Reviews tagging 'Gun violence'

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

41 reviews

akvolcano's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad tense fast-paced

4.75

Loved reading this book! Trauma is always spoken in the context of war veterans, but the intricacies are never fully connected. This book well develops the connection. It actually goes further by not separating citizen trauma from war trauma, but speaks of them on the same level. When I began this reading I was skeptical if there would be any new concepts or material. I am happy to say that there was in fact exploration in areas that have not been fed into mainstream media! As a survivor myself, I enjoy that throughout the book there is consistently stories of people being shared. I would like to read a book like this one that takes its central concepts and goes a bit further. Overall, excellent well researched and articulated book!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Cancer, Child abuse, Child death, Chronic illness, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Gun violence, Incest, Mass/school shootings, Lesbophobia, Medical trauma, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Body shaming, Car accident, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Dysphoria, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Gore, Infidelity, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Police brutality, Racism, Pregnancy, Rape, Self harm, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, War, and Violence

alexisgarcia's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

very good, well written and informative. i do wish the author focused less on veterans and more on those with different forms and reasons for ptsd and trauma. obviously nothing wrong with the information/research about veterans but i feel like there wasn’t enough diversity in its participants/examples

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Addiction, Alcohol, Drug use, Domestic abuse, Gun violence, Mental illness, Medical content, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Violence, and War

mmartinko11's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Incest, Self harm, Rape, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Addiction, Gun violence, and War

v_neptune's review against another edition

just wasn't feeling it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, War, Death, Car accident, Gun violence, Mental illness, Child death, Murder, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, and Medical content

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

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

monstrouscosmos's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

1.0

I used to always recommend this book to people, but I'm at a point where I think it's an avoid. it's meant as a professional resource, and while as a non-professional I think there's something to be gained by learning about these topics: there are less triggering, less retraumatizing, and more empowering options out there. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Grief, Homophobia, Mass/school shootings, Eating disorder, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Car accident, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Medical trauma, Ableism, Addiction, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Classism, Colonisation, Death, Genocide, Gun violence, Hate crime, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Police brutality, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Violence, and War

kadengrace's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

2.5

i’ve heard the phrase “the body keeps the score” so often that i wanted to read this book to hopefully learn more, but i think i could have learned more about this concept from better resources. this book was dense and heavy, which meant i needed to split up my reading sessions in order to finish it. i’m not fully sure how useful this book will be to me—i think it brought up interesting ideas that i’m looking forward to exploring in other resources, but i wonder how much detail was needed in descriptions of trauma. it felt overly triggering and written from a relatively narrow point of view. i think i will gain more elsewhere, and i’m not sure what i did gain from reading this book was worth the struggle to finish it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gun violence, Incest, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Trafficking, War, Infidelity, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Pedophilia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Addiction, Violence, Misogyny, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Eating disorder, Grief, Death, Drug use, Alcoholism, Child death, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Classism, and Adult/minor relationship

brookerobbo's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

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

comrad3's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Mental illness, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Pedophilia, and Adult/minor relationship

Minor: Incest, Addiction, Gaslighting, Alcoholism, Abandonment, Drug use, and Gun violence

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

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