"What is trauma? How does it change the way our brains work? And how can we overcome it? When something traumatic happens to us, we dissociate and our bodies shut down their normal processes. This unique comic explains the strange nature of trauma and how it confuses the brain and affects the body. With wonderful artwork, cat and mouse metaphors, essential scientific facts, and a healthy dose of wit, the narrator reveals how trauma resolution involves changing the body's physiology and describes techniques that can achieve this, including Trauma Releasing Exercises that allow the body to shake away tension, safely releasing deep muscular patterns of stress and trauma."

Steve Haines, whose official bio states that he has worked in the healthcare industry for over 25 years, has written several graphic novels on health topics. In addition to this book on trauma he has addressed other topics such as pain and anxiety. None of these books are regular length graphic novels but rather are 15-20 pages long.

The stated goal of the book is to be a non-scary introduction to trauma. However, I found it to be either nutty or very scary. Trauma is defined as something that happens to most people. I disagree. He states that how a person reacts to it depends on how they reacted to the stress of their birth. Dissociation is the biggest problem from trauma but since the author provided many examples of trauma that would end up causing dissociation, it seemed like it was the most common problem from trauma. Again, I disagreed with this assessment and later wondered whether I just was unqualified to have this opinion. Perhaps the book was written for his profession, not the general public.

I googled the author and discovered that he is a chiropractor in Britain. I was shocked. He makes statements in the book that should only be made by a psychiatrist or a psychologist. He is not qualified to write a book on the psychology of trauma.

Another problem that I had with the book had to do with the author's acceptance of evolution. He referred several times to the reptilian part of our brain which is the oldest part of the brain. The brain stem, which controls our instinct, is the reptilian brain. The human brain is the neocortex part of the brain. I reject this idea that part of my brain if reptilian.

When this book arrived in the mail I was surprised that it was so short. I hoped that it would at least be informative. It was anything but informative. I am disappointed with it and would rate it 0 but 0 will not show up on Librarything. ( )

Explains what trauma does to people and how it can be mitigated. ( )

Ignoring the why and targeting the what

Trauma is anything that overwhelms our ability to cope. Something triggers the “smoke alarm” of our brains, and all kinds of ancient systems kick in. There are, for example, three primitive reflexes: fight or flight, dissociation and orientation (social connection). There is also shaking, which keeps us tense and ready. Sometimes, the smoke alarm fires at the wrong time, or doesn’t shut off. It can make us dysfunctional in society.

The main takeaway I got from this book was that the why is not important. Reliving experiences, dragging up old memories and rationalizing or intellectualizing are not the way to tame the trauma. It won’t just melt away if you think about what might have caused it. Addressing the what, the physical actions of the body’s response is what can help. Showing your mind that things are fine around you, socializing with others, making eye contact, and controlling the impulse to rage are apparently the better ways to dissipate trauma.

In a country of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, this is very helpful. There is a lot of short fuse anger and often rage. We send perfectly normal people off to other countries, feed them life-threatening stress for a couple of years, and release them back home traumatized. It might not show up right away, but it can last for years. Knowing that with will power, it can be controlled or defeated, is important knowledge. Simplifying it in a comic book setting might get more victims to read about it and understand.

David Wineberg ( )