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.

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'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.

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?

Meet Nora. Also known as Rebecca, Samantha, Hayley, Katie and Ashley - the girls she's been. Nora didn't choose a life of deception - she was born into it. As the daughter of a con artist who targeted criminal men, Nora always had to play a part. But when her mother fell for one of the men instead of conning him, Nora pulled the ultimate con herself: escape.

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.

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.

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.

Let’s say that you are going through one of your daily life routines when out of nowhere you start getting a sudden feeling of panic. You start losing your breath. Strangers start getting close to you and show signs of worry. Your heart starts racing and you can’t think of what to do next. Then in a matter of moments you feel normal again. But you can’t just ignore that this just happened. You lay awake at night, terrified that this will happen again; seeing how it’s not the first time. You don’t know what exactly has happened or why it happened.

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.

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!

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.

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.

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.

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

Your past holds power over your present. Childhood experiences shape your beliefs, actions, and relationships more than you realize. Do you struggle with self-doubt, insecurity, or uncontrollable emotions? These are echoes of unresolved childhood trauma, staining your adult life like unseen residue on a canvas. But there's hope. This book offers a compassionate approach to healing your inner child while equipping you with practical tools for emotional growth.

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.

Donna Bevan-Lee had a tough childhood. When her father was feeling playful, he roped her by the foot like a rodeo calf, yanking her to the ground every time the rope connected. In darker moods, he did far worse, his brutality excused by a complicit church. The abuse she suffered had profound and lasting consequences.

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.

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.