PatiencePress.com
Title
Help for PTSD: information, resources, and the Post-Traumatic Gazette Newsletter from Patience Press
Description
My husband's (Robert Mason) Vietnam memoirs, Chickenhawk and Chickenhawk: Back In The World and my book, Recovering from the War, describe how we lived with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder when it didn't have a name and wasn't supposed to exist. When Bob came back from his tour as a helicopter pilot in Vietnam (1st Cav, ‘65-’66), problems developed. We lived with PTSD for 14 years during which I felt there was something wrong with me because I couldn't make him happy. He thought he was crazy. We did not associate any of it with Vietnam.
In 1986, I began writing the book I wish had been available to me when my husband came back from Vietnam with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. As I researched Recovering From The War, I interviewed survivors of all types of trauma, developed a healing perspective on PTSD (all its symptoms are survival skills), read scientific papers and books on all types of trauma, and found help in 12 Step groups. Today my life contains a lot of serenity and peace, which I'd like to share.
Survivors of all kinds of trauma and their families have had similar experiences. My desire is to provide information which will keep other people from having to go through what we went through. I want everyone to know that it is normal to be affected by trauma. I am dedicated to writing about PTSD in a healing way, no matter what type of trauma is involved. Whether you lost a family member on Flight 800 or survived Hurricane Andrew, whether you have been a battered person, survived child sexual abuse, rape, fire, flood, or combat, everything I write is intended to help you recover. You did not deserve whatever you endured. You didn’t cause it even if other people blame you for it. It is normal to be affected by trauma, and you deserve to recover. I offer a wide variety of resources, because different people need different things to recover. Families are quite naturally affected by living with a trauma survivor, so I write for them too. I want to supply you with information about the normal effects of trauma up to and including PTSD. I also want to give you hope for recovery.
