Help for military spouses dealing with PTSD

Posted on 9th May 2012
in In the News
by Shawn

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Aug. 26,2010 Shawn Gourley has written a new book titled “Being A Military Spouse: Stand By Your Soldier” to spread awareness of spouses dealing with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). It will give an understanding of what it is like living with a veteran who has PTSD through her personal experience.

The book is expected to be released on September 10, 2010 on her Facebook fan page Military with PTSD. Fans will get a free copy as a digital download.

In this book you will find Shawn’s fight to save her husband and family from PTSD. Through her story, you will feel her struggles and pain when dealing with a loved one who suffers from PTSD. Gourley shows the symptoms of PTSD that her husband was experiencing, and the struggle to get help for it. This book will provide hope and understanding to many families.

Many books have been written where an individual veteran tells his story, but Gourley tells her own story in this book. She goes into great detail about the hell her family was living in. By hearing this story, spouses and families learn they are not alone, and they learn how she dealt with the trauma they are experiencing. Her story also will help loved ones understand what her husband has experienced and why those experiences have resulted in Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

Honesty is a great strength of “Being A Military Spouse: Stand By Your Soldier.” Gourley is completely honest and tells all in her story. She allows her husband’s military experience to be told as she highlights points showing her husband’s changing attitude as events were happening. Then she tells her story as the wife of a veteran, focusing particularly on her husband’s Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and how she and her children coped with it for almost 5 years before they realized what caused her husband’s anger and irrational behavior. Many books have been written about PTSD and many veterans have recounted their stories, but Gourley is the first author I know to tell the story from the spouses point of view; consequently, her book will help many families recognize that their loved one suffers from PTSD, and family members will find they are not alone in how the disorder has affected their families.

Beyond telling her own story, Gourley goes a step further; she includes the frighting story of her daughter who developed secondary PTSD. Many family members develop secondary PTSD as a result of walking on eggshells around their loved one, never knowing what might set the veteran off. As Gourley shows how everything is a crisis with PTSD. Somehow it is all connected with the war and survival. Something as simple as startling a veteran can make him go into survival mode and become violent, or he may be irritable over something as small as the noise from something accidentally falling. Family members begin to live in fear of setting off the veteran’s anger, which makes them develop secondary PTSD.

“Being A Military Spouse: Stand By Your Soldier” stands out among books about Post Traumatic Stress Disorder because it is written for both veterans and their families. Anyone who served in a war or who has a loved one who served will find it helpful and eye opening. Gourley has succeeded in opening up communication in families and restoring hope and understanding where before there was confusion and despair. “Being A Military Spouse: Stand By Your Soldier” may help many spouses and families deal with PTSD instead of leaving

Tags: book, military with ptsd, PTSD, shawn gourley, spouses