Many adults live with anxiety, people-pleasing, perfectionism or burnout without knowing where those patterns began. A new book on childhood trauma in India argues that the more useful question is not what is wrong with a person, but what happened to them.
What Happened to Me? vs What’s Wrong with Me?: Indian Perspectives on Childhood Trauma and Recovery was published on 22 June 2026 by Ebury Press, an imprint of Penguin Random House India. It is written by Dr Gunjan Y Trivedi and Dr Riri G Trivedi, co-founders of Wellness Space in Ahmedabad, and Dr Hemalatha Ramani, who holds a PhD in economics.
Gunjan Trivedi practises and teaches trauma-informed psychotherapy and works with clients affected by depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and complex post-traumatic stress disorder. Riri Trivedi’s doctoral research examined the impact of adverse childhood experiences on adult mental health.
According to the publisher, the book draws on more than 3,000 interviews and 14 peer-reviewed studies. It combines research findings with real-life accounts from Indian families and includes more than 50 illustrations across its 360 pages.
The book centres on adverse childhood experiences, often shortened to ACEs. These are stressful or traumatic events in early life, such as abuse, neglect or serious conflict at home. The authors argue that some experiences common in Indian childhoods have been largely overlooked by global research, including joint-family dynamics, constant comparison with others, bullying and emotional neglect.
The publisher’s description says such experiences can surface decades later as anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, complex post-traumatic stress disorder and difficulties in relationships. Complex PTSD is recognised in the World Health Organization’s ICD-11 classification and is linked to repeated or prolonged trauma, adding problems with emotions, self-worth and relationships to the core symptoms of PTSD.
The book does not set out to blame parents. Its description acknowledges that Indian parenting has shaped generations of capable adults, while arguing that success and suffering can exist side by side.
The book is divided into three sections. The first describes childhood experiences that the authors say India has never named, and explains why the effects of trauma are not limited to the body or the mind alone. The second offers practical recovery tools, including breathwork, guided visualisation and a self-hypnosis method the authors call the SEE protocol.
The third section is written for mental health professionals and sets out a clinical framework of evidence-based psychotherapy tools for trauma in the Indian context. The publisher describes the book as suited to adults who struggle with emotional patterns they cannot explain, parents who want to raise resilient children, and therapists working with Indian families.
Research from Wellness Space has also appeared in academic journals. Psychreg has reported on a study from the centre that linked childhood emotional abuse with adult loneliness and complex PTSD symptoms among 465 adults in Ahmedabad.
The book is a guide for general readers and practitioners rather than a new research study. Its recovery techniques are presented by the authors, and anyone with severe or persistent distress should seek help from a qualified mental health professional.
