Reviews tagging 'Chronic illness'

When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress by Gabor Maté

8 reviews

mads_jpg's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative medium-paced

4.0

Really enlightening book, even though it's over 20 years old now I feel like it was still the first time I've heard most of the ideas presented. I think I definitely read it at the right time in my life, I've only recently listened to my body saying 'no' and hopefully I can now take on some of the advice from this book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Mental illness, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Terminal illness, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Sexual assault, Suicide, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Bullying, Child death, Eating disorder, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Violence, Excrement, Vomit, Abortion, and Pregnancy

e_f_p21's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Toxic relationship, Dementia, and Abandonment

Minor: Addiction, Bullying, Eating disorder, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

siobhanjor's review against another edition

Too emotionally heavy for me right now

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Content Warnings

Minor: Cancer, Chronic illness, Death, Mental illness, Terminal illness, and Medical trauma

katharina90's review against another edition

informative reflective medium-paced

3.5

Dr. Maté highlights the connection between childhood trauma (and resulting poor boundaries and/or lack of emotional competence) and chronic stress, which then adversely impacts our health, e.g. by increasing our susceptability to illness.

A lot of the evidence is anecdotal, but I found the book informative and I appreciated the food for thought it provides.

"Research has suggested for decades that women are more prone to develop breast cancer if their childhoods were characterized by emotional disconnection from their parents or other disturbances in their upbringing, if they tend to repress emotions, particularly anger, if they lack nurturing social relationships in adulthood and if they are the altruistic, compulsively caregiving types."

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, and Domestic abuse

faithaforman's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective sad medium-paced

3.75

This book really made me think. As someone struggling with internalized stress and anxiety who also has an autoimmune disease, much is this book hit close to home. The author did a good job of clearly explaining medical terms and cases, and the book circled back to earlier cases near the end to emphasize the conclusion the author was putting forth about the relationship of trauma and stress with autoimmune disease and cancer. The only reason I did not rate higher is I have not yet taken the time to review the sources and do some more digging to see if the author was perhaps very selective in their case and data choices. That being the case I am not comfortable rating higher until I feel more confident in the research utilized for the medical hypotheses posited in this book.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Medical content, and Medical trauma

Minor: Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Grief, and Abandonment

This book may awaken fear/anxiety regarding the hypothesis proposed and one's own handling of stress. Be sure you are in a relatively stable mental health condition before embarking to avoid emotional crisis.

lou_o_donnell's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Bullying, Cancer, Child abuse, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Eating disorder, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Excrement, Medical content, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Abandonment, Colonisation, and Classism

waybeyondblue's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Cancer, Chronic illness, Mental illness, Terminal illness, and Medical content

00phantom's review against another edition

I was reading this for a certification which I did not end up attending. 
It was not a very kind book. Basically blamed people for their illnesses (cancer and heart disease and other serious illnesses) and then offered no hope or actionable information. So I stopped reading it.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Alcoholism, Cancer, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Terminal illness, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, and Death of parent