It's Not About Food, Drugs or Alcohol: It's About Healing Complex PTSD - Sampler

By Mary Giuliani

Your Struggle With Food, Weight, Drugs, or Alcohol Is Not Your Fault, It's A Normal Response To Surviving An Abnormal Childhood.

 

Even though Mary was in long-term recovery with food, severe obesity, drugs, and alcohol and had what most people would consider a successful life - behind closed doors, she still struggled and wondered:

 

• Why she had so few close friends and had difficulty finding a fulfilling, romantic relationship.
   
• Why she still struggled with food, sleep, & caffeine.
   
• Why she couldn't find the flow and passion she longed for in her career.
   
• Why, even though she was in long-term recovery with food and substances and had maintained a 160lb weight loss for several decades, she felt the need to hide these parts of her past from others.
   

Finally, in mid-life, she discovered the root cause driving these, and her past addictions to food, drugs, and alcohol was a condition known as Complex PTSD (CPTSD), a more severe form of PTSD that developed from her being raised in a chaotic alcoholic home.

 

This discovery sent Mary on a five-year journey where she researched leading experts in the fields of complex trauma and addiction. She read dozens of books about complex PTSD and the adverse childhood experiences study (ACE Study.) She also studied thought leaders in the fields of neuroscience and developmental psychology. She read countless books about addiction, emotional trauma, childhood trauma in adults, food addiction, and addiction recovery.

 

Join Mary as she experiences one mind-blowing revelation after another as she learns that CPTSD was operating behind the scenes sabotaging her weight, addiction recovery, relationships, career, and health, and learn what she did to heal.

 

         In A Blending of Memoir, Science-Based Research & CPTSD Workbook, You'll Learn:

 

• You're not alone; you're not bad or defective; it's not your fault, your symptoms are normal, and you can heal.
   
• How to recover with a proven, step-by-step CPTSD Workbook that compassionately guides you in healing from common CPTSD symptoms such as difficulty with close relationships, shame, guilt, anxiety, depression, addiction, and feeling defective and unworthy of love and belonging.
   
• Gain access to a menu of 36 evidence-based body, brain, and mind CPTSD therapies and practices to heal the root cause of your symptoms.
   
• How to recover from your struggle with food, weight, drugs, or alcohol with the support of the step-by-step Recovery Workbook.
   
• How to stay focused and on track with practical worksheets, quizzes, and questionnaires.
   

You Can End Your Struggle With Food, Weight, Drugs, Alcohol, or Close Relationships Starting Today By Clicking on BUY NOW at The Top of This Page

• Language: English
• Publisher: Mary Giuliani
• Release date: Feb 11, 2023
• ISBN: 9798987466032

Book preview

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Praise for

It’s Not About Food, Drugs, or Alcohol: It’s About Healing Complex PTSD

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"It’s Not About Food, Drugs, or Alcohol should be very helpful for anyone who has or is struggling with any type of addiction to understand that their addictions are not their fault, and by healing their trauma, they’ll heal the root cause of their suffering." —Pete Walker, MA, LMFT, Leading trauma therapist & author of Complex PTSD: From Surviving To Thriving

Mary Giuliani offers her readers compassion, guidance, and hope as she peels back the layers of her journey through overcoming trauma. With each chapter, she disrupts the status quo’s understanding of how we think, behave, and heal by offering approachable science-based fundamentals we should have all learned about in school. Mary’s book explains how addiction, disordered eating, relationship issues, and more are linked to a common root cause of injury and walks the reader through a manageable process through which true healing can occur. As a psychologist and fellow human, I recommend this book to anyone who is curious about or is currently on the path to recovery. —Andi Fetzner, PsyD, Trauma Therapist & Educator

Mary’s touching memoir of her own struggle with substance abuse, obesity, and complex trauma exposes the historical lack of awareness the mental health community has regarding C-PTSD, which has caused people like her to be misdiagnosed with multiple labels from the DSM and delay the ability to seek proper trauma treatment. Mary’s book is relatable and personable as it follows the courageous story of a woman that found deeper addiction recovery when her childhood trauma was named and acknowledged.

—Melissa McManis, LCSW, Sexual Trauma Therapist, Southern California

This book is a one-stop shop for people who think they may have or who know they have trauma. Mary has done the homework to read and share some of the most important information from the best books on the topic. Her story? She’s lived with CPTSD, and she is here to help you survive the pitfalls and thrive with newly-identified superpowers that we actually can gain as the result of our experiences. Best of all, she shares her story with humor and humility, grace, and ultimately what we all need and can learn from her: a lifesaving and affirming dose of self-compassion. —Carey Smith Sipp, Director of Strategic Partnerships, PACEsconnection.com and author of The TurnAround Mom

This book exemplifies how childhood trauma is relational trauma. Brimming with science-based research through a plethora of resources, Mary’s book is a lighthouse nurturing those suffering in darkness with her guideposts supporting their healing journey. Ms. Giuliani’s book needs to be available for the masses of humanity and has insight, wisdom, and lived experiences permeating through every page. C-PTSD is not your fault. Your brain is neuroplastic and wants to heal. A must-read for clinicians, therapists, cross-sector folx, and most importantly, YOU. —Dana R. Brown, PACEs Science Statewide Facilitator,

Organizational Liaison, PACEsconnection.com

Mary guides us through her personal recovery journey, offering hope and healing wisdom as we travel from not knowing it was trauma into triumph! Thank you, Mary, for this inspirational collection of personal victories infused with an impressive compilation of trauma resources and tools. —Teri Wellbrock, Host of The Healing Place podcast, Trauma-Warrior, Author, Speaker & Blogger

This is such an important book for anyone struggling to have the life or love they want—but especially necessary and empowering for LGBTQ women since our stories are so rarely told. Thank you, Mary, for sharing your healing journey so openly and including the discussion of homophobia as a source of trauma that we can and must heal from. You are a role model, and this book is full of information, guidance, wisdom, heart, and courage. —Ruth L. Schwartz, Ph.D., Director, ConsciousGirlfriend.com

Wise Tribe Media, Aliso Viejo, CA ISBN: 979-8-9874660-2-5

Copyright 2022 by Mary Giuliani. All Rights Reserved Manufactured in the United States of America.

Library of Congress Cataloging-In-Publication Data Giuliani, Mary M.

It’s Not About Food, Drugs or Alcohol: It’s About Healing Complex PTSD By Mary Giuliani

The events in this book are portrayed to the best of the author’s memory. While all the stories are true, some names and identifying details have been changed to protect people’s privacy.

Permission to reproduce excerpts from this book is freely given, provided the author and book title is credited and her contact information (https://MaryGiuliani.net) is provided.

The author is not a physician, psychologist, or qualified expert on addiction, obesity, or complex PTSD. All of the content in this book is for informational purposes only. It is not intended to substitute for medical advice, consultation, diagnosis, or treatment from a mental health or healthcare provider. Always seek the advice of your physician or a qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical or psychological condition.

Although the author shares her experience from using various therapies, practices, services, products, procedures, and programs, she does not recommend, endorse, or make any representation about the efficacy, appropriateness, or suitability of any specific product, procedure, treatment, practice, therapy, or service mentioned in this book.

Neither the author or publisher shall be liable or responsible for any loss or damage arising from any information or suggestions in this book.

For the survivors.

Because sharing our story is the single most powerful thing we can do to heal ourselves and heal the world.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

PART I

WHAT HAPPENED TO ME

CHAPTER 1

I NEVER KNEW IT WAS TRAUMA

CHAPTER 2

TRAPPED IN THE FAMILY