My favorite key takeaway has to be number 9. In it we learn that a lack of understanding of DTD can cause those children that are afflicted to miss out on effective treatments that would have allowed them to lead a more fulfilling life. I have to say I could have used this read years ago and as a result of reading this book, I will most definitely be looking more closely into it now. It is amazing to me how school budgets play such a significant role on whether a child receives treatment or not. There are a few more brief chapters but what I liked even more than those were the references at the end, especially number three where it talks about a comparison of dramatic memory characteristics with memory for other emotional experiences. By the way, there are a whopping 13, very current references, so you will have plenty to follow up on.

The author of the actual book was the individual responsible for identifying PDSD and was able to help those who were afflicted by it. But it doesn’t stop there, I was shocked to learn of a disorder called DTD or Developmental Trauma Disorder, which can involve traumas such as growing up with an alcoholic parent and experiencing molestation. The key takeaway gives this info in a well-developed summary at the beginning of the read and then takes the reader into the important people such as the Dr. who discovered all of this amazing information and some of his patients before jumping right into a summary and then a more in-depth look at 9 key takeaways.

But I'd like to go beyond praising this book to pointing out that the information in it is immensely important, and urging everyone who has any interest in understanding people to buy it, read it, and pass it on to friends. When adults are traumatized, or when children are abused, or traumatized by witnessing violence, or even simply ignored/neglected, their brains are permanently changed and they are no longer capable of dealing with life in ways that are healthy for themselves and the people around them. They live in constant or intermittent pain, or they learn to anesthetize themselves and feel not much at all. And the number of people who are living with this kind of damage is huge. They are in our prisons and on our streets, they are the mentally ill, the child who can't study and can't be taught, the prostitute, the runaway, the dropout. And we as a society keep blaming them for being the way they are, ignoring the fact that it is their experience that made them.