Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk

126 reviews

atalea's review against another edition

4.0

dark hopeful informative inspiring sad medium-paced

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Medical trauma

mariamorrone's review against another edition

3.0

challenging emotional informative tense slow-paced

---

This book was very interesting and I learned a lot about myself. However, I found it incredibly hard to get through as the content is very dense. It reminded me of my psychology textbooks from when I was in university. I recommended this book to those willing to put in the work and time to read it. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Dementia, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Dysphoria, War, Injury/Injury detail

katekrauch's review against another edition

4.5

challenging emotional informative sad tense

---

As a neuroscience major and someone fascinated with psychology I found this book extremely interesting. It is, however, very dense and uses a lot of technical jargon. I also had to take it more slowly as I found parts of it difficult to read because of my own trauma. All in all, worth the read. Some of the ideas and lessons offered will stick with me for a long time 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Medical content, Grief, Abortion, Suicide attempt

mscarlettc's review against another edition

2.0

challenging dark emotional informative reflective slow-paced

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis

ashleyann's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark emotional informative slow-paced

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Medical content, Medical trauma, Abandonment

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War

Minor: Cancer, Infidelity, Murder

lesenilpferd's review against another edition

3.0

challenging dark emotional informative sad slow-paced

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical content, Car accident, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War

thira's review against another edition

5.0

informative reflective medium-paced

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Abandonment, Sexual harassment

Moderate: Death, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Car accident, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Terminal illness, Violence, Vomit, Suicide attempt

helhas3letters's review against another edition

3.5

emotional hopeful informative inspiring slow-paced

---

Very informative work on how trauma is held long-term in the body and brain, with a specific focus on PTSD (incurred either in childhood or adulthood).
The first few chapters detail cause-and-effect with lots of evidence from scientific studies, inclusion of brain scans and diagrams, reference to the author's personal experience working for many years in the field of psychiatry, and fascinating case studies of patients at trauma centres. Concludes with a hopeful and substantial chapter on various empirically proven methods of healing from trauma.
Can be heavy at times as it deals with some very serious issues, but overall an inspiring, enlightening, research-based read. Knocked off 1/2 a star as I thought it was a little repetitive at times.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Mental illness, Medical content

Moderate: Incest, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence

Minor: Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Infidelity, Miscarriage, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , War, Injury/Injury detail

As this book deals with trauma, there is lots of mention of disturbing and scarring events, however I felt that Van Der Kolk does not go into more detail than is necessary. Most things that can be considered triggers - e.g. death, trafficking, war, domestic abuse - are only mentioned or briefly described to give context to what follows. The author goes into a moderate amount of detail on some instances of child abuse, sexual assault, incest, and self-harm. Mental illness, especially PTSD, is discussed in detail throughout.

sweettartdemon's review against another edition

2.75

challenging informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

---

I didn’t actually finish the book. I only had about 20-30 pages left before I had to give it to my friend since it was supposed to be their birthday present and I wanted to read it before gifting it to them. So I had to return it before I was able to finish it. 

The first half of the book talks about the multiple ways trauma is stored in the body and how it manifests in traumatized individuals, while the remainder of the book discusses treatments. The trigger warnings are very important to read before starting it because although some of the mentions are brief, they can be very detailed so please read with caution and take breaks if you need to. The reason I said it was fast-paced was because the book is divided into parts, chapters and sections. Each chapter has multiple sections that are between a page and three pages long at the most. Most sections are a little over a page maybe a page. This made it really easy to zoom through the book. 

I did have some issues with some of the stories the author chose to write about. One of the reasons I avoided the book at first was because I didn’t want to read about the war crimes of a vietnam veteran and to see how poor poor war criminal is traumatized from raping and murdering innocent women and children! While I think it’s important to learn about trauma and how much it can help people process their trauma I would highly avoid this book as a start. It is WAYY too detailed in a way that can re traumatize its readers. Especially if they are SA survivors. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual violence, Medical content

Minor: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Infidelity, Self harm, War

gabi12's review against another edition

5.0

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content