When Someone You Love Suffers from Posttraumatic Stress: What to Expect and What You Can Do

I wish I had found this book earlier. I lost my husband in a motorcycle accident earlier this year. We were together four years. He was a vet with PTSD and I came along after he retired from the Army, not having been around the military myself for the most part.. This book explained so much about all of the different things he and I experienced. I struggled every day trying to keep my normal happy demeanor, to understand what he was going through, to know how best to react and respond to what was happening. He was such a giving person and I really wanted to understand it and be able to work through it with him. As I read the different chapters in this book, I saw things that I had done right, things I wish I'd done differently, things I knew were associated with PTSD and other things that I had no idea were associated. My eyes were totally opened to a much more in-depth understanding of it and to seeing that PTSD involves all kinds of trauma, not just combat situations, which makes sense, but which I had never stopped to consider.The book uses real life examples of people and situations to help us understand what the different symptoms are, what causes them and why we may or may not be able to do anything about the different aspects. It also helps us to understand what type of things we can do to keep ourselves mentally and physically healthy and able to be there for our loved one. Although my husband is no longer here, I had to understand it and what I could have done differently. This book gave me the information I had been looking for, but in the wrong places. I did do some things right, but I could have done more. I read the Kindle version and have purchased a hard copy so that I can read it again and jump around easier. I don't have any crazy lingering guilt complex or anything. We do what we know and I did go through a lot with him. With it having been so much a part of my life, and having been so unprepared, I really wanted to understand it. If I'm in that place again, whether with a family member, spouse, friend or whomever, I'll be better prepared with what I learned in this book, which will be good for both of us.

Great book but not in very good condition.

Post Traumatic stress is not privy only to those who have served in wartime. I thank them and God for their service. Post traumatic stress happens when life throws curve balls to anyone. This book helped me to understand PTSD in a new way. I was abandoned by my father when I was 17 pregnant and alone. He offered to help me, but with an ultimate price to me. I had to give up my child. Also being a survivor of molestation at a young age, I've used this book to help me recover some of what I lost due to trauma in my life. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has suffered trauma in any form, whether it be child molestation, rape, war, or even divorce of parents. Children are not as resilient as once thought. Just ask me! This book will help anyone with the desire for healing in their life.

I experienced a lot of childhood trauma and finally realized I wasn’t alone when reading this book. I connected so much with the author’s insight on past trauma and how it affects my thinking now. Thank you!! Amazing book! And made me feel like I wasn’t the only one out there. Great read!

This is by far the best book I have read on PTSD. It is written to those that are caring for a loved one with PTSD. They talk about what you are feeling, what your loved one is going through, how to help your loved one, treatment options and more. I felt like I had someone who really understood all my mixed up, ever changing emotions. When our loved one is suffering with PTSD, it affects the whole family and oftentimes we are forgotten. They emphasize how important it is for caretakers to stay healthy in mind and body and give you practical steps to do that. I purchased this book for my Kindle, and I may even purchase a hard copy as well in case I want to share it with someone else. Such a great book. I may even read it over and over again because there is a lot of wonderful information to digest.

My 15-year-old child has PTSD. I struggled for the past 3 years with trying to help but always feeling inadequate to support her. This book is awesome. I learned so much in the first 30 pages that I had to take a break to absorb it. It really is a great book for telling me what I can do to help my child get through it. Also got The Body Keeps the Score, by Bessel Van Der Kolk, which is a brilliant book, too. We're finally making progress and I am so grateful.

So helpful for me and my fiancé to both read. He was diagnosed with PTSD last year after severing two tours in Afghanistan, and I have tried to read any and everything I can to understand what he's feeling. Because of this, some of it was already familiar to me, but it's a great introductory book that also parses out different ways that PTSD can present based on the underlying trauma. I rented it from the local library first and then decided to buy a copy for myself.

Helpful book. It covers a variety of PTSD situations so it's likely the reader will find something pertaining to their situation.

Great read giving good info to help me understand my partner,thank you Claudia zayfert.

A must read for anyone living with the fallout of PTSD. One of the few books that focuses on helping the whole family and not just the sufferer. You don't have to read it from cover to cover as it can be dipped into depending on where you and your loved one is, on the journey in learning to manage their PTSD.

Found very helpful, with useful tips and tools. Well written and insightful. An absolute must for people having to deal with PTSD and those caring about them and not knowing how to help (and look after themselves without feeling selfish).

I bought this for my nan because I suffer with post traumatic stress disorder and she says it's a really good and interesting book to read. She finds it really helpful.

I was really disappointed in this book. My partner and I both have PTSD, me from being sex trafficked as a child and him from being deployed multiple times to Afghanistan, Iraq and Somalia. The vast majority of this book describes what PTSD is and the symptoms and the types of therapy that an actual therapist will want to explore in therapy, which is simple information that you can get for free in a google search. I was looking for advice on how to help my partner with his PTSD relapse and how to better communicate and understand him shutting me out and how to get through to him. There's really none of that here. The little bit of advice is more of the "write pros and cons to see if you even want to stay" and "focus on self-care and caring for yourself." That's all well and good, but what about the vast majority of us who actually want to help our partners and communicate better and reconnect with them during their troubled times? There's been little research done on this, I think, and the book offers very little for someone like me. The most it ever gets into what I was looking for is to say not to communicate aggressively or passively, but assertively, which was also of no real help to me as someone who already communicates kindly and clearly, and that section is glossed over and doesn't have a lot of examples or thought put into it. I didn't need a book on what PTSD is and what therapy and medications can be used to treat it. The "What You Can Do" portion of this is sorely lacking and that's the only reason I bought this book, so I'm returning it.