The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel Van Der Kolk, M.D. (part 1)

Van Der Kolk, Besser. (2014) The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. New York, NY. Penguin Books. 

 "The greatest sources of our suffering are the4 lies we tell ourselves." (p 42 in ebook) 

 "Each year about three million children in the United States are reported as victims of child abuse and neglect...In other words, for every solider who serves in a war zone abroad, there are ten children who are endangered in their own homes. This is particularly tragic, since it is very difficult for growing children to recover when the source of terror and pain is not enemy combatants but their own caretakers." (60)

 "Trauma results in a fundamental reorganization of the way mind and brain manage perceptions. It changes not only how we think and what we think about, but also our very capacity to think." (60) 

 "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 other 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...(93)

 "During disasters young children usually take their cues from their parents. As long as their caregivers remain calm and responsive to their needs, they often survive terrible incidents without serious psychological scars."(114)

 "After trauma the world is experiences with a different nervous system. The survivor's energy now becomes focused on suppressing inner chaos, at the expense of spontaneous involvement in their life. These attempts to maintain control over unbearable physiological reactions can result in a whole range of physical symptoms, including fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue, and other autoimmune disease."(117) 

 "Whatever happens to a baby contributes to the emotional and perceptual map of the world that its developing brain creates...If [he/she] feel[s] safe and loved, [the] brain becomes specialized in exploration, play, and cooperation; if [he/she is] frightened and unwanted, it specialized in managing feelings of fear and abandonment." (124) 

 "The challenge is not so much learning to accept the terrible things that have happened but learning how to gain mastery over one's internal sensations and emotions. Sensing, naming, and identifying what is going on inside is the first step to recovery." (145) 

 "How many mental health problems, from drug addiction to self-injurious behavior, start as attempts to cope with the unbearable physical pain of our emotions?" (161)

 "The last things that should be cut from school schedules are chorus, physical education, recess, and anything else involving movement, play and joyful engagement. When children are oppositional, defensive, numbed out, or enraged, it's also important to recognize that such "bad behavior" may repeat action patterns that were established to survive serious threats, even if they are intensely upsetting or off-putting." (180) 

"Agency starts with what scientists call interoception, our awareness of our subtle sensory, body-based feelings; the greater that awareness, the greater our potential to control our lives." (196)

 "The need for attachment never lessens. Most human beings simply cannot tolerate being disengage from other for any length of time. People who cannot connect through work, friendships, or family usually find other way of bonding, as through illnesses, lawsuits, or family feuds. Anything is preferable to that godforsaken sense of irrelevance and alienation." (230) 

 "One research study "had expected that hostile/intrusive behavior on the part of the mothers would be the most powerful predictor of mental instability in their adult children, but they discovered otherwise. Emotional withdrawal had the most profound and long-lasting impact. Emotional distance and role reversal (in which mothers expected the kids to look after them) were specifically linked to aggressive behavior against self and other in the young adults." (241) 

"Early attachment patterns create inner maps that chart our relationships throughout life, not only in terms of what we expect from others, but also in terms of how much comfort and pleasure we can experience in their presence...Our relationship maps are implicit, etched into the emotional brain and not reversible simply by understanding how they were created. You may realize that your fear of intimacy has something to do with your mother's post-partum depression or with the fact that she herself was molested as a child, but that alone is unlikely to open you to happy, trusting engagement with other. However, that realization may help you to start exploring other ways to connect in relationships-both for your own sake and in order to not pass on an insecure attachment to your own children." (244-245)