What My Bones Know - Stephanie Foo

What My Bones Know

By Stephanie Foo

  • Release Date: 2022-02-22
  • Genre: Biographies & Memoirs
Score: 4.5
4.5
From 148 Ratings

Description

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.

Reviews

  • Life changing and stunningly written

    5
    By Camp Fashion
    Magnificent exploration of CPTSD. A beautifully written account of the costs of physical and emotional abuse and the quest for recovery. Our society still at a loss to diagnose and treat a disorder that doesn’t present very easily in women but wreaks havoc on self esteem and the legacy of participating abuse. Thank you so much for sharing your incredible account.
  • A Must Read

    5
    By SunBurnt10
    As someone who experienced significant trauma from my childhood forward, it was refreshing to learn and reflect on my own experience through the author’s story. We have different trauma, but the same diagnosis. I’ve been blessed with a beautiful and chaotic life. I am navigating new trauma that is opening old wounds. I’m understanding myself more, but doing something I never thought to analyze and that’s my parents trauma and what lead them to be who they are. So much love for Stephanie for sharing her story. I feel lighter after reading this book.
  • Great book

    5
    By jwatson26
    I loved this book. The insight. The emotion. The rawness. Highly recommend.
  • Horrifying and hopeful

    5
    By Great Music Luvr
    An unexpected combination of memoir and reportage. Woo takes us from the depths of her childhood abuse to the heights of self-discovery and healing. A must-read for anyone whose life has been touched by C-PTSD
  • Incredible Insight

    5
    By am33r
    Incredible insight for anyone struggling with trauma. It gives me hope.
  • Thank you

    5
    By dayma_927702
    Stephanie, thanks for sharing your story and your healing journey. It takes so much courage to talk openly about the things that hurt us, to be so vulnerable, to let others see our pain. Some parts of this book are hard to read - I felt like I was holding my breath many times, I felt triggered, and I cried a lot. I also have C-PTSD and was diagnosed back in 2019 - but this is the kind of work we need to see other people doing, to know it's possible to “heal”. Again, thanks... For all the research, the resources shared, the book recs, and the hope.