Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

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

40 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

jussery's review against another edition

challenging informative medium-paced

4.0

This book was really useful to me in how it summarized a lot of research findings in an interesting and succinct way (not to say this book wasn't long, it definitely was). Halfway into this book I found out that the author is not really a great guy, which definetely soured anything I read from his perspective. I found some of his descriptions of women kinda gross. I thought he went too far describing some patient's trauma. This book has so many triggers and I read it as someone without PTSD (I have a depersonalization disorder though, and was hoping to uncover more about that through this book) - so a big warning to anyone considering reading it! Overall though, I still gave this book 4 stars just because I think it really captured a lot of research studies on trauma in a digestible way (could do without the authors excessive descriptions though). And it really helped me contextualize some of my symptoms and how they are biologically based, which helped me put less blame on myself for them.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Police brutality, Suicide attempt, Alcohol, Fatphobia, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Violence, Car accident, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, War, Chronic illness, Incest, Panic attacks/disorders, Pedophilia, Trafficking, Sexism, Alcoholism, Child death, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Slavery, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, Abandonment, Rape, Death, Death of parent, Drug use, Eating disorder, Murder, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicide, Torture, Domestic abuse, and Medical trauma

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

evalunny's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Incest, Medical trauma, Sexual assault, Domestic abuse, Child abuse, Blood, Alcoholism, Addiction, Abandonment, Violence, War, Suicide attempt, Torture, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Self harm, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Eating disorder, Drug abuse, Death, Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pedophilia, Panic attacks/disorders, Medical content, Emotional abuse, Cursing, Death of parent, Child death, Toxic relationship, Rape, Drug use, Adult/minor relationship, and Mental illness

s_lorenz's review against another edition

hopeful informative inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicidal thoughts, Classism, Emotional abuse, Incest, Murder, Sexual assault, Medical trauma, Pedophilia, Rape, Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, Death, Grief, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, and Car accident

Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Chronic illness, Bullying, Classism, Drug abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Body shaming, Confinement, Cursing, Death of parent, Racism, Self harm, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Child abuse, Death, Torture, Domestic abuse, Police brutality, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

sugarwookiee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

If you're looking for a self-help book that will tell you how to overcome trauma, this is not it. If, like me, you were more interested in the ways that trauma manifests in the body and mind from a more clinical perspective, as well as the various treatments and their efficacy, it's great. There are plenty of books that accomplish the former and that's not what I was looking for here, so overall I enjoyed this. 

It is quite slow paced and the author is a bit pretentious at times. There is a significant amount of detail involving some of his patients' trauma (more than I feel is necessary in my opinion) but this is coming from someone who suffers from CPTSD; those reading from a clinical perspective without that may feel differently.

I found the first half of the book to be the most interesting because it showed me the ways in which I was holding onto trauma that I hadn't realized. The way that trauma can and does seep into every part of your existence and things that you may not realize were related were in fact a direct result. If that seems interesting to you and you're able to deal with some intense descriptions, it's a worthwhile read. If you're looking for self-help and a less medical, more talk-therapy type of book, this isn't it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Bullying, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Incest, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Pedophilia, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Medical trauma, and Body shaming

Moderate: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Cursing, Self harm, Rape, and Addiction

Minor: Confinement, Death, and Death of parent

kaiulanilee's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Alcoholism, Incest, Addiction, Alcohol, Child abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, and Sexual violence

amessina3399's review against another edition

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Medical content, Adult/minor relationship, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Incest, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Drug abuse, Violence, Medical trauma, Addiction, Sexual violence, War, Alcohol, Abandonment, Car accident, Emotional abuse, Grief, Alcoholism, Blood, Mental illness, and Panic attacks/disorders

bdupree's review against another edition

informative medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Violence, Rape, Incest, Child abuse, and Alcohol