The Body Keeps the Score
Trauma is a fact of life. Veterans and their families deal with the painful aftermath of combat; one in five Americans has been molested; one in four grew up with alcoholics; one in three couples have engaged in physical violence. Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, one of the world’s foremost experts on trauma, has spent over three decades working with survivors. In _The Body Keeps the Score_, he uses recent scientific advances to show how trauma literally reshapes both body and brain, compromising sufferers’ capacities for pleasure, engagement, self-control, and trust. He explores innovative treatments—from neurofeedback and meditation to sports, drama, and yoga—that offer new paths to recovery by activating the brain’s natural neuroplasticity. Based on Dr. van der Kolk’s own research and that of other leading specialists, _The Body Keeps the Score_ exposes the tremendous power of our relationships both to hurt and to heal—and offers new hope for reclaiming lives.
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90recommend
186mentions
142people
2016–2026years
63% recommend27% neutral10% critical
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What Hacker News says
- Bessel van der Kolk also mentions in his excellent book "The Body keeps the Score" that the effect of antidepressants is correlated with the source of the depression. If the depression is a comorbidity from early childhood trauma then antidepressants are limited due to trauma-related reshaping of how the brain is organized. Cases like yours or those that a related to traumatic experiences as an adult are more the result of a shallow neurochemical imbalance which antidepressants are able to impact beneficially.
- >> "The Body Keeps The Score"
Such a great book. Highly recommended.
- > The Body Keeps [the] Score is an ideology where the causality only goes one way.
No it isn't. You might have interpreted it that way, but there's no such assertion. Quite the opposite in fact: the book details therapies like yoga, EMDR, neurofeedback, and somatic experiencing; each demonstrating body to mind causality.
- >Pain Reprocessing Therapy
I asked chatgpt to explain this to me and it did a poor job.
Generally speaking in my friend group. Chronic pain used to be opiods; though long ago medical cannabis came along. I couldnt tell you how many people i know who arent stoners who got into the cbd thing and fully got off opiods. 1 addiction for another, but at least cannabis has far less negatives.
>If you don’t have chronic pain and you’re just here for vibes and to see some cute brains, I really appreciate you .
The problem, CBD never fixes the pain. ~8 hours later you need more.
There's no business case for solving chronic pain. Here's my take.
1. There can be cases where there's something legitimately physically wrong causing chronic pain. In detroit I had a friend who got shot with birdshot, a tiny pellet was in his spine that surgeons didnt want to go after but there's no getting away from that pain. If this is the case, you're not seeking explanation.
2. There's stress/emotional pain. "The body keeps the score" by Bessel van der Kolk. He's big on EMDR and yoga. Your achilles pain and such absolutely could be, Probably something like 'change or abandonment' one of my favourites for yoga: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XhJ63OQ7Ww
Do that 23 minute video and see if it helps.
3. Mindfulness meditation. Get into the most comfortable position possible. Dont move; and far more difficult dont think. Your mind will wander. If the pain is in your achilles. The only thing you're doing is monitoring the pain. What's the exact shape of the pain? Is it 4 inches long or is it only 2 inches? Is it sharp like a knife, or is it round in shape? Do you have any taste, smell, or sound from it? You need to wait as long as you have to, maybe it only makes a sound every 2 minutes, you have to wait and your focus is only on waiting for the sound and nothing else.
4. Yoga nidra or progressive muscle relaxation. Start at your toes, you try to flex the muscles to the maximum and hold for 5 seconds, release. then do your feet, ankles, legs, every muscle has to have been flexed and held for 5 seconds. Then when you're done, you simply do nothing at all. dont even focus on anything; maybe your breath at most.
- experienced something very similar. thought I would leave my field permanently out of frustration and despair. I like my work now, but faced with that burnout again do not think I could power through it a second time.
Apropos, I had chronic pain throughout this experience. I thought it was just aging, irreversible, and something that compounded my hopelessness. It's very surprising to be 10 years older now but feel 20 years younger. Books like "The Body Keeps the Score" or "Healing Back Pain" used to seem woo to me, but now I am convicted that health comes from within as much or more than it does from without.
- I’ve read this thread with familiarity and empathy and want to say: some people here are describing symptoms of PTSD. A traumatic event, however brief, can cause lasting repercussions in our body and mind. If you find yourself listless, ruminating over the event, scared, over-reactive, walking through a fog — and it goes on and you seemingly don’t get better — this is exactly what PTSD feels like.
The initial conditions don’t have to be war or child abuse. A car accident can cause it. A variant, Complex-PTSD, is often caused by traumatic events over time that cannot be escaped, like caring for a dying loved one.
It’s dangerous to you and it can be hard to treat, but it often is treatable. The best thing I’ve read about it (and boy, have I read a lot about this) is The Body Keeps the Score — https://www.besselvanderkolk.com/resources/the-body-keeps-th.... Pete Walker also has published several books, and has many important and useful writings on his website — https://www.pete-walker.com/
PTSD doesn’t go away. You just cover it up until it explodes again. Please, if you think this is you, read more and try to get some help.
