It’s okay to have some things you never get over.

One study showed that women who have suffered from childhood trauma were 80 percent more likely to develop painful endometriosis.

Every adaptation our brain makes is an effort to better protect our bodies. Some of these backfire—the deadly result of an overactive stress response. But some might actually be advantageous to our health.

He explained that Bruce Banner was abused as a child, and as a consequence, he developed a trauma-informed rage. Then he was blasted by gamma rays that made his rage an actual superpower. Ham said the Hulk operates exactly like someone who has been triggered. As his rage grows, his IQ decreases. He can’t speak, he can’t form complete thoughts, he l

digging through the freezers for lime-vanilla ice cream bars.

His invention, holotropic breathwork, is a fancy term for “hyperventilating until the levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide in your body are so whacked-up that you hallucinate.”

I divided the first page into two columns. I titled the left column Gratitude and the right Pride. The idea was to make note of both the things that brought me joy in the world and the ways I brought joy into the world.

Self-regulation is a very insular thing. That’s just survival.

Trauma also is mourning the childhood you could have had.