Overcoming Trauma Through Reading

When I first set out to write this article, I didn’t know exactly where to begin if I’m honest.  Typically I find a topic and reflect on it. Give my hot take. But with this one… it’s a lot more personal. 

I didn’t have the easiest childhood, and honestly my teenage years were hell. My adult life I have focused on breaking curses and forging my own path. 

I lost myself for a few years and never want to go back to that again. 

Reading has always been an escape for me. Letting me live so many different lives and go on journeys that entranced the mind. But reading also helped to heal parts of me that I didn’t even know needed healing. 

What we find in our books is truly unique to each person. I tend to be on the darker side. I seek out the broken who have to fight their way to happiness. I find the traumatized and watch their healing regardless if it’s through raging or finding their worth. 

My father always told me, “reading can teach you things about yourself and can always help you see from a different point of view.” 

My dad wasn’t always my dad. He came into my life late, and after most of my trauma had occurred, but I’ll never forget the night he found me huddled up reading Odd Thomas. I thought I was going to be in trouble, but instead he sat next to me and asked me what I thought about it. No one had ever asked me that, aside from teachers who were basically telling us to write book reports. 

We sat for hours that night as I told him my thoughts on Odd and this universe that I saw unfolding in my mind. He smiled and said, “good now keep reading” and walked away. He didn’t scold me for staying up late to read, didn’t tell me that I shouldn’t be reading it. Just simply •keep reading•.

So I did. Book after book, universe after universe. 

After he passed, 16 years to the date, I stopped reading. I didn’t have the fire for it, mainly because he wasn’t there to listen to me babbling after each read. Everyone else always thought I was an odd ball for reading. I stopped correcting them. I didn’t mind being an odd ball, cause I had his support. I finally picked back up a book in 2020. Go figure, quarantine and I remembered why I loved it so much, but I couldn’t help but be sad I couldn’t talk to anyone about what I was reading. 

Fast forward to 2022. Booktok and Bookstagram became a thing, and I found all these people who loved reading as much as I did, and I could actually talk to them about it. It was, like a lightbulb or a small sigh of relief. I finally started digging back into authors I loved and actively sought out new authors. I found books that described the deepest heartbreaks, love for eternity, overcoming a horrid past, etc and I smiled. I smiled because I was reading again and healing small parts of myself again. I smiled because I could talk books again and not be alone in it. Again, being the odd ball never bugged me, but it felt good to have people to share my love of reading with. 

I know most of you probably came into this article thinking I was going to talk about the benefit of reading dark romance to heal my trauma, and don’t get me wrong. It has helped. But the actual act of reading, it healed a small part of me that I didn’t realize still hurt so badly. 

I grieved this week. I grieved hard. It’s not easy losing a parent, especially one that always told you to embrace every aspect of yourself and to never shrink yourself down. And that’s what my Dad was. The supporter. The yapper. The book lover. The knowledge seeker. 

Reading helped heal me and continues to help heal me. Day in and day out. Regardless of what I read, or if I go through a slump or if I blow through 20 books like it’s nothing. 

The point of this article isn’t to tell you to read dark romance. No, it’s to tell you to just keep reading. Read what brings you joy and yap about it to the community around you. Yap about it to your friends. Yap about it on your Bookstagram or your Booktok. We are always one page away from finding our next favorite book. And we are always one story away from healing a piece of ourselves. 

“I have lived so many lives and every story is etched not just on my bones, but branded on my soul” 

I never knew if my dad made it up, or read it somewhere — but the quote has always stayed with me. 

Live. Read. Keep moving forward. 

Healing is not a designed plan, it has many roads and many bumps. It could take a short time or a long time. Just keep going. 

Happy reading loves. 

May every story bring you something to love.