What My Bones Know: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER - A searing memoir of reckoning and healing by acclaimed journalist Stephanie Foo, investigating the little-understood science behind complex PTSD and how it has shaped her life "Achingly exquisite . . . providing real hope for those who long to heal."--Lori Gottlieb, New York Times bestselling author of Maybe You Should Talk to Someone ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: The Washington Post, Cosmopolitan, NPR, Mashable, She Reads, Publishers Weekly By age thirty, Stephanie Foo was successful on paper: She had her dream job as an award-winning radio producer at This American Life and a loving boyfriend. But behind her office door, she was having panic attacks and sobbing at her desk every morning. After years of questioning what was wrong with herself, she was diagnosed with complex PTSD--a condition that occurs when trauma happens continuously, over the course of years. Both of Foo's parents abandoned her when she was a teenager, after years of physical and verbal abuse and neglect. She thought she'd moved on, but her new diagnosis illuminated the way her past continued to threaten her health, relationships, and career. She found limited resources to help her, so Foo set out to heal herself, and to map her experiences onto the scarce literature about C-PTSD. In this deeply personal and thoroughly researched account, Foo interviews scientists and psychologists and tries a variety of innovative therapies. She returns to her hometown of San Jose, California, to investigate the effects of immigrant trauma on the community, and she uncovers family secrets in the country of her birth, Malaysia, to learn how trauma can be inherited through generations. Ultimately, she discovers that you don't move on from trauma--but you can learn to move with it. Powerful, enlightening, and hopeful, What My Bones Know is a brave narrative that reckons with the hold of the past over the present, the mind over the body--and examines one woman's ability to reclaim agency from her trauma.
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Community Reviews
This book has encompassed everything I could never put into words about my experienced complex trauma/complex ptsd. This is the perfect blend of lived experience and clinical assessment/knowledge. I will be forever grateful to Stephanie for her courage and openness in sharing this part of her.
I have been a longtime listener of Snap Judgment and This American Life. I didn’t realize that many of my favorite episodes were produced by Stephanie Foo. One thing a good producer and reporter does is conduct meticulous research and self-advocate for your rights in every single step in search for the truth. Reading how Foo got dismissed by family members, doctors, peers, and friends about her Complex PTSD diagnosis is alarming but her relentless pursuit to seek healing is inspiring. The start of the book opens right at the heart of her trauma—abuse from her own parents. It was jarring to read but once she reels you into her childhood, she hooks you with her resilience for survival. The research she presents on abuse and trauma among people of the Asian diaspora is critical and ever so prevalent in this day and age about mental health advocacy. Intergenerational trauma is embedded in our DNA. Our bones literally tell our ancestral stories. It gave me a fresh perspective on why family values among Asian folks is so important, and yet there is a critical need to break toxic norms. Accountability and responsibility is so important—no one should excuse the abuse just because it’s perpetrated by a so-called respected elder. I couldn’t put the book down—it was like examining into my own family’s dysfunctional dynamic. I highly recommend this book to anyone seeking answers about their own intergenerational trauma.
I had heard so many people talk about this memoir, they all highly recommended it. They were not wrong, it was amazing. I listened to the audiobook, narrated by the author herself, Stephanie Foo. Stephanie’s story is heartbreakingly sad. I can’t even imagine what she had to go through growing up, and even now as an adult with complex PTSD, she faces hurdles on a regular basis. It just made me think, you never know what somebody has been through, and how it affects their behavior today.
If you yourself have gone through a traumatic childhood, this memoir may be either triggering or enlightening/informative/helpful. As somebody with a fortunate upbringing, this memoir was impactful and eye opening to something I had little knowledge of.
And now, just like those before me, I HIGHLY recommend this memoir.
If you yourself have gone through a traumatic childhood, this memoir may be either triggering or enlightening/informative/helpful. As somebody with a fortunate upbringing, this memoir was impactful and eye opening to something I had little knowledge of.
And now, just like those before me, I HIGHLY recommend this memoir.
Incredibly amazing book.
The first part is so hard to read. I was literally sobbing. I absolutely love this book. I highly recommend it!
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