Back to Life: Getting Past Your Past with Resilience, Strength, and Optimism

by Alicia Salzer

“Dr. Salzer offers an empowering new approach to trying on the coping skills and outlooks of heroic overcomers. These are life skills we all should have learned as kids.” —Dr. Mehmet Oz, bestselling author of The Owner’s Manual , host of The Dr. Oz Show
Back to Life by Alicia Salzer, M.D. is a wise, sympathetic, and practical guide for overcoming traumatic setbacks, and living a normal, happy life without being a victim. The former resident psychiatrist on the Montel Williams show, Dr. Salzer offers a fresh new take on trauma treatment, a method for “getting past your past with resilience, strength, and optimism” designed for anyone who has experienced catastrophe. Destined to become a classic work on emotional recovery, this remarkable volume points the way down the path Back to Life, and belongs on every bookshelf next to When Bad Things Happen to Good People .

Genres: Nonfiction, Self Help, Psychology

304 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2011

Reviews

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Would read this again. Practical tips

[Violet Patterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

A much needed read for very personal reasons.

[Mmars · Rating 4 out of 5]

Salzer brings her experiences working with 9/11 survivors to provide readers with methods for overcoming trauma. She begins by acknowledging that people react differently to life-changing traumas that can be both large or small (spousal infidelity and job loss compared to being the victim of rape or war) and discusses how differently people react to trauma. First she asks and answers why some people recover more quickly, or perhaps, suffer hardly at all. She then proceeds to examine ways of coping and guides the reader through thought processes that can gradually help them overcome and change the mind's crippling PTSD habits. This book is helpful if the reader is truly ready to think positive and make a change. However, if there are more troubling psychological issues, or their stressor still exists (i.e. an abusive marriage) it's going to take more than this book to make headway.

[Sally Hill · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a self help type of book. It functions well as a sort of kickstart for traumatized people. It says, yes, you are surviving, you made it and you're considered functional, but let's admit it, you're still a bit permafrozen and it's time to try some life. It's written by a traumatized person, rather than a patronizing person, which is nice.

It has some advice in it that I haven't heard anywhere else, which was massively helpful. The best bit of advice, in case you don't read this book, is to carry a rock with a spiral on it and to touch it when you notice that you have spiralling thoughts.

I think an easy trap to get into with mental health issues is to take it so gravely, care for it so gravely, building your shelter, that you forget the next step is to give yourself food and sunlight.

[Catherine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Has some useful ideas even if I didn’t feel drawn to going thru the exercises.

[Anna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved this book! You definitely have to be in the right headspace to read this ... If you are fresh from a traumatic event, this may not be the book to read. But if you've had some time to process, this book has valuable skills and insights to help continue the work towards healing

[Ashlei Kretz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some things seemed obvious but also were a great reminder and validating