It Didn't Start with You
by Mark Wolynn
★ Top 25 book of 2016 · #19 on Best Books of 2016
Mark Wolynn argues that anxiety, depression, chronic pain, and phobias may stem from traumas experienced by earlier generations. He presents his Core Language Approach, drawing on trauma research and offering self-inventories to help readers trace their own inherited patterns.
Best for: Readers seeking to understand family-inherited trauma and practical methods for healing it
It Didn't Start with You is #19 on BookWard's Best Books of 2016, out of 68 2016 books that cleared our data bar.
What It Didn't Start with You is about
Mark Wolynn takes up a question many people with long-running troubles eventually ask: why does this feel so hard when nothing in my own life explains it? Looking at depression, anxiety, chronic pain, phobias and intrusive, looping thoughts, he proposes that the source may sit further back than a person's own experience or brain chemistry. It could lie with parents, grandparents or even great-grandparents.
His central claim is that the effects of trauma can travel down a family line. He leans on researchers of post-traumatic stress, among them neuroscientist Rachel Yehuda and psychiatrist Bessel van der Kolk, who wrote The Body Keeps the Score. He suggests these inherited imprints stay hidden, written into everything from gene expression to the words a family uses, and that they can persist even when the person who suffered is gone, or the story has been forgotten or kept quiet. The tone is compassionate and practical. It will suit readers curious about family history who want a new way to understand symptoms that have never quite made sense.
It Didn't Start with You on the Best Books of 2016
It Didn't Start with You came out in 2016. Of the 68 books first published in 2016 that met BookWard's data bar, it ranks #19 on our Best Books of 2016 list.
Why it made the list: 1,129 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.6 out of 5 (14 ratings); 52 are reading it right now. The list ranks each year’s books on how many readers have picked them up, how highly readers rate them, and how many are reading them right now.
Nearby on the 2016 list
- Dark Matter Blake Crouch, #17
- A Thousand Boy Kisses Tillie Cole, #18
- Pillow Thoughts Courtney Peppernell, #20
- The Sun Is Also a Star Nicola Yoon, #21
See all Best Books of 2016 Best books by year
More years: Best Books of 2015 Best Books of 2017.
The numbers behind it
- Readers: 1,060 want to read it, 52 are reading it now and 17 have read it, according to Open Library.
- Ratings: 3.6 out of 5 from 14 Open Library ratings.
| Signal | This book (0 to 100) | Weight |
|---|---|---|
| Reach | 85 | 55% |
| Reader love | 10 | 25% |
| Being read right now | 81 | 20% |
Questions about It Didn't Start with You
When was It Didn't Start with You published?
It Didn't Start with You by Mark Wolynn was first published in 2016.
Was It Didn't Start with You one of the best books of 2016?
It Didn't Start with You is #19 on BookWard's Best Books of 2016, out of 68 2016 books that cleared our data bar. 1,129 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.6 out of 5 (14 ratings); 52 are reading it right now.
Why is It Didn't Start with You on the Best Books of 2016 list?
1,129 readers have shelved it on Open Library; readers rate it 3.6 out of 5 (14 ratings); 52 are reading it right now.
More of the best books of 2016
- It Ends with Us Colleen Hoover, #1
- Dog Man Dav Pilkey, #2
- The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck Mark Manson, #3
- Never Split the Difference Chris Voss, #4
- The Hidden Oracle Rick Riordan, #5
- Born a Crime Trevor Noah, #6
See the full Best Books of 2016, the Top 100, or new books on Rising.
How we know
This page uses public data: Open Library reader counts and ratings, and Wikipedia page views for recent years. The description is paraphrased from real source text. Rankings reflect reading interest, not quality or sales, and can be affected by data gaps. Lists update monthly.
Find your own best books
Add what you have read, rate it, and BookWard will recommend what to read next.
Free while in beta. No credit card needed.