Highlights:
“…Trauma compromises the brain area that communicates the physical, embodied feeling of being alive.”
pg. 3
“The greatest sources of our suffering are the lies we tell ourselves.”
pg. 11
“He felt emotionally distant from everybody, as though his heart were frozen and he were living behind a glass wall.”
pg. 14
“After trauma the world becomes sharply divided between those who know and those who don’t. People who have not shared the traumatic experience cannot be trusted, because they can’t understand it. Sadly, this often includes spouses, children, and co-workers.”
pg. 18
“Healing… depends on experiential knowledge: You can be fully in charge of your life only if you can acknowledge the reality of your body, in all its visceral dimensions.”
pg. 27
“The brain-disease model overlooks four fundamental truths: (1) our capacity to destroy one another is matched by our capacity to heal one another. Restoring relationships and community is central to restoring well-being; (2) language gives us the power to change ourselves and others by communicating our experiences, helping us to define what we know, and finding a common sense of meaning; (3) we have the ability to regulate our own physiology, including some of the so-called involuntary functions of the body and brain, through such basic activities as breathing, moving, and touching; and (4) we can change social conditions to create environments in which children and adults can feel safe and where they can thrive.”
pg. 38