Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

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

86 reviews

random_tuga's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

Very interesting and informative. I learn a lot with this one although i felt that the last couple of chapters were a bit repetitive. It mentions a lot of studies conducted either by the author or other scientists and very heavy, graphic descriptions of what the peopl he helped went through. Read the tags for this one, seriously. Don't go into this one expecting a sort of self help book, it very much focus on science snd investigation 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Drug use, and Incest

kadengrace's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

2.5

i’ve heard the phrase “the body keeps the score” so often that i wanted to read this book to hopefully learn more, but i think i could have learned more about this concept from better resources. this book was dense and heavy, which meant i needed to split up my reading sessions in order to finish it. i’m not fully sure how useful this book will be to me—i think it brought up interesting ideas that i’m looking forward to exploring in other resources, but i wonder how much detail was needed in descriptions of trauma. it felt overly triggering and written from a relatively narrow point of view. i think i will gain more elsewhere, and i’m not sure what i did gain from reading this book was worth the struggle to finish it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Trafficking, War, Infidelity, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Addiction, Violence, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Eating disorder, Grief, Death, Drug use, Alcoholism, Child death, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Classism, and Adult/minor relationship

brookerobbo's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Forced institutionalization, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Addiction, Drug abuse, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, War, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Hate crime, Incest, Murder, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, Violence, Car accident, Genocide, Gun violence, Self harm, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual content, Grief, Infidelity, Mass/school shootings, Medical content, and Medical trauma

s_lorenz's review against another edition

hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Classism, Emotional abuse, Incest, Murder, Sexual assault, Medical trauma, Pedophilia, Rape, Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Grief, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, and Car accident

Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Chronic illness, Bullying, Classism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, Racism, Self harm, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Torture, Domestic abuse, Police brutality, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

bookfriend8's review against another edition

emotional informative reflective slow-paced

4.75

Really appreciate this book. I was worried about it being too medical and difficult to understand, but the author provides thorough and accessible explanations on what happens to the human body and mind after trauma, and also offers his opinion on how conditions such as (C)PTSD can effectively be cured. He supports his scientific descriptions with personal and patient anecdotes, and although these were often very graphic and distressing (trigger warning for everything), it helped to balance out the scientific information and to see how they manifest in real life. Understanding how distressing experiences can literally change a person forever really explains the origins of people’s behaviours and patterns. Overall, would give it 5/5, but some chapters were also long-winded and repetitive, and there was plenty of US-defaultism.
It was deeply enlightening for me to read this book and I’m glad I decided to pick it up. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Chronic illness, Child abuse, Death, Self harm, Grief, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, War, Pedophilia, Mental illness, Medical content, Incest, Physical abuse, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, and Violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Car accident, Suicide, Medical trauma, Drug use, Suicide attempt, Eating disorder, Addiction, Abandonment, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

Includes virtually all triggering topics, would not recommend to people who aren’t comfortable with difficult or graphic stories, particularly if they relate personally.

amessina3399's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

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

comrad3's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Incest, Addiction, Gaslighting, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Drug use, and Gun violence

authorbrittanibee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

I'm honestly not sure how to rate such a read, but I can certainly share my thoughts on it.

Going in, this book immediately caused the trauma I have been working on to resurface in a very strong way. I think I personally should have prepared myself more mentally for the first half of the book as the stories shared immediately upset me. If certain stories of trauma cause you distress, I highly recommend either mentally preparing yourself for them or skipping to the end of the book where it relates more to healing and recovery (there are still mentions of traumatic stories, but the frequency and intensity is less as this area is more focused on the observable benefits of different types of therapy). This is definitely a book that should be read in manageable chunks, with lots of breaks in between, especially if any of the inner stories resonate with you or your past experiences. 

I definitely felt more empowered as I reached the latter chapters of this book when the author discusses the advances and implications of specific therapies as applied to various trauma survivors. I was especially surprised to find that EMDR had such high rates of "cure" for lack of a better term, but that this did not translate to those with history of childhood trauma, such as myself. What I really appreciated was the extensive dive into each form of therapy (EMDR, Yoga, Physchomotor, Neurofeedback, IFS, etc) as I hadn't heard of many of them and they each offered a potential solution. There are even specific resources and websites listed at the back of the book in case you want to further explore options for yourself. 

Overall, this book was wonderful in helping me to feel seen and less upset about the symptoms I have experienced throughout my life. It even helped me to uncover possible explanations as to why I have such a lapse in memory with my childhood years, reasons I may have been acting out, and why I view the world in the ways I do now. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Body horror, Blood, Child abuse, Abandonment, Addiction, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Chronic illness, Drug use, Eating disorder, Suicidal thoughts, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Death, Excrement, Pedophilia, Grief, Gun violence, Mass/school shootings, Self harm, Violence, War, Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Incest, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

mitziatratum's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, War, Torture, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Medical content, Racism, Physical abuse, Pedophilia, Violence, Child abuse, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Panic attacks/disorders, Mental illness, Medical trauma, Mass/school shootings, Domestic abuse, Death, Incest, Gun violence, Grief, Emotional abuse, Eating disorder, Dysphoria, Drug use, Drug abuse, Child death, Car accident, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Ableism, and Abandonment

amyalwaysbooked's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective slow-paced

2.0

This one was difficult to review. I found the start of the book to be quite strong. There was some information about the brain and how it functions and how it responds to trauma that I found genuinely interesting. However, the book is repetitive. Van der Kolk would repeat anecdotal stories in different points in the book as if he had not already brought it up before. I found that jarring. And the stories themselves...

I know this is a book about trauma, but I did not expect him to go into such details of the personal traumas of multiple people. It felt gratuitous to me how often he would delve into the nitty gritty of a person's experienced trauma. I was expecting a book on the science of the brain and body's response to trauma, and while that was part of what I read, it was not the whole. I imagine this book would be especially upsetting for people who have experienced any extensive trauma. I also didn't love the ways in which can der Kolk often wrote about the people whose stories he shared. Women were often described physically, and the men were given a lot of slack for some of the horrible things they did because of their trauma. Except for one exception it often felt like he saw women as only victims of spousal or sexual abuse while men were only victims of military PTSD.

There were some excellent points made about the way the medical system in the US works, or rather, how it doesn't work. I appreciated how the lack of universal health care and better care for veterans and mothers only enables a vicious cycle of trauma. Unfortunately this also meant that a lot of what he was saying was "well here are some great ideas of what we could try, but there's no strong study behind any of it so maybe someday???"

I found the personal stories and van der Kolk's treatment of them to be far too distracting for any of the positives I found to be worthwhile. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Car accident, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Self harm, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Violence, Alcoholism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Suicide, Pedophilia, Rape, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis