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Book recommendations

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Libs40

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Have you found any books that have helped during your healing?

I did therapy for many years after my brother assaulted me 8 years ago. I haven’t done therapy now for a few years despite having a relapse due to being diagnosed with chronic health problems. I have chronic fatigue syndrome/ME. It’s been too exhausting to go back to therapy because of my condition. I also have had therapy on an off since I was 19 because of my family during my childhood so it’s not really something I want to go back to at this current time. I keep thinking do I focus on healing the chronic fatigue syndrome or do I focus on healing the PTSD. I have decided I need to work on my mental health because it affects my physical health greatly. Stress on the body only fuels the CFS/ME and is a known trigger for the condtion.

This year I’ve had a major relapse, due to the stress of the pandemic and having 3 teenagers at home rebelling against the restrictions we’ve had to put in place to keep myself and my husband safe who has asthma. It’s been really stressful and difficult and because of that I’ve had a big relapse with my physical health and a relapse with my mental health. I am now suffering from anxiety and panic attacks like I used to.

I have suffered anxiety for years at r the assault but it was much better. When I start reading books on anxiety they always say that if you have trauma then you need extra help and possibly the book won’t help because the anxiety has a different cause. So I’m asking here does anybody recommend any books for trauma that will help the anxiety and panic attacks trauma brings?

Thank you ?
 
Complex Cptsd, by Pete Walker
When the Body Says No, by Gabor Mate
The Biology of Belief, by Bruce Lipton
The Brain that Changes Itself, and The Brain’s Way of Healing, by Norman Doige
Sacred Pathways, by Todd Murphy
Getting the Love You Want, by Harville Hendrix
Wired for Love, by Stan Tatkin
The Power of Now, by Eckart Tolle
All of David Deida’s books
Molecules of Emotion, by Candace B Pert
Tao Te Ching
Vagina, by Naomi Wolf
Loads of mythologies and fairy tales
Women Who Run with the Wolves, by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
The Vinyl Cafe books by Stuart McLean (not therapy books, but super helpful for learning healthy family dynamics through the bumbling and amusing messiness of life- very light-hearted, lots of laughing and also some tears)

There are so many more. I’m just starting Pete Walker’s The Tao of Fully Feeling. I used to read 6-12 books/month (less if very dense and more when the combo was lighter). I read a lot of different kinds of nonfiction; there aren’t many subjects I’ve read nothing about. I wasn’t allowed to read non-school books while growing up, so would read my textbooks right away and then get a hold of the next yrs textbooks and so on.

Once I left home and finished college, I started reading for myself and to learn everything I was prevented from knowing before. I’ve easily read over a thousand books and gave away my personal library of thousands of books twice and now have a re-established one. My family reads for hours every day because we love it. Among my children are two emerging writers as well.

[With caution] Two of my sons found The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan to be therapeutic. My other son says The Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson helped him, and he is currently reading Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins. They all cautioned that these all need to be accompanied by a multi-faceted therapeutic approach because there are many traumatic elements in all of these.

My children are all healthily therapised, naturally philosophical and ongoingly educated in both mythology and psychology, and have not be diagnosed with ptsd, though they’ve experienced much trauma and each has several ptsd signals (prefer this term and meaning over symptoms). I’ve not read any of these, but while they were reading them, we had near-daily deep and healing conversations sparked by the contents of these books, so that is all I know personally about them.
 
I am realizing now that although I love to read and have many books, almost none of them have content explicitly on healing trauma.
But here are some that I have read that I have found useful in my recovery-

-Modern Makes Me a Hungry Girl by Carrie Brownstein ( memoir. the family dynamics and interpersonal relationships described in this unexpectedly resonated a lot with me)
-Are You My Mother and Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
-My Lesbian Experiences With Loneliness by Nagata Kabi
-Self Esteem by Virginia Satir (this is short and I think is actually a poem that I'm sure can be found in an internet search)

I havent read a lot on scientific end of trauma, but I like to read from individuals experiences- that is where I draw the most value.
Especially in poetry.
Maya Angelou, Mary Oliver, Adrienne Rich, Andrea Gibson are all writers whose work is instrumental in my healing.
 
@fern Mary Oliver's "Wild Geese" affected me profoundly when I first read it, and it remains a favourite since. I'm posting it here for anyone who has not read it before, or for those of us who love the reminder :)

Dead Link Removed

<copy/paste of poem removed as a violation of copyright policy>
 
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@fern Mary Oliver's "Wild Geese" affected me profoundly when I first read it, and it remains a favourite since. I'm posting it here for anyone who has not read it before, or for those of us who love the reminder :)

In my last apartment I had that poem written out and hung up next to my bed, so I could have the reminder.

I love how Mary Oliver writes in a way that connects you not only to her, but to a sense of belonging in the natural world. That, contrary to how our brains make us think sometimes, we are not alone, we are not isolated individuals, we are part of this natural system in which everything has meaning and is interconnected.
 
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anything by the late Alice Miller PhD...see AlicedashMillerdotcom(hope I'm allowed to write that) or Wikipedia for a launch point into her world

Her book Prisoners of Childhood addresses the vulnerability/helplessness/shame dynamic like nothing else I ever read. YMMV obviously.
 
Complex Cptsd, by Pete Walker
When the Body Says No, by Gabor Mate
The Biology of Belief, by Bruce Lipton
The Brain that Changes Itself, and The Brain’s Way of Healing, by Norman Doige
Sacred Pathways, by Todd Murphy
Getting the Love You Want, by Harville Hendrix
Wired for Love, by Stan Tatkin
The Power of Now, by Eckart Tolle
All of David Deida’s books
Molecules of Emotion, by Candace B Pert
Tao Te Ching
Vagina, by Naomi Wolf
Loads of mythologies and fairy tales
Women Who Run with the Wolves, by Clarissa Pinkola Estes
The Vinyl Cafe books by Stuart McLean (not therapy books, but super helpful for learning healthy family dynamics through the bumbling and amusing messiness of life- very light-hearted, lots of laughing and also some tears)

There are so many more. I’m just starting Pete Walker’s The Tao of Fully Feeling. I used to read 6-12 books/month (less if very dense and more when the combo was lighter). I read a lot of different kinds of nonfiction; there aren’t many subjects I’ve read nothing about. I wasn’t allowed to read non-school books while growing up, so would read my textbooks right away and then get a hold of the next yrs textbooks and so on.

Once I left home and finished college, I started reading for myself and to learn everything I was prevented from knowing before. I’ve easily read over a thousand books and gave away my personal library of thousands of books twice and now have a re-established one. My family reads for hours every day because we love it. Among my children are two emerging writers as well.

[With caution] Two of my sons found The Wheel of Time series by Robert Jordan to be therapeutic. My other son says The Stormlight Archives by Brandon Sanderson helped him, and he is currently reading Can’t Hurt Me by David Goggins. They all cautioned that these all need to be accompanied by a multi-faceted therapeutic approach because there are many traumatic elements in all of these.

My children are all healthily therapised, naturally philosophical and ongoingly educated in both mythology and psychology, and have not be diagnosed with ptsd, though they’ve experienced much trauma and each has several ptsd signals (prefer this term and meaning over symptoms). I’ve not read any of these, but while they were reading them, we had near-daily deep and healing conversations sparked by the contents of these books, so that is all I know personally about them.
Wow thank you so much.

That’s amazing you read so much. My concentration is so poor since having a relapse with the ptsd and anxiety this year. I usually read a book a month but now I’ve not read a book all year. I really want to get back into it but I keep getting a pile of books out and saying I’m going to read them one after the other but never do. I’ll stupidly waste my day scrolling online, or watching tv while I rest and then at night think I wasted a whole day I could have put into my recovery. I think I’ve lost my Imphal and mojo to heal this year and lost interest in my hobby which was reading. Wish I could get my focus back:
I have Complex ptsd by Pete Walker out so tonight I’m going to start it. Wish me luck lol.

I am realizing now that although I love to read and have many books, almost none of them have content explicitly on healing trauma.
But here are some that I have read that I have found useful in my recovery-

-Modern Makes Me a Hungry Girl by Carrie Brownstein ( memoir. the family dynamics and interpersonal relationships described in this unexpectedly resonated a lot with me)
-Are You My Mother and Fun Home by Alison Bechdel
-My Lesbian Experiences With Loneliness by Nagata Kabi
-Self Esteem by Virginia Satir (this is short and I think is actually a poem that I'm sure can be found in an internet search)

I havent read a lot on scientific end of trauma, but I like to read from individuals experiences- that is where I draw the most value.
Especially in poetry.
Maya Angelou, Mary Oliver, Adrienne Rich, Andrea Gibson are all writers whose work is instrumental in my healing.
Thank you so much ?
 
I recommend “Tortured” by Victoria Spry. It is a difficult read as it has lots of triggers for abuse, but it makes you feel less alone reading about someone else’s experiences.
 
So I’m asking here does anybody recommend any books for trauma that will help the anxiety and panic attacks trauma brings?
Bessel Van der Kolk & Pete Walker are the top 2 faves of most people I’ve known, regardless of trauma types. “Once A Warrior” by Hoge is the fave of most vets I’ve known.

What’s helped me the most, personally, are

- (textbook) Handbook of PTSD, Second Edition: Science and Practice: 9781462525492: Medicine & Health Science Books @ Amazon.com

- OLD stuff. Really, really, old stuff for the most part. Like, Ancient Rome all the way up to the (US) Civil War, and a few more modern sources. Because PTSD has always happened. But the ways people have dealt with trauma, and talked about trauma, and dealt with life after trauma, and talked about life after trauma? The words change, but people don’t. Even fiction, like Sherlock Holmes & Winnie The Pooh, help me conceptualize and wrap my head and heart around difficult topics. My status updates are maybe 1/3 quotes from various people/books that ring true to me for one reason or another. (Not all on trauma, but mainly). Right now is a perfect example... “Fear is a reaction. Courage, a decision.” -Churchill. Yep, that’s been said many times, many ways... it’s not a new concept for me, or for most people, but rather a good reminder. Jump back a couple millennium? “It does not matter what you bear, but how you bear it.” -Seneca. Or some reeeeeeally bad Latin (circa WWI?) that’s pure truth wrapped in a joke? “Illegitimi non carborundum“ (Don’t let the bastards grind you down). Ditto, minus the Latin? “We have done so much, for so long, with so little... we are now qualified to do anything, with nothing.” Far more than quotes, though? The different words, describing familiar moments; quotes, poetry, letters home, short stories, epics, whole durn books... are things I’m able to connect with. That’s not just helpful for me, it’s useful as f*ck. Because I have a very difficult time connecting, especially with things I actively avoid.

- Comics/SciFi/similar. Similar to the above, the added distance let’s me hear things I can’t usually listen to, explore things I can’t look at, feel things I can’t touch, relate when I’d rather run.
 
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