Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo

247 reviews

entropyseeker's review

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

5.0

I've read a number of memoirs this past year. Memoirs and reflection pieces on depression, bi-polar disorder, domestic abuse, and being Asian in America. But What My Bones Know has hit the hardest. Even though I say that about every Asian authored memoir, this one feels more so. After my own diagnosis with cptsd a few months ago, I never really looked too much in to it, but Stephanie's story made me realize that there's still so much work to do and more to learn. Great book, read in one sitting, would read again. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

smilagros's review

challenging dark emotional informative inspiring tense medium-paced

I don’t rate memoirs because it is someone’s life and it feels wrong to rate someone’s life. I listened to it on audio and I wish I had the physical copy to annotate at the same time. She was brutally honest about her childhood abuse and about her relationships. Listening to her therapy sessions was extremely insightful. Hearing the connection between physical health and mental health made me want to scream from the rooftops because I have been saying this for years. It’s really nice to hear/read that the shift is happening. I listened to this as a person looking for answers to help with her health. But as social worker, I felt that these are the kind of books I wish we would read in school. Actual testimonies of people’s lives. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Child abuse, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Violence, Medical content, Grief, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, and Alcohol

flowchelle's review

challenging emotional informative fast-paced

4.5

Didn’t know how much I would personally grow from listening to this book! Stephanie’s vulnerability really makes this more than a story and more like a podcast by including all she has learned through her journey! I related a lot to the portions that pertain to generational trauma and having ancestors who had to really fight to be where they ended up and learning that those are inherited made a lot of sense. An incredible difference between the description of her childhood and the last sessions with her therapist! I enjoyed hearing those ‘live’ and how they worked through her trauma. The book never slowed down and was never boring to me. I liked how the flow worked and was happy that it ended on a positive note of hope!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Abandonment

faithaforman's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

Powerful and moving, the author's delving into her own trauma responses were eye-opening. Her exploration of self and path to self-love and self-acceptance gave me hope.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Violence, Grief, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Abandonment

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Bullying, Death, Drug use, Eating disorder, Suicidal thoughts, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Cancer, Cursing, Racism, Police brutality, and Classism

mavsllorin's review

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

Heavy read at first, but as the memoir progresses, I feel hope. This book taught me that healing is not linear but the journey is worth it. I would never have picked up this book if not for my book club, but I'm grateful I did. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Mental illness, and Abandonment

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

kate_wreads's review

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racism, and Abandonment

jenmaysiereads's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic

jourdanicus's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

5.0

I had to talk to my therapist about this one... In a good way? 😂

I never know how to review memoirs. And this wasn't totally a memoir... It's like, part memoir, part non-fiction about C-PTSD more generally.

I really appreciated the work and research Stephanie Foo did to connect her personal trauma with cultural and generational trauma, not only within her Malaysian Chinese family but Asian Americans in general. I also have a tendency to draw connections between my personal experiences and broader cultural patterns, so that resonated with me.

I would definitely recommend this book to trauma survivors, but only if you've done enough healing to be able to handle the triggers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

Moderate: Mental illness and Grief

Minor: Panic attacks/disorders, Racism, and Toxic relationship

crybabybea's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

Amazing. I'm learning this year that I really enjoy nonfiction written by journalists, and Stephanie Foo is no exception. Her writing is accessible and engaging, seamlessly blending personal anecdotes, interviews, facts, and studies to support her main thesis. Foo's intelligence and self-reflection shine through her writing. Her clever humor and insightful conclusions were inspiring. The book feels like a journey alongside her, offering lessons in healing from trauma. 

This is a must-read if you struggle with C-PTSD, or even if you just struggle with trauma or a different mental illness that affects your daily life. Even if you're familiar with C-PTSD, there's much to learn. The book's sad, hard-to-get-through moments are balanced with heartening and meditative insights, showing that healing is non-linear but ultimately intensely rewarding. 

Foo's perspective as an Asian-American adds depth to her memoir, offering compassion for her family's experiences and the broader Asian-American community. She explores her family's past, connecting her trauma with collective experiences, and acknowledges the complexities beyond stereotypes. 

I especially liked the penultimate part, which focused on her sessions with Dr. Jacob Ham. She unlocked a lot of self-discovery by having an open, loving, accepting relationship with her therapist. It was so heartfelt and inspiring to see that relationship blossom and ultimately help Stephanie recover and learn to accept love and kindness rather than self-flagellating and sinking into shame spirals. He emphasized the importance of reconnection and repair and revealed to Stephanie (and to me as a reader) that regulating your emotions and triggers is just the first step in a super complicated dance involving complex relationships and the damage and repair that happens in human connection.

The final couple of pages had me a complete sobbing mess. I really appreciated Stephanie's choice to end the book with a self-reflection about accepting her C-PTSD for what it is; not something that makes her broken and unlovable, but something that makes her who she is.

I highly recommend the audiobook, narrated by the author so it feels intimate and personal. She also included the original audio recordings of her sessions with Dr. Ham, which was a really neat addition that made the audio experience feel more transformative.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Grief, Car accident, Suicide attempt, and Gaslighting

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Racism, Rape, Xenophobia, Murder, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

There is no actual car accident but there is an incident of abuse in which the author experiences her father driving maniacally and threatening to kill everyone in the car.

emmasmidnightlibrary's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

As someone who has cptsd herself, this was an extremely validating and comforting read, despite the discomfort of the story itself. Of course, it took a decent amount of emotional work to get through, but I found it very worthwhile. Foo captures so many relatable moments- the process of learning about your diagnosis, the frustration at how little information is out there, the quest to understand yourself in this new helpful and terrifying frame. It was paced so well that I didn't have to live too long in any memory, and just beautifully written. I volleyed between reading the physical book and listening to the audiobook, and thought the audiobook was especially great in the later 30s chapters. Her therapy sessions were included in some of those tracks and you can hear them breaking down some very relatable things. I'd recommend this book to anyone with cptsd in a heartbeat.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Gaslighting, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racism, Xenophobia, and War

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic