-
Some of them had hardly developed a sense of self—they couldn’t even recognize themselves in a mirror.
Bessel van der Kolk -
Because traumatized people often have trouble sensing what is going on in their bodies, they lack a nuanced response to frustration. They either react to stress by becoming “spaced out” or with excessive anger. Whatever their response, they often can’t tell what is upsetting them. This failure to be in touch with their bodies contributes to their well-documented lack of self-protection and high rates of revictimization23 and also to their remarkable difficulties feeling pleasure, sensuality, and having a sense of meaning. People with alexithymia can get better only by learning to recognize the relationship between their physical sensations and their emotions, much as colorblind people can only enter the world of color by learning to distinguish and appreciate shades of gray.
Bessel van der Kolk
-
Trauma victims cannot recover until they become familiar with and befriend the sensations in their bodies.
Bessel van der Kolk -
When I go to Europe to teach, I often am contacted by officials at the ministries of health in the Scandinavian countries, the United Kingdom, Germany, or the Netherlands and asked to.
Bessel van der Kolk -
Danger is a normal part of life, and the brain is in charge of detecting it and organizing our.
Bessel van der Kolk -
For real change to take place, the body needs to learn that the danger has passed and to live in the reality of the present.
Bessel van der Kolk -
It takes tremendous energy to keep functioning while carrying the memory of terror, and the shame of utter weakness and vulnerability.
Bessel van der Kolk -
If you’ve been hurt, you need to acknowledge and name what happened to you.
Bessel van der Kolk
-
As we’ve seen, the essence of trauma is feeling godforsaken, cut off from the human race.
Bessel van der Kolk -
Great detail will help people to leave it behind. That is also a basic premise of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which today is taught in graduate psychology courses around the world.
Bessel van der Kolk -
In a series of elegant studies Stickgold and his colleagues showed that the sleeping brain can even make sense out of information whose relevance is unclear while we are awake and integrate it into the larger memory system.
Bessel van der Kolk -
Those new disciplines are neuroscience, the study of how the brain supports mental processes; developmental psychopathology, the study of the impact of adverse experiences on the development of mind and brain; and interpersonal neurobiology, the study of how our behavior influences the emotions, biology, and mind-sets of those around us. Research from these new
Bessel van der Kolk -
Our sense of Self depends on being able to organize our memories into a coherent whole.
Bessel van der Kolk -
two critical aspects of the adaptive response to threat that is basic to human survival.
Bessel van der Kolk
-
It is not possible to manage life and maintain homeostatic balance without data on the current state of the organism’s body. Damasio calls these housekeeping areas of the brain the “proto-self,” because they create the “wordless knowledge” that underlies our conscious sense of self.
Bessel van der Kolk -
In a statement released in June 2011, the British Psychological Society complained to the APA that the sources of psychological suffering in the DSM.
Bessel van der Kolk -
Many of my patients have survived trauma through tremendous courage and persistence, only to get into the same kinds of trouble over and over again. Trauma has shut down their inner compass and robbed them of the imagination they need to create something better.
Bessel van der Kolk -
It is not possible to manage life and maintain homeostatic balance without data on the current state of the organism’s body.”9 Damasio calls these housekeeping areas of the brain the “proto-self,” because they create the “wordless knowledge” that underlies our conscious sense of self.
Bessel van der Kolk -
How do horrific experiences cause people to become hopelessly stuck in the past?
Bessel van der Kolk -
There is something very empowering about having the experience of changing your brain’s activity with your mind.
Bessel van der Kolk
-
Trauma increases the risk of misinterpreting whether a particular situation is dangerous or safe. You can get along with other people only if you can accurately gauge whether their intentions are benign or dangerous. Even a slight misreading can lead to painful misunderstandings in relationships at home and at work. Functioning effectively in a complex work environment or a household filled with rambunctious kids requires the ability to quickly assess how people are feeling and continuously adjusting your behavior accordingly. Faulty alarm systems lead to blowups or shutdowns in response to innocuous comments or facial expressions.
Bessel van der Kolk -
The structures along the midline of the brain are devoted to your inner experience of yourself, those on the side are more concerned with your relationship with your surroundings.
Bessel van der Kolk -
Living: Using the Wisdom of Your Body and Mind to Face Stress, Pain, and Illness, revised edition.
Bessel van der Kolk -
When you don’t feel real nothing matters, which makes it impossible to protect yourself from danger.
Bessel van der Kolk