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Street Roots • August 25-31, 2017
Book Review
Why you’re anxious, angry, depressed - and how to fix it
O N F S C K
y ¿8? o u f t
W
y
BRAIN
AW fk'' ' "’
Unf#ck Your
Brain: Using
Science to Get
Over Anxiety,
Depression,
Anger, Freak-
outs, and
Triggers
by Faith G. Harper
Meredith Mathis is a
recent graduate of
Reed College and a
volunteer with the
Mental Health
Association of
Portland.
BY MEREDITH MATHIS
C O N T R IB U T IN G C O L U M N IS T
aith G . Harper is an experienced
mental health provider. She is a
trauma-informed therapist; a licensed
clinician with certificates in sexology,
integrated life coaching and clinical
nutrition; a board supervisor; and a teacher.
Harper’s goal is to cram what she has
learned from decades of being in the field
into a digestible, helpful guide for anyone
looking to understand and begin working
through their trauma informed physical and
emotional responses to the world around
them. Harper writes that the biggest
takeaway from this book, if any, should be
that these responses to the world, be they
anger, anxiety, addiction or “the rest of it”
are adaptive.
Harper communicates that these adaptive
strategies are learned behaviors that made
sense in the circumstances in which they
were developed. By somehow breaking
down something as complex as neurobiology
in a very accessible way, Harper explains
how and why the brain/body develops the
way it does after traumatic events, and how
this causes us to develop behaviors that
negatively affect our daily life. From there,
she explains how to undo, rework or
“unfuck” as she would say, the feedback
loop of our neurological responses and our
behaviors. She offers hope that learning the
whats and hows of it all can begin a process
of regaining a sense of agency in your life.
Or, as she wrote more clearly, “this book is
about the why you are miserable so you can
do something about it.”
This book makes both academic and
professional information accessible. The
complexities of a topic are reworded, broken
down and organized, making it much easier
to read and understand without sacrificing
nuance. Alongside the scientific
explanations, Harper offers practical advice,
guidelines, treatment options and small
exercises a reader can use to start locating
F
pecòple’s
A
" A
FOOD CO-OP
their own feelings, responses, needs, etc.
The book mirrors a lot of what someone
might learn through either years of studying
in the field, or even from years of being a
patient with a good trauma-informed
therapist. Harper makes no overstated
promises, just gives thorough guidelines,
and encouragement that it is possible to
learn your particularities and (re)adapt for a
better life, even if yours is a complicated,
difficult and long process.
For every chapter and subsection of this
book, I thought of a new handful of friends
and family I wanted to share it with. It is
many resources in one. Beyond establishing
trauma as a key element in forming
behavioral patterns, it covers dynamics of
anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder,
depression, grief, anger, addiction and more;
it is thorough. I found myself simultaneously
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wanting to share it with a partner, who I
thought could benefit from certain sections,
while wanting them to read other sections
to better understand things I go through.
It’s a good guide for anyone affected by
these topics, or people who are close to
people who are, which is a lot of people. It’s
potentially helpful for people who don’t
necessarily need therapy, for people who
are in therapy and could use some new
guidelines and strategies, and/or most
people who have difficulty naming and
acting on what’s going on with them -
again, a lot of people.
I m thankful I read it. I will probably read
it again, and I will definitely recommend it
to most of my friends, family and mental
health care providers.
o
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