Table of Contents

Foreword
Author's Preface
An Introduction to Post Traumatic Stress Disorder
Stories from PTSD Sufferers and Their Families
I Could Have Been the Poster Child for PTSD (U.S. Air Force)
Part of Him Just Didn't Come Home (U.S. Army Spouse)
Living With PTSD Has Become a Bearable Reality (Royal Canadian Army)
I Look at Life Differently Now (German Army)
A Part of Me Died That Night (U.S. Army)
I Believed I Did Not Have a Problem (Royal Australian Air Force/Army)
He Thought I Was Telling Him He Was Crazy (U.S. Army Spouse)
I'll Never Be What I Was Before (Royal Canadian Navy)
People Ask Me Where My Smile Went (U.S. Marine Corps)
We Walked Around on Eggshells (Royal Canadian Army Girlfriend)
My Life Has Been Ruined (Royal Australian Air Force)
Many Thought His PTSD Was Bullshit (Royal Australian Air Force Spouse of the Above)
At Some Point the Soul Forms a Shield (German Army)
I Long to Be Who I Was (U.S. Army)
I Had Planned to Have Myself Shot (Royal Canadian Army)
Every Day Is a Struggle (U.S. Navy/Army Spouse)
Behind Locked Doors and With a Barbed Wire Over the Fence (Royal Australian Army)
I Am Learning Not to Take It Personally When He Pushes Me Away (U.S. Army Spouse)
I Attempted Nine Suicides (Royal Canadian Army)
I Was Certain I Was Going Crazy (U.S. Navy)
One Owns Up to It Relatively Late (German Army)
PTSD Has Totally Robbed Me of the Man I Married (Royal Canadian Army Spouse)
I Feel Guilty for Everything (U.S. Army)
For Me, the War Is Still On (German Army)
Nothing Will Ever Be the Same (U.S. Army)
I'm Looking Forward to My Future (Royal Canadian Army)
All I Want Is Acceptance (U.S. Army)
I Want People to Know That There Is Hope (U.S. Army Spouse of the Above)
It Was Always My Fault (Royal Canadian Army Spouse)
I Have Made My Peace With It (Royal Canadian Navy)
Scars and Memories Will Remain in My Soul (German Army)
You Think You Are the Only One (Royal Canadian Army)
Appendixes

About the Author

Leah Wizelman is a biologist and researcher at the Technical University of Munich, Germany, on psycho-physiological aspects of posttraumatic stress disorder at the Institute of Psychosomatics and Psychotherapy in the Faculty of Medicine.

Reviews

This book spells out the facts about post-traumatic stress disorder by mainly letting its victims and their families tell their stories. Many of the war veterans give up their hobbies and isolate themselves, many turn to alcohol, many take multiple pills (one Vietnam survivor is still on 16 medications), many are paranoid (one Iraq survivor dug foxholes in his garden and built an observation post in a tree in his yard)....Wizelman, a German biologist and PTSD researcher, explains that the condition first appeared in the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 1980 but actually dates back thousands of years. Homer, she says, described the symptoms in the Iliad in 4000 B.C. These moving but almost universally disheartening stories show that treatment can help but is no panacea.
*Booklist*

Leah Wizelman's When the War Never Ends complements and extends what we know about combat-related PTSD by conveying the stories about the consequences, not just the causes of this life-debilitating mental disorder. A must read for anyone who cares about those who risked their life for their country and gave up a part of their mind.
*Charles R. Figley, Ph.D., the Paul Henry Kurzweg, MD Distinguished Chair in Disaster Mental Health at Tulane University*

Leah Wizelman's book captures the essence of PTSD as told by military veterans and their spouses. These men and women know better than anyone that the psychological scars of war never end. In their own words, this volume brings to life the statistics of war that we all know. The personal testimonies show that these invisible wounds of war permeate all wars and nationalities. As poignant are the stories of spouses who suffer secondary traumatization and face their own battles after the war. I highly recommend this volume to all who seek to understand combat-related PTSD. There is no escaping the searing and enduring effects of war.
*Kathryn M. Magruder, M.P.H., Ph.D., Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Military Science Division; Medical University of South Carolina*

Leah Wizelman, a biologist and researcher at the Technical University of Munich in Germany, specializes in the psycho physiological aspects of post-traumatic stress disorder. In her new book, When the War Never Ends: The Voices of Military Members with PTSD and Their Families, Wizelman presents thirty-two of these voices: short, first person accounts by veterans from the United States, Canada, Australia, and Germany who have PTSD. The voices also include several spouses of the veterans. Several of the veterans served in the Vietnam War. All describe in intimate (and sometimes painful) detail the effects of PTSD on their daily lives.
*The VVA Veteran*

When the War Never Ends provides a refreshing contrast to much of the trauma literature. Each self-contained chapter is the personal narrative of an ex-serviceman or their carer describing the mental torture that is PTSD... Anyone wanting to understand what it is to have a 'flashback' will learn more from these first-hand accounts than from any textbook.
*The British Journal of Psychiatry*