Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

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

252 reviews

emreads56's review against another edition

I had to dnf due to the nature of the work and the place I am at mentally, but it is still a great commentary on society and trauma. For years my random pains and anxiety have been given stupid labels like IBS or ADHD instead of CPTSD and I hope this book starts that conversation

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Medical trauma, and War

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

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

owlribbon's review against another edition

challenging

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Grief, Sexual harassment, and War

zoekimmaskell's review against another edition

challenging dark hopeful informative medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

mitziatratum's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

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

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

embers_of_amber's review against another edition

challenging informative medium-paced

3.0

This book is a mixed bag. 
On one hand, there is a ton of practical advice and information. It explains a lot (treatments, how the DSM came about, how trauma was first studied and is still studied). 

Major problem though: it's written by an old white man and it reads very..biased. Inappropriate comments about patients, excusing war criminals, etc. It's also written in a more textbook like format. 

The epilogue was surprisingly progressive though. Trauma is political and an epidemic. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Rape, and War

emilydaniellew's review against another edition

challenging dark informative inspiring slow-paced

3.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, and War

bookthia's review against another edition

challenging slow-paced

2.0

This book was too much for me.  I am interested in how trauma affects people, both mentally and physically.  I am interested in approaches to treatment that are effective and cutting edge. I am particularly interested in how professionals (doctors, teachers, counsellors, clergy, and more) can perform their jobs through a trauma-informed lens. This book spent too much time detailing graphic details of trauma and insufficient time giving pragmatic information about how to aid people in our lives living through trauma.  Disappointing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Medical content, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

issyd23's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

2.0

Too boring 2🧠

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Body horror, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Dysphoria