Adult Trauma

Our brains are doing their best to help us out, but sometimes we get hurt instead. And sometimes we hurt people we love, too, because we just don’t know what to do with all of our feelings. With humor and patience, Dr. Faith G. Harper shows you the science behind why your brain is acting up and ideas for new ways to respond when you’re feeling scared, sad, anxious, or angry. You can train your brain to be your friend and help you live a happy, calm, and healthy life.

In Pork Belly Tacos with a Side of Anxiety, Yvonne Castañeda shares vibrant stories of her childhood growing up in Miami as the daughter of humble immigrants from Mexico and Cuba … and how she came to develop an unhealthy relationship with food. To help ease her mami’s nervios, Yvonne becomes a perfectionist from a young age, achieving high grades at school and mastering the piano. But as her Cuban family members openly make comments about her puberty, Yvonne enters a new phase of self-consciousness that begins her obsession with weight.

This guide by Dr. Lawrence L James, an expert in alcoholism and trauma, offers not just knowledge but a shared understanding of the lifelong impact of adverse childhood experiences. Drawing from personal and professional experiences, Dr. James delves into the heart of the emotional and psychological turmoil faced by adult children of alcoholics.

Growing up in a home where there is addiction or relationship trauma puts a child at great risk for long-term, post-traumatic stress effects that adversely compromise adult relationships. Best-selling author, psychologist, and psychodramatist Tian Dayton examines this trauma through an exploration of the way the brain and body process frightening or painful emotions and experiences in childhood.

An insatiable need for sex and love. Periods of overeating or starving. A pattern of unstable and painful relationships. Does this sound painfully familiar? Trauma counselor Kelly McDaniel has seen these traits over and over in clients who feel trapped in cycles of harmful behaviors - and are unable to stop. Many of us find ourselves stuck in unhealthy habits simply because we don't see a better way. With Mother Hunger, McDaniel helps women break the cycle of destructive behavior by taking a fresh look at childhood trauma and its lasting impact.

If you were raised by emotionally immature parents, you know that unpacking your childhood isn’t easy. You were made to feel like your feelings didn’t matter, while your parent or parents’ feelings were of paramount importance. You may have been neglected emotionally, gaslit, or had your boundaries crossed time and time again. In Emotionally Immature Parents: A Recovery Workbook for Adult Children, you’ll work through all of these experiences and more as you unpack your childhood, and practice creating boundaries with your parents in the present day.

Eden was always good at being good. Starting high school didn’t change who she was. But the night her brother’s best friend rapes her, Eden’s world capsizes. What was once simple, is now complex. What Eden once loved—who she once loved—she now hates. What she thought she knew to be true, is now lies. Nothing makes sense anymore, and she knows she’s supposed to tell someone what happened but she can’t. So she buries it instead. And she buries the way she used to be.

When 16-year-old Amy returns home, she can't tell her family what's happened to her. She can't tell them where she's been since she and her best friend, her cousin Dee, were kidnapped six years ago - who stole them from their families or what's become of Dee. She has to stay silent because she's afraid of what might happen next, and she's desperate to protect her secrets at any cost. Amy tries to readjust to life at "home," but nothing she does feels right. She's a stranger in her own family, and the guilt that she's the one who returned is insurmountable.

The trauma and grief of growing up in an alcoholic or addicted family create a lifetime of baggage. If you grew up in an addicted family, the dysfunction that permeated every aspect of your childhood may have seemed "normal", and you may not even realize the level of affect alcohol still has on your adult life - whether or not you drink. If you are one of the millions of Adult Children of Alcoholics (ACOAs), the cost of your childhood pain can be unbearable. You may have learned how to "survive", but are you "living" your life?

In the Dominions, the dead linger, violent and unpredictable, unless a bonesmith severs the ghost from its earthly remains. For bonesmith Wren, becoming a valkyr—a ghost-fighting warrior—is a chance to solidify her place in the noble House of Bone and impress her frequently absent father. But when sabotage causes Wren to fail her qualifying trial, she is banished to the Border Wall, the last line of defense against a wasteland called the Breach where the vicious dead roam unchecked.

Most people are familiar with PTSD. But many have not heard of complex PTSD and developmental trauma disorder. As adults, many of us experience symptoms of anxiety and depression. We feel chronically stressed. We have trouble trusting others, or we may even experience feelings of paranoia in our relationships with others. We struggle to define what it is that is bothering us, and we struggle to find ways effective ways to treat it.

If you're like many adults today, you've experienced some kind of loss of a loved one. Whether it was a parent, spouse, sibling, friend, or child, losing someone close hurts.

Are you feeling overwhelming resentment toward your narcissistic mother? Do you feel frustrated because you can’t seem to find a way to heal and establish loving relationships with others? Award-winning author and narcissistic-abuse survivor Nanette Abigail knows a thing or two about this sensitive issue, laying out the crucial tools she used to create safe havens and find mental clarity for herself, and with her help, you can, too!

The path to healing begins by going inwards. The path forward, paradoxically, begins by going backward. Our early experiences shape and mold the person we become, and when those experiences are filled with fear, anxiety, shame, and misery, what becomes of the adult? Whether you endured parental abuse, neglect, a home filled with conflict, or a mentally ill parent, there's no denying you can't come out of such traumas unscathed

Some parents are plain mean, mentally, emotionally, and physically abusive, manipulative, lying and cold blooded towards their children. They are the kind of parents that you would rather live without than live with; parents you want to distance yourself from and forget that they exist because every time you talk to them, they bring their vile of mean comments, arguments, bring you down, and find opportunities to be aggressive even when not necessary.

The depth or imaginal psychotherapy is highly effective in treating and assessing adult survivors of childhood abuse. Specifically, interventions that use dreams, symbols, and metaphor, as well as expressive art techniques, are deemed especially valuable as they address dissociative changes. By assessing specific depth psychological aspects of the individual’s shattered sense of self, a more focused and efficient treatment plan can be created sooner in the course of therapy. Discover more with Brain Healing and Trauma.

Childhood adversity that is severe enough to be harmful throughout life is one of the biggest public health issues of our time, yet health care systems struggle to even acknowledge the problem. In Damaged, Dr. Robert Maunder and Dr. Jonathan Hunter call for a radical change, arguing that the medical system needs to be not only more compassionate but more effective at recognizing that trauma impacts everybody's health, from patient to practitioner.

Best-selling author Laurie Halse Anderson is known for the unflinching way she writes about and advocates for survivors of sexual assault. Now, inspired by her fans and enraged by how little in our culture has changed since her groundbreaking novel Speak was first published 20 years ago, she has written a poetry memoir that is as vulnerable as it is rallying, as timely as it is timeless.

Teen assassin Isabel Ryans now works for Comma, and she’s good at it: the Moth is the guild’s most notorious killer, infamous throughout the city of Espera. But Isabel still craves normality, and she won’t find it inside the guild. She moves in with a civilian flatmate, Laura, and begins living a double life, one where she gets to pretend she’s free. But when Isabel’s day job tangles her up with an anti-guild abolitionist movement, it becomes harder to keep her two lives separate.

Trauma is an inevitable aspect of life. You or anyone you care about has almost certainly been through trauma, whether it was "big-T" trauma like mental, physical, or sexual assault, or "little-t" trauma like divorce, loss of employment, terrible childhood events, or any scenario where you seemed worthless, frightened, or helpless. But we can recover. It doesn't have to be a lifelong process. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a form of psychotherapy that has been shown to help individuals recover from trauma and enhance their quality of life.