Reviews tagging 'Drug abuse'

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

169 reviews

schopflin's review against another edition

slow-paced

4.0

This is highly readable despite the complexity of some of the concepts. I have no background in neuroscience but I was able to follow these parts and understand them. From another aspect, this book is potentially life-changing. I wouldn't say my experiences were traumatic on the scale of the patients described here, but I recognised so many of the physical responses to stressful situations. Not least, the pure lack of safety I feel in relation to others. This isn't an easy read, but we'll worth it. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Suicide attempt

katiedalton's review against another edition

I think this book was well written but it was very heavy and my brain was not prepared for the topic. I’m not sure why it certainly promotes itself as a book about trauma. 

I did not expect the graphic and countless descriptions of sexual assault, to include incest and child sexual abuse. It also detailed veteran trauma experiences, but the sexual abuse stories of children got to me. 

And I am not sure such quantity and detail of trauma stories were necessary to make the authors point, which is that the brain rewires itself in response to trauma. 

I have heard so many people praise this book and I wanted to appreciate it but it was very hard to listen to. It moved very slowly, and the solutions seem to be at the last chapters of the book and I couldn’t hold out for them. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Incest, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Alcoholism, Drug abuse, and Self harm

annerbtw's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced

3.75

 3.78/5 ⭐️ - because I want to be difficult with my rating.

I liked it, I found it insightful, but I think I went in with the wrong expectations. I assumed that by the end of the book, you'd have resources that could be "easily" applied to your own mental health journey. Kolk definitely teaches you about them, but they're not easily applied to anything specific you might have going on. It's a very educational read... but don't read it side-by-side with A Little Life, my GOD... do not.

Also, (sorry for long review, anyone reading) there are some negative reviews about Kolk sympathizing with horrible people - I don't necessarily think that's true. The same way that people find documentaries about serial killers interesting, I think the same applies here. I would never excuse the actions some mentally disturbed people do at the beginning of this book, but I think it's important for us to find the source (if there is one), and figure out how to keep it from happening again. There can be a lot of fascination in this topic because of just how complex humans are, how complex the brain is.... that's what the whole book is about. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

yaelm's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective sad tense

3.0

מבינה מה הכותב אומר ובסה״כ מדובר בספר עשיר במידע וקולח, אבל השפה בה הוא משתמש מאוד בעייתית (אנשים נורמליים לעומת אנשים עם פוסט טראומה, למשל) ולפעמים כואבת.

יש לו גם כל מיני הבחנות מכאיבות מאוד לגבי הורות עם פוסט טראומה. אני לא הורה בעצמי אבל זה כאב לי בכל הגוף. היו עוד כל מיני כאלו לאורך הספר.

מעבר לזה, מבוסס (בחלקו) על מדע שכבר אינו עדכני ולדעתי גם בתקופת הכתיבה של הספר לא היה מדויק (הצד הימני של המוח הוא היצירתי והשמאלי הוא השכלתני וכו׳).

מלאאא בטריגרים כמובן, כל דבר שיכול לגרום לפוסט טראומה. כמה מהמקרים שהוא מציג כטראומטיים מאוד מקוממים (אדם שביצע פשעים נוראיים כלפי נשים וילדים וחזר מהמלחמה עם טראומה, למשל. אין לי ספק שהוא באמת חזר בטראומה, אבל זה עבר בלי ביקורת בכלל. ברור לי שכפסיכיאטר התפקיד שלו הוא לא להפעיל שיפוט מוסרי, ועדיין אפשר היה לכתוב איזו מילה וחצי כמו שהוא עשה במקרים אחרים ופחות שחורים מוסרית)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Genocide, Infidelity, Antisemitism, Grief, Medical trauma, Car accident, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury

bethboo's review against another edition

emotional informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

4.5

This book has so much information. It's a lot longer and in depth than a quick personal growth read. This is a book I definitely wouldn't have gotten so much out of had I not been reading it in tandem with the information given to me by my therapist. It is so much more than a simple book on trauma and therapy techniques. It's the history of diagnoses, therapies, techniques, studies, training, patients, doctors, and experiences surrounding trauma. The author must be fucking immortal because he had first hand experience from ages ago and gave stories and examples and information for every single one he spoke of. I got a lot personally from the EMDR section and the structured Family Therapy or whatever and the beginning sections describing the brain and trauma and how it's all connected. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

lafreier's review against another edition

dark hopeful informative slow-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

beklovesbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

5.0

An excellent textbook on trauma and the science-backed approaches to healing from it. Also an interesting journey through the author’s professional experiences that led to his outstanding knowledge on the subject. 

Read the trigger warnings and take them seriously. He often gives details about horrific abuse and sensitive information about patients, later illustrating their growth, but I would imagine it would be too much for many people with backgrounds touched by abuse, neglect, suicide etc.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Medical content, Dementia, Grief, Mass/school shootings, Medical trauma, and War

Moderate: Biphobia, Confinement, Eating disorder, Pedophilia, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Mass/school shootings, Religious bigotry, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Dysphoria, and War

evalunny's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, 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, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

warmrats's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

4.5

Amazing. Changed the way I think about myself and the people around me. Really resonated with me in a lot of ways. I will continue to implement these ideas about trauma in a variety of ways 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Incest, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, and Abandonment

Tread with caution as the book discusses many traumatizing experiences and provides examples of clients. However very important to understand methods of healing

brookerobbo's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

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