Secrets Part 3
Last week I walked through the mid-level stress response using a milk shopping trip as an example.
If you’re able to calm down and solve the stress causing problem, as in walking into the grocery store and getting the milk… the stress resolves. Its mission accomplished. Task is done. Threat is gone. You have the milk.
But there are plenty of life circumstances that are much higher stress and are not resolved as easily. And the body has plenty of other ways of revealing the “Why?”, of the stress - which may be a secret that your body was keeping from you for your protection.
We’ll stick with the mundane example of forgetting the milk. If you were able to get to the grocery store and get a carton of milk - the crisis is over. Your body doesn’t need to reveal why that was so stressful. There’s nothing to fix - you have the milk and you can calm down.
But, if stress levels continue to rise instead of resolving, this could mean that you could experience a flashback of getting yelled at for forgetting the milk.
A flashback is when you see, hear, feel, or in any way re-experience a stressful usually traumatic situation. It’s when your survival system brain acts as a bodyguard and protects the logic part of your brain.
However, this creates a small problem, because the logic part of your brain is in charge of time… so the incident of getting yelled at because you forgot the milk may have happened at four years old and you’re currently fifty-four… but now its right there in front of you.
You as grown up - get to be four again. You get to be yelled at for forgetting the milk.
And you as grown up - won’t be able to tell where you are, how old you are, or what’s going on.
Grown up you is not present.
Only child you is there.
And survival brain is now child you.
Grown up you has zero decision factor.
Most people think of flashbacks are only occurring people who have been through serious situations - mostly combat or war zone related. This isn’t true.
While military and war zone related flashbacks are given the most attention, there are a lot of people who have flashbacks who have never been in a war zone or experienced combat.
Here’s two videos:
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