Oh my gulay- This was a heavy read.
But I like those types of books, so I’ll start by saying I thoroughly enjoyed this. Author Stephanie Foo ultimately sheds light on what it’s like to live with complex PTSD over the course of a young Asian American woman’s golden years. The detailed recollection of her upbringing is nothing less than heart-wrenching. Yet, somehow, she manages to bring her experience full circle by the time she reaches her early thirties.
After decades of trying to “fix herself” through reading, meditation, therapy, and multiple other trendy wellness practices of the 21st century, she finally meets a therapist who changes the way her mind works forever. Dr. Ham introduces her to an innovative approach to talk therapy that trains her how to decode her trauma response in real time. It takes her precisely sixteen weeks to successfully implement this new practice into her daily lifestyle and therefore her every interpersonal communication. However, it’s not Dr. Ham’s influence alone that transforms her life from dreadful to just plain full. The collective insight she has gained through years of desperately searching for answers is what finally allows her to concoct the perfect cocktail for healing.
Growing up in a first-generation Malaysian family in Silicon Valley in the 1990s, Foo goes from self-medicating with drugs and alcohol to spending her free time editing her most intimate conversations and interactions via Google Doc. Her journalistic approach to unpacking her diagnosis, coupled with the years of research she conducted in her lifelong effort to heal from an incredibly painful childhood escorts her down a winding, tumultuous path that does eventually find victory. The ending solicits a rollercoaster of emotion as Foo paints a hopeful picture of what it looks like to heal from C-PTSD.
