How Your Biography Becomes Your Biology - and How You Can Heal

This book is so revealing and supportive. It demonstrated to me why I felt as I have, for so many years. But more than that..what I can do to heal from what impacted me. The clear and simple self help strategies are invaluable. I also appreciate the demonstration that my impacts are specific to me, and may not be the same for my siblings. That is very supportive too.

Kind of like reading a text book--but the information makes a lot of sense and is very helpful. First half of book, sounds like we are all doomed; but second half described how you could counteract infractions and change some of your parenting patterns with your children.

The implications of the research presented in this book are far-reaching and the book a Must Read for anyone suffering from effects of toxic stress as a child, anyone raising a child and anyone concerned about the cost of health care in this country (I pretty much just included everyone I know). Adverse Childhood Experiences change brain chemistry, our DNA and result in serious health issues later in life: cardiovascular disease, autoimmune diseases, anxiety and depression, diabetes...the list goes on. Presents the problem and real, workable solutions.

This is written with enough clarity for the 'average layman' to get a good understanding of childhood trauma and how it impacts later adulthood. I deducted one star because, from a Christian standpoint, I didn't like the meditation aspect. Obviously counseling may be needed, and it would have to be very specialized which may not be available to many people, especially in rural areas. But for the most part it did give good information on how to proceed once you had answers to your "feeling stuck" and how to move forward and heal.

I had been waiting for more of Donna Jackson Nakazawa's incredible work since I finished (and re-read) The Last Best Cure - and I have not been disappointed. (Note - I wrote a review here for Last Best Cure, too.) I saw myself in many of the pages of Childhood Disrupted, both in terms of childhood trauma and in the issues I have faced as an adult. Nakazawa has a gift for making the science behind all this clear and for helping her readers to understand themselves better as a result. A few of the most important things I have taken from my first read of Childhood Disrupted:
1. As a parent, I read the chapter on "Parenting Well When You Haven't Been Well Parented" with particular interest. I know there are things I can be doing to improve on my own biography with my kids - and Nakazawa spells them out.
2. As an educator, I feel it my duty to support my students' sense of well-being, and Nakazawa makes it clear that mindfulness is as important as academics - I know many of our students are suffering traumas every day, and I know, too, that I can be a "reliable adult" (as Nakazawa writes) for at least a few of them.
3. For myself - a reinvigoration to continue my own healing journey.

Donna Jackson Nakazawa has done it again - a beautifully written book that spoke to me on every page. I know this was just published two days ago, but I am already waiting to see what she will share with us next!

I am a pediatrician interested in raising consciousness of impact of ACEs on lifelong health amongst my colleagues where perhaps we could make a difference earlier on in a child's life trajectory. This requires a solid neuroscience background and evidence-based practices to convince the medical audience. In part 1 of this book, understanding the link between biography and behavior, Ms Jackson Nazakawa incorporates many of the scientific "go-to" references that I use in my talks to health care providers and trainees. In addition, in part 2, by expanding on various healing strategies, Ms Jackson Nakazawa provides information on therapies that could be recommended to parents who want to heal for sake of their own well-being and that of their children's. Medical providers are often reluctant to discuss topics when they feel powerless to help, but Childhood Disrupted offers scientific knowledge and practical tools that could empower practitioners to start a conversation at what is really at the root of patients' issues. This book is readable,informative, and most of all, credible. It would be a great introduction for your doctor who did not about ACES in medical school!

It is the missing link between metaphysical and physical because it connects the implications, memories of childhood traumas to adult health. I was struck by the first part of its subtitle, … Your Biography Becomes Your Biology. The principle was asserted in Caroline Myss’s Anatomy of the Spirit (1996) –a book changed my life. Myss explained how illness emerged in terms of imbalance in energy field, our power and spirit. It helped me understand a chronic illness at a broader level; I’m finishing writing a memoir about my healing now. Imagine the delight when I heard about the launch of Childhood Disrupted!

This book cites critical evidence and gives explanation on how adverse childhood experiences (ACE) affects the brain, our DNA and psyche. There is high correlation between chronic, autoimmune diseases and ACE, and especially in women. This book affirms my life experience. I had suffered multiple chemical sensitivity, worked with holistic/integrative physicians, which helped me cope— but healing my childhood wounds was what set me free.

I devoured Part I of this book in 2 days. The language is accessible, as the author describes brain processes under childhood stress and applied the principles to real life examples. My heart is warm by the fact that researchers and physicians are paying attention to the link between health and quality of childhood experience—finally our suffering as children can help with positive change.

In Part II the book gives a comprehensive list of ways we can recover from the effects of ACE, and from the illnesses likely stemmed from the ACE. This is a valuable guide for anyone who wants to improve her life and wellness. As a parent, I most appreciate the last chapter, Parenting Well When You Haven’t Been Well Parented. It gives real, doable tips to improve the childhood of the next generations.

The inner child within me, who had silently existed with helplessness and hurt, feels acknowledged in this book. Thank you so much, Donna, for bringing the effects of ACE to light. It gives solid insight into the mind-body-spirit connection. And insight empowers.

Childhood Disrupted is informative in detailing the connections between child hood adversity and depression / child hood adversity and suicide / childhood adversity and immune disease, etc. This knowledge can empower those individuals with traumatic experiences to approach the medical community with evidence culled from research; the knowledge can enlighten practitioners towards more compassionate care and treatment of such individuals.

Also included in the book is a “Resiliency Questionnaire” that helps the reader to understand the strengths and support that impacts overcoming adversity. Additionally, Donna Nakazawa includes a chapter on parenting well, with methods to help mitigate children’s exposure to trauma.

As someone who scores too high on the ACE survey, I applaud this book for its significant contribution to my personal healing journey. I’ve learned that healing is not a matter of will-power and self-discipline; I can’t outsmart a brain that’s been fundamentally damaged by multiple traumas. But I can re-train my brain through various re-processing techniques that Ms. Nakazawa suggests, such as EMDR, meditation, neurofeedback, and guided imagery.

I highly recommend Childhood Disrupted as a resource for awareness and insight as to the repercussions of adverse childhood experiences over the course of a lifetime.

Beautifully written, engaging, hugely informative and empowering! Just finished reading the book and then listened to the CDs to hear it again. Many go a lifetime never understanding the critical role trauma in childhood impacts them--and why. Self blame and ill health abound for lack of tending to what science now delineates are direct, indirect and cumulative effects of trauma and chronic stress in childhood. Bless Donna Jackson Nakazawa for the time and care she took to fast track readers to a personal, scientific and empowered understanding of whether and how their own (and common) childhood adversity may impact them today and how to begin to unravel and heal. This is a complex issue and this book is a balanced, well-referenced and intricate treatment of this complex issue and is a contribution to translating the science into our lived experiences.

As a psychotherapist with an expertise in childhood trauma, I’m grateful to Donna Jackson Nakazawa for writing this book. I routinely recommend Childhood Disrupted to my clients and all have found it enlightening and helpful. This brilliant and groundbreaking book explains how childhood dysfunction and trauma affect your immune system, brain functioning, and stress response and how this can contribute to later physical illness. Reading this book both as a professional and as someone who personally could relate, I couldn’t put it down.

There are many great books about the emotional effects of childhood trauma but they don’t necessarily address the physical effects. Childhood Disrupted fills this gap.

A science journalist, Jackson Nakazawa explains scientific concepts in an easy-to-read way and with warmth and empathy. She shares cutting edge research with personal and other stories that help explain the concepts described. You learn how the body holds the energy of past trauma and mind/body/spirit approaches for healing. If you experienced a dysfunctional or traumatic childhood and suffer from chronic illness today, this book helps you connect the dots.

Childhood Disrupted is a must-read for medical and behavioral healthcare providers, public health professionals and for anyone who experienced childhood trauma and dysfunction. It offers much needed hope and clarity for those who have struggled so much and for so long. I highly recommend it.

Childhood Disrupted is a must-read, must-have for anyone with any degree of childhood adversity, or anyone with adult medical issues that seem to have no logical origin. The research and verifiable data is a beacon for individuals and families alike, and therefore has the potential to change not only them, but society at large. Being able to see and understand the effects of adversity in childhood, gives anyone the opportunity to raise their children with insight and options for well-being, and for adults with adverse childhoods it gives us the opportunity to be kinder to ourselves over what we may have blamed ourselves for. Childhood Disrupted gives us reason to understand our past with compassion, and tools and hope to heal in the present.

I suffer from generalized anxiety which assuredly came from my childhood where my mother had schizophrenia and my father was an abusive alcoholic. This book helped to explain why I felt the way I did. Luckily I had sought treatment early in my life so my high ACE score of 5 was accompanied by a high resilience score too.

I thought perhaps my adult life and its problems were rooted somewhere in the past, but truly had no knowledge until I read Nakazawa's Childhood Disrupted. I feel vindicated I hadn't made up my physical and mental problems. This book is my bible; from time to timeI read certain passages to reassure myself. Thank you, Donna.

Beautifully written, engaging, hugely informative and empowering! Just finished reading the book and then listened to the CDs to hear it again. Many go a lifetime never understanding the critical role trauma in childhood impacts them--and why. Self blame and ill health abound for lack of tending to what science now delineates are direct, indirect and cumulative effects of trauma and chronic stress in childhood. Bless Donna Jackson Nakazawa for the time and care she took to fast track readers to a personal, scientific and empowered understanding of whether and how their own (and common) childhood adversity may impact them today and how to begin to unravel and heal. This is a complex issue and this book is a balanced, well-referenced and intricate treatment of this complex issue and is a contribution to translating the science into our lived experiences.

As a psychotherapist with an expertise in childhood trauma, I’m grateful to Donna Jackson Nakazawa for writing this book. I routinely recommend Childhood Disrupted to my clients and all have found it enlightening and helpful. This brilliant and groundbreaking book explains how childhood dysfunction and trauma affect your immune system, brain functioning, and stress response and how this can contribute to later physical illness. Reading this book both as a professional and as someone who personally could relate, I couldn’t put it down.

There are many great books about the emotional effects of childhood trauma but they don’t necessarily address the physical effects. Childhood Disrupted fills this gap.

A science journalist, Jackson Nakazawa explains scientific concepts in an easy-to-read way and with warmth and empathy. She shares cutting edge research with personal and other stories that help explain the concepts described. You learn how the body holds the energy of past trauma and mind/body/spirit approaches for healing. If you experienced a dysfunctional or traumatic childhood and suffer from chronic illness today, this book helps you connect the dots.

Childhood Disrupted is a must-read for medical and behavioral healthcare providers, public health professionals and for anyone who experienced childhood trauma and dysfunction. It offers much needed hope and clarity for those who have struggled so much and for so long. I highly recommend it.

This is one of the most profound, powerful and life changing books I’ve ever read. It was un-put-downable. The science is fascinating (even for an unscientific mind like mine) and devastating, but ultimately hopeful. Donna’s story resonates deeply and I was crying a few pages in. She has a gift for connecting neurobiology and human stories in such easily understandable ways. I highly recommend this book if you or anyone you love has experienced any form of childhood trauma.

Childhood Disrupted is a must-read, must-have for anyone with any degree of childhood adversity, or anyone with adult medical issues that seem to have no logical origin. The research and verifiable data is a beacon for individuals and families alike, and therefore has the potential to change not only them, but society at large. Being able to see and understand the effects of adversity in childhood, gives anyone the opportunity to raise their children with insight and options for well-being, and for adults with adverse childhoods it gives us the opportunity to be kinder to ourselves over what we may have blamed ourselves for. Childhood Disrupted gives us reason to understand our past with compassion, and tools and hope to heal in the present.

I suffer from generalized anxiety which assuredly came from my childhood where my mother had schizophrenia and my father was an abusive alcoholic. This book helped to explain why I felt the way I did. Luckily I had sought treatment early in my life so my high ACE score of 5 was accompanied by a high resilience score too.

I thought perhaps my adult life and its problems were rooted somewhere in the past, but truly had no knowledge until I read Nakazawa's Childhood Disrupted. I feel vindicated I hadn't made up my physical and mental problems. This book is my bible; from time to timeI read certain passages to reassure myself. Thank you, Donna.

Just finished this book and found it to be extremely helpful and makes 100% sense to me. She did an excellent job on the research, and there is plenty of research. It can be a bit painful taking the ACE test and opening up some of the past wounds but the more we are able to think and talk about them the more we can heal.

I hope to share this informative book with other grandparents/care givers that are desperately in need of understanding and helping their grandchildren that are suffering PTSD and many other ailments due to being subjected to the dysfunction of addicted parents. Thank you, Donna for providing this helpful information in a way that everyone can understand and assist with the process of healing our children.

I couldn't wait for Childhood Disrupted to be shipped, so I bought the audiobook the day it was released. I listened to the first half of the book with my heart in my throat, finding more and more "aha" moments as Jackson Nakazawa laid out the connections between childhood trauma and adult health consequences. I recognized myself and my family in many of the personal stories of the women and men she interviewed. Complimenting the stories, Jackson Nakazawa presents detailed descriptions of neuroscientific and medical studies, showing compelling evidence in a wide variety of research areas. She writes with clarity, compassion and the personal relatability of someone who sought this information out of her own need to heal.

As I listened to the second half of the book, I put in my order for a hard copy because I know I will use it as a resource and reference for quite some time to guide me on a path to better emotional and physical health. Jackson Nakazawa provides a diverse and detailed array of paths to healing. She describes options one can do individually and those to be done with the help of a therapist. Each is thoroughly explained, with references and a starting point for further research.

I wish I could buy a whole crate of copies of this book so that I could give them to my friends, relatives and helping professionals.

Recommendations for healing include Tai Chi, Qigong, Mindsight, Trauma Release Exercises, Bodywork (Massage Rho, Core Energetic Massage, Therapeutic Touch), Somatic Experiencing, Neurofeedback, and EMDR.

The Author follows many of the recommendations with personal anecdote.

These are huge red flags. There is little-to-no quality scientific evidence that any of these address mental health / medical issues.

This leads me to question the information in the proceeding chapters.

I never knew about ACEs until reading this book. It gave me the necessary tools and hope to recover from illness and injury when many of my "specialists" told me I would always struggle. Understanding the relationship between childhood and health from more than just as psychological perspective is life changing. Donna's research and scientific supported explanations enable both the individual and one's support system to use a whole person treatment approach to any situation.

Childhood Disrupted is an important book and a must ready. It opened my eyes to the role of early childhood trauma and how it can relate to disease, especially for women. As a woman with an autoimmune disease, Childhood Disrupted helped me understand my health journey and gave me hope for the future. I highly recommend Childhood Disrupted!