… It occurs when someone is exposed to a traumatic event over and over and over again-hundreds, even thousands of times-over the course of years. The books taught me that when we live through traumatic experiences, our brains take in the things around us that are causing the greatest threat, and they encode these things deep into our subconscious as sources of danger. Here, she speaks to her research of C-PTSD as soon as she received her diagnosis from her therapist: Suffering from C-PTSD, or Complex PTSD, which is not acknowledged as a legitimate diagnosis in the United States, Foo goes on a lifelong journey to heal from the abuse she endured as a child and learn how to work through all the feelings and trauma she carries as an adult-including the estrangement from her parents that causes confusing and difficult emotions. This ongoing abuse throughout her childhood and adolescence fostered anger, and rightfully so, along with a loss and confusion of self that she needed to address in order to live a healthy and productive existence. Constantly parenting her own parents, Foo was never given the love, attention, and nurturing the average child would receive in childhood. She was hit, threatened, and made to feel less than any person should ever feel by the two people who were supposed to protect her. Growing up her father and mother constantly beat her and threatened her life, with a knife to her throat or driving recklessly with her in the car dancing dangerously close to oncoming traffic or California cliffs.

Most of us cannot even begin to imagine the horrific trauma she was forced to live through as an innocent child.

When I saw she came out with a book, I was drawn to it immediately and also dumbstruck at the life she had to endure during her youth. What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo, Ballantine BooksĪs an avid listener of the podcasts This American Life and Snap Judgement, I have listened to Stephanie Foo for years, gravitating towards her voice and loving the way she presents her stories.

What my bones know book review