read the body keeps the score: brain, mind, and body in the healing of trauma by bessel van der kolk
pockmarked with the impacts of their fists on the drywall
chronic vigilance for and sensitivity to threat
the patients spoke of being sexually abused as children. this was puzzling, as the standard textbook of psychiatry at the time stated that incest was extremely rare in the united states, occurring about once in every million women. given that there were only about one hundred million women living in the united states, i wondered how forty seven, almost half of them, had found their way to my office in the basement of the hospital
the greatest sources of our suffering are the lies well tell ourselves
the first chief resident in psychopharmacology
most treatment studies of ptsd find a significant placebo effect
you observe a lot by watching -yogi berra
the earlier technology of measuring brain chemicals like serotonin or norepinephrine had enabled scientists to look at what fueled neural activity, which is a bit like trying to understand a car's engine by studying gasoline. neuroimaging made it possible to see inside the engine
trauma is preverbal
most survivors..come up with..their "cover story"..some explanation for their symptoms and behavior for public consumption
life is about rhythm. we vibrate, our hearts are pumping blood. we are a rhythm machine, that's what we are. -mickey hart
in my experience, patients who cut themselves or pick at their skin..are seldom suicidal but are trying to make themselves feel better in the only way they know how
penguins are stoic
the periadqueductal gray, which generates startle
as we enter the world, we scream to announce our presence
in the warp and woof of our brain circuitry
to this day, after twenty years and four subsequent revisions, the dsm and the entire system based on it fail victims of child abuse and neglect - just as they ignored the plight of veterans before ptsd was introduced back in 1980
the gravest and most costly public health issue in the united states: child abuse
children who develop in the context of ongoing danger, maltreatment and disrupted caregiving systems are being ill served by the current diagnostic systems..an average of 3-8 co-morbid disorders. the continued practice of applying multiple distinct co-morbid diagnoses to traumatized children has grave consequences: it defies parsimony
seventy percent of prisoners in california spent time in foster care
all soldiers with psychiatric problems were to be given a single diagnosis of "nydn" (not yet diagnosed, nervous). in november 1917 the general staff denied charles samuel myers, who ran four field hospitals for wounded soldiers, permission to submit a paper on shell shock to the british medical journal
ten weeks of yoga practice markedly reduced the ptsd symptoms of patients who had failed to respond to any medication or to any other treatment
our attachment bonds are our greatest protection against threat..studies conducted during world war ii in england showed that children who lived in london during the blitz and were sent away to the countryside for protection against german bombing raids fared much worse than children who remained with their parents and endured nights in bomb shelters and frightening images of destroyed buildings and dead people
the object of writing is to write to yourself
chronic childhood abuse causes very different mental and biological adaptations than discrete traumatic events in adulthood
my stern calvinistic parents
most grown-ups who were brutalized as children carry a smoldering rage
to this day the major services of the u.s. military spend liberally on their marching bands
the essence of trauma is feeling godforsaken, cut off from the human race
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