Considering the context of fear people experience, each person’s ability to process fear is individualized. Individualization of experiences happens over the period of someone’s life. From pregnancy to death, the perspective of fear is embedded in our psychological and cognitive functioning.
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The Beginnings of Fear
The pregnancy experience encompasses the fetus and any emotional contexts the mother experiences is transmitted to the embryo as it develops. Fears, in the form of stress, are pulsed into the body of the fetus via nerve impulses.
Normal fear and stress, healthy stress, gives the courage and strength to the fetus, whereas unnatural and unhealthy, long-standing stress is detrimental to the fetus psychologically.
The following clip discusses insight into the trauma children experience and how parental response and their addictions can add more pain to the inner workings of the child.
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They may not be able to articulate the fear, however, anxiousness in children have been linked to the ACE’s study on Adverse Childhood Experiences. For instance, one study demonstrated how toxic stress affects the developing fetus.
“Injurious experiences, such as malnutrition, exposure to chemical toxins or drugs, and toxic stress before birth or in early childhood are not “forgotten,” but rather are built into the architecture of the developing brain through the epigenome. The “biological memories” associated with these epigenetic changes can affect multiple organ systems and increase the risk not only for poor physical and mental health outcomes but also for impairments in future learning capacity and behavior” (Harvard University, 2019).
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Understandingly, the resulting gene markers inherited and further developed in the pliable brains of infants and young children, explain much about the stresses they experience in life.
Attention Deficit Disorder, Conduct Disorders, and rage seen in young children through the adolescent years need to be considered more than mere medicating.
Rewiring the circuitry of the brain, when started at a young age, may help reduce some of the reoccurring mental health issues seen in our population.
Discussing the fear response mechanism, children are the portals for tomorrow, and their overloaded systems create issues for generations following them. Bio-markers embed on the DNA of individuals and pass on down the line of generations.
The ability of one great grandparent’s lack of food, for instance, will place a biomarker of the need for preservation of diet, and the young child who gets the DNA specifically marked for the Great Grandparent, develops the potential for obesity.
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Levels of Fear
Dr. Cliff Saunders uses the metaphor of a haunted house to explain the different levels of fear. I will run down a short version of the levels with explanations for clarity:
Level 0: Calm, absolute, zero fear
Level 1: Apprehension → looking around, the environment not safe
Level 2: Concern →physical danger — active steps taken for protection
Level 3: Fight, Flight or Freeze →needed to be VERY aware many years ago, so it is an extremely important function, now, it has become more of a response to ongoing stressors
Level 4: Helplessness → Corrosive and hard, the sensations inside, you begin to panic, lose touch with reality
Level 5: Doubt your sense of self → die psychologically/emotionally
Level 6: Death
Obviously, death is the worst case scenario to fear and situations in which fear is controlled by the force causing the emotion.
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Living in a Constant State of Fear
The concerning level we have to watch for and pay attention too is level 3: Fight, Flight, or Freeze.
Staying in the level 3 zone is where many individuals who have PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) and OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder), GAD (General Anxiety Disorder), and/or other mental health issues get stuck.
Simple trauma, complex trauma, and dual diagnosis are also at higher risk for developing a trigger finger response to level 3. Their autonomic and central nervous systems are in stuck mode and on high gear.
Hypervigilance is prevalent, and while it served a purpose when the initial stressors took place, the long-term effects create a hostile body system, where the adrenal glands continue to secrete adrenaline far beyond the need.
Once we understand the essential roles the body moves through in order to protect us, we might respect our brains and body functions a little more than we do currently.
Even therapists who work with trauma clients need to be mindful of secondary trauma which comes via the stories clients share about their pain, their abuse, and their losses.
Those who have walked the road of recovery, addiction for one, did not fall into using a substance or activity to pass the time away. Most of them use the avenue to calm a frayed mind, distraught with loss, pain, and agony held deep inside.
Gabor Maté likes to ask the question, “Not why the addiction, but why the pain?”
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Chronic emotional trauma fills the body with pain, whether physical or emotional. Fear, a normal response to protect ourselves, becomes a source of constant stress and constant reminders of the pain we have witnessed.
Therapists, who work with clients who experience pain and fear, need a support system as well. Processes through a client’s loss, trauma, and other areas is a heavy walk when one walks alone. Judith Herman, Ph.D. Shares, “Just as no survivor can recover alone, no therapist can work with trauma alone” (1997, p. 141).
It takes a community to unite in strength, empowerment, and the helping professions.
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Negative Self-Talk Trap
In the swirl of the knowledge-based on trauma and fear in children, we find several overlaps where the behaviors attributed to childhood abuse creates a form of negative scenarios within the mind. These private stories, or narratives of negativity, replay themselves and keep individuals stuck in their overloaded response system to fear.
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Freeing Self From Fear
Normal, healthy stressors and fear protect us and keep us from making choices, which might injure ourselves or someone else. Therefore, a normal, balanced look at fear is necessary. Curiosity, intrigue, and focus help us move past fears of ability and we can grow. Debilitating fears hinder our movement forward and set us on a trail of overthinking and staying stuck in the emotional brain.
Until an individual faces their fears, in a safe and non-threatening environment they will repeatedly become triggered and not understand where it is coming from and why it is affecting them internally. There vast amount of materials to gain insight from are in myriads of bookstores, college bookstores, courses online, and other places.
The best suggestion to anyone who begins to feel the triggers and the fears is to seek someone who will listen, help them process and then find resources to become empowered to find their grounding and peace.
You are not alone, in the fears which consume you. There is hope. I personally, found hope amidst a great season of fear and continually grow toward the reduction of triggers and freedom of thought.
~Just a thought by Pamela
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Previously published on Medium.com.
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Photo credit: By James Coleman on Unsplash