End Your Covert Mission: A Veteran's Guide to Fighting Pain and Addiction

Specialists give veterans the tools to conquer chronic pain and substance use in this to-the-point guide. 

For many veterans and service members, life after military service includes what feels like an ongoing mission to disguise or ignore pain. Too often this mission is both secret and lonely—a battle undertaken without the support or even the knowledge of those around them.  

Some strategies to manage physical, social, and psychological pain are only short-term fixes. Self-medicating, substance use, and bottling up emotions don't work as part of civilian life. 

Written by professional practitioners in trauma, substance use disorder, pain management, and rehabilitation who are also members of the veteran community, End Your Covert Mission is an approachable, non-judgmental guide for stopping that self-imposed mission and developing solutions that lead to a healthier and happier life. 

 The book includes features that help readers discover a path to recovery: 

- examples of the types of pain veterans may experience 

- language for admitting, describing, and sharing these various types of pain 

- personal stories from veterans 

- effective approaches for connecting with other veterans and family members 

- methods to address active substance use 

- ways to identify and manage risk factors for future substance use disorders 

Dustin Brockberg, PhD, is a Licensed Psychologist working in the field of substance abuse and co-occurring disorders. He served in the United States Army from 2004-2008, including a deployment to Iraq. His clinical interests include veteran-related issues, grief, loss, affect phobia, and trauma. 

Kerry Brockberg, PhD, is a Licensed Psychologist working in the field of rehabilitation. Her current practice focuses on individuals with chronic pain, brain injury, and other chronic illnesses and disabilities. She specializes in the development of tangible, psychological approaches connecting the mind and body in better understanding overall functioning and quality of life. 

ISBN: 9781616499884
Format: Paperback
Pages: 213
Publisher: Hazelden Publishing
Published: November 01, 2022

“After our nation's best marched into the valley of the shadow of death, many Veterans returned home under a shadow of pain and trauma. God Bless Dustin and Kerry for this insightful work. It provides Veterans a sound action plan to cast a healing light on those shadows.”“Finally—an important book centered in the veteran culture! End Your Covert Mission empowers the reader to draw on the strengths of the veteran experience while also acknowledging what needs to be left behind to best cope with pain in all its manifestations.”“Written from a veteran’s perspective, End Your Covert Mission offers authentic insights and user-friendly strategies. A great resource for veterans and their loved ones wanting to live better with chronic pain.”“As an interventional pain physician, I tend to focus on the physical side of pain, but complex chronic pain is more than physical and involves psychosocial and emotional components that are equally important. I worked alongside Dr. Kerry Brockberg for several years in our multidisciplinary pain clinic where I watched her skillfully guide our patients through the maze of emotions and psychological consequences that often occur when people struggle with chronic pain. Her wonderful new book focuses on the unique circumstances of chronic pain after military service, and I believe it will help many veterans triumph over chronic pain and improve quality of life.”“As a former Army nurse and CNP with the VA for 28 years, I think this book provides a practical guide for veterans suffering from chronic pain. Having worked in pain management for 18 years, recommendations in the book are on target with the proven multidisciplinary management of chronic pain and the psychological suffering that accompanies that pain.”“Veterans helping veterans! This is not another outsider or academic telling veterans how they should ‘feel.’ This veteran couple has lived it and can help you end your covert mission!”