My Nurse Practitioner recommended this book for PTSD survivors. This could include returning Veterans, victims of crimes, and those abused as children.
We have all heard of the “fight or flight” theory of dealing with danger or stress. But I believed there is a third one, “freeze”. When you just don’t know what to do, and you stand there immovable. Think deer in the headlights, or how a rabbit stays still and tries to blend into the background.
This book not only agrees that “freeze” is a legitimate coping mechanism, but also adds another: “fawn”. This is the category that people pleasers fall into. Fawns are so wrapped up in pleasing or helping the other person that they distance themselves from their own pain in order to cope.
That information alone is worth buying this book, in my opinion.
The book describes emotional flashbacks and how today’s trauma can be rooted in past trauma.
Also included is information about how to get better–how to break the cycle of this pain.
