The body keeps the score

[somerandomguy]

There is a book that was just released here in the United States called "Dead Link Removed" by Bessel van der Kolk MD, a longtime researcher of PTSD. I just started to read it and I can barely put it down.

Highly recommended.

 

[Anarchy]

Thanks for the heads up @somerandomguy .
van der Kolk's work is fascinating, he's a really good speaker too, it's well worth searching for his lectures on vimeo (and creepy google's youtube, if you must).

he's not afraid to call BS on a lot of what passes for received wisdom for example all of the dozen or so overlapping diagnoses that people with complex early trauma / developmental trauma get labelled/stigmatized with

he also lists out at least 15 separate studies finding a very strong causative correlation between childhood trauma and a diagnosis of "borderline personality disorder" (78% can show a category A trauma).

 

[Nam]

Yes, just read this in the past month. At first, I thought it was going to be like an autobiography of his work and his part in the history of psychology. After the first few chapters, it no longer felt like that. It was a great read. I enjoyed reading it very much and I learned a great deal. It caused me to follow up with lots of other books and I haven't stopped. Knowledge helps. It helps to label the process with a name. It puts the experience in a context that helps me to organize and plan.

I'll probably reread it again when I'm in a different place in my healing.

 

[shimmerz]

I love Van der Kolk's work. I will check it out! Thank you!

 

[WillyKat]

I've read the article with that as part of the title. Here's a link to a bunch of articles from the Trauma Center's publications site: http://www.traumacenter.org/products/publications.php

Thanks for posting; I may have to look at that.

 

[somerandomguy]

@WillyKat - you ought to. It's the most thorough book about PTSD I've ever read. I learned so much just from the first two chapters - stuff I can apply to myself.

 

[Nighthawk]

Awesome book

 

[Dali77]

Saw the high ratings on amazone

Could you summarize what this book teaches about trauma ?

 

[WillyKat]

I haven't read the book, but based on van der Kolk's previous work, the very short answer is that the effects of trauma strongly affect our physiology, our body. PTSD and other disorders that result from trauma are not just in the mind. To heal, you need to involve the entire body along with the mind. So he's an advocate of yoga, etc, but really anything that getting to know one's body better, to get us moving, breathing, etc.

van der Kolk also wrote the Preface or Introduction to Overcoming Trauma through Yoga. I suspect the basics of what he's saying are summarized there.

 

[shimmerz]

the effects of trauma strongly affect our physiology, our body

So many people don't get this at all. I know when I try to bring it up people look at me as if I have two heads (one at times is difficult enough for me). I think it is key in healing trauma, I watch my body for clues and it really helps.

 

[Nam]

If I try to summarize what it said, I'll get it all confused with other books I have been reading. I'm reading bits and pieces of it right now to see if I can give a synopsis.

He uses his knowledge and his experiences to help understand how trauma affects how survivors think, behave, and feel both emotionally and physically. It's filled with examples that help clarify the concepts. He goes into the specifics on how the brain works and responds to trauma. He also goes into deep detail about various kinds of treatment, some that I've never heard of before. He also gives examples here too. The biggest point, I think, that he made is that in order to process trauma, you have to understand the bodily sensations that are associated with the trauma.

It's a great book. If you google the book, you'll get excerpts of the book which will tell you his writing style (which is like storytelling), and the kind of content you will read.

 

[Kintsugi]

@Dali77 I didn't know who this was, so I poked around on Google, and I found this article about him and his work (from Spring 2014) informative and interesting: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/05/25/magazine/a-revolutionary-approach-to-treating-ptsd.html?_r=0