Paul Conti MD - Trauma: The Invisible Epidemic: How Trauma Works and How We Can Heal From It

Praise for Trauma: The Invisible Epidemic

Trauma: The Invisible Epidemic will be a game changer. It provides not only the wisdom and intelligence of the authoran experienced professional in the worlds of psychiatry and sociologybut unlike other intellectual books written about trauma, Pauls offers a multitude of solutions. These practical responses to trauma address everything from physical and mental health to encouraging self-care and correcting unhealthy behaviors. Trauma affects countless individuals and families, and Pauls book is carefully thought out and explained in ways that are understandable to everyone. Wisdom and patience prevail in his unique outlook on a subject that has been largely ignored by doctors for years. Its a must-read for professionals as well as anyone who has experienced trauma or other psychological stressors.

TOMMY HILFIGER Entrepreneur, author, and philanthropist

Dr. Conti is a physician and psychiatrist, and a person who has been through a lot, too. This gives him a unique perspective on how people function and how traumas can change us, specifically how traumas lead us to think and act differently without understanding why. Dr. Conti explains how trauma interacts with the way our brains work and how trauma is affected by certain aspects of society, and he does so with vivid illustrations of real people and their lives. But this book doesnt just stop there. Dr. Conti also provides real solutionssolutions people can use for themselves and their loved ones, and solutions to help make the world a kinder and safer place.

KIM KARDASHIAN Actress, producer, and businesswoman

Paul Conti is one of the most unique and thoughtful physicians I have ever met. His approach to psychiatry is interactive both with the patient and with the referring physician. I have a large, successful concierge practice in New York and am often asked to see patients with complicated medical issues. Of all of the consultants I refer patients to, Paul is the most effective. Any time I have a patient with a complicated medical history and many previous evaluations, I reach out to Paul, who has taught me to look for and find the underlying trauma in their lives. Paul, my patients and I thank you for teaching me to be a better physician.

BERNARD KRUGER, MD Oncologist and cofounder of Sollis Health

After reading Paul Contis excellent book, Trauma: The Invisible Epidemic, I now understand that trauma exists in all of us. Sometimes we remember it, but even when we cant, it remembers us, keeping us from living our lives fully. Until we can identify it and bring it to the light, we exist with fears, anxieties, and masks that keep us from living in the light. Paul Contis book helps us identify the trauma(s) we have endured in our lives and helps us move toward healingno small task in todays traumatic world.

CAROLE BAYER SAGER Golden Globe and Academy Awardwinning lyricist, singer, and songwriter

Ive known Paul Conti for nearly 25 years, and over the course of that time I have been privileged to witness, and benefit from, both his brilliance and his insight into the human condition. Paul has lived through terrible tragedies and, as such, can speak to the important subject of trauma as both a clinical expert and a regular person who has suffered and struggled as so many of us have. Pauls impact on my own life, and the lives of many of my patients, has been greater than I could ever explain on the back of a book jacket.

PETER ATTIA, MD Physician, consultant, and cofounder of Zero

Paul Conti, MD

Boulder, Colorado

Sounds True

Boulder, CO 80306

2021 Paul Conti

Foreword 2021 Ate My Heart

Sounds True is a trademark of Sounds True, Inc.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission from the author(s) and publisher.

Published 2021

Cover design by Jennifer Miles

Book design by Karen Polaski

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Conti, Paul (M.D.) author.

Title: Trauma: the invisible epidemic : how trauma works and how we can heal from it / Paul Conti, M.D.

Description: Boulder, CO : Sounds True, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020057538 (print) | LCCN 2020057539 (ebook) | ISBN 9781683647355 (trade paperback) | ISBN 9781683647362 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: Psychic trauma. | Psychic traumaTreatment.

Classification: LCC RC552.T7 C664 2021 (print) | LCC RC552.T7 (ebook) | DDC 616.85/21dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020057538

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020057539

To my daughters, Colette and Amelie

Those are the same stars, and that is the same moon, that look down upon your brothers and sisters, and which they see as they look up to them, though they are ever so far away from us, and each other.

FROM THE NARRATIVE OF SOJOURNER TRUTH

by Lady Gaga, Stefani Germanotta

I was gently thrown into an emergency care room at some private hospital in New York during a world tour. I remember a vision of a doctor and a nurse. They asked me calmly to count back from 100 as I continued to scream. I recall saying, Why is no one panicking? They encouraged me to keep counting back from 100 until I got to about 69.... I think. Thats when I stopped counting and declared, Hi, Im Stefani. I also confessed that I couldnt feel my body, that I was completely numb.

I watched as their eyes gazed at a heart monitor, which I then realized I was connected to. They both did their best to hide their concern for the high level of my heart rate. I understood their concern, but I didnt have the wherewithal at the moment to be panicked about even one single thing more. I was in a deep state of disassociation from reality, and I was later told that I had a psychotic break.

A doctor is coming, they assured me.

As I pleaded for medication (not knowing which one I wanted), I thought that certainly something strong could be made available to me. I felt incensed that they would not give any medicine to me until this doctor arrived.

Soon thereafter, someone entered the room. I noticed instantly it was a man, and also that he was not wearing a white coat and that there was no stethoscope in sight.

Hello, Im Dr. Paul Conti, he said. Im a psychiatrist.

I looked at the nurse who had been waiting with me, not realizing the other doctor had left the room a while ago.

Why didnt you bring me a real doctor? I asked the nurse.

Paul replied by saying, Im an Italian from New Jersey, and that was when I decided I was willing to talk to him. My dad is an Italian from New Jersey, so I figured I at least knew what I was dealing with.

At that moment, I began a journey that I have continued ever since, a journey with a man I had never met before but who would somehow make it part of his lifes work to understand and help me. It wasnt until two years of working together that he revealed to me that he took six months to assess me and figure out if I was moveable when I was clearly in a state of traumatic paralysis.

I will not tell you everything that has happened between the two of us. But I will tell you this: Paul only wore his white coat when he needed to. To remind me he is a doctor. Most of the time, by mutual consent, Paul has related to me as a fellow human being and a safe man. We have learned about each other as we began a process of healing for me that I thought was impossible. I can now say with certainty that this man saved my life. He made life worth living. But most importantly, he empowered me to find and reclaim myself again. Whether Paul taught me this or we came up with it together, what I do know for sure is that women dont need men to simply give us helpwe need men (and people who are not men as well) to believe in us in order for our traumas to heal.