In CV-PTSD: What It Is and What To Do About It, bestselling author William A. Haseltine gives us a name for the trauma we have experienced throughout the pandemic, both individually and collectively: Covid Related Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (CV-PTSD). In addition to outlining the shape of our shared experience, the book also lays out a comprehensive road map to help us plot a course to rebuild our societies, better and healthier than they were before.
CV-PTSD encompasses the full effects of all we've endured over the past year and half, which is manifested daily in rising rates of depression, anxiety and drug addiction, the ongoing loss of academic opportunities for the young, as well as the widening fissures, political and cultural, within society. These problems-social, emotional, economic, political-will not be remedied quickly. We will be living with the effects for many years to come.
The book makes the case for CV-PTSD to be a diagnosable disorder in the classification of disease. Officially naming and coding the diagnosable condition is a first step towards developing treatments and therapies, making these treatments available to patients and communities at an affordable price, and moving beyond purely medical solutions, to also embrace a socio-economic approach to mental health.
Each chapter of the book explores the effects of the pandemic on different groups, such as schoolchildren, parents, healthcare workers, and caregivers. Taken together, the work is an urgent call to action for policymakers, healthcare leaders and patients themselves to recognize the symptoms of our shared experience and to find new opportunities to rebuild society more completely and compassionately than before.
CV-PTSD is a Living eBook, updated regularly with new information as it unfolds. When a reader purchases a copy of the book, either in print or online, they will receive a passcode that will give them online access to every subsequent edition of the book. Readers who have already purchased a copy, visit www.williamhaseltine.com/cvptsd to access the newest edition.
