her marraige was skidding out of control. The book opened the door to conversations with her husband she never believed possible.

When I talked with one of those Sergeants and offered to get more copies for his unit if he wanted them, he lept at the chance. Through our local Elks Lodge we are furnishing 20 copies of the book to his unit.

Is this book any good? Ask a soldier who has read it. "Yep. It sure is."