How stored stress can echo as joint pain
Earlier experiences can resurface when caregiving, loss, hormonal change, or reduced resilience place new demands on the nervous system. Van der Kolk explains how traumatic stress may affect memory, attention, safety, relationships, and bodily awareness, while exploring therapies that go beyond talking alone. The book should not be used to explain away joint pain or replace medical assessment; physical symptoms can have many causes. In the context of women’s midlife health, its value is a more integrated question: what has the body learned to expect, and what forms of movement, connection, treatment, and support might help restore choice?
About Bessel van der Kolk
Bessel van der Kolk has linked his interest in trauma to a postwar Dutch childhood and an authoritarian home. Treating Vietnam veterans later showed him that unbearable experience returned through nightmares, bodily reactions, and relationships—not only through conscious memory.
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