22 f a m i l y t h e r a p y m a g a z i n e j a n u a r y f e b r u a r y 2 0 0 9 23

The NeuroscieNceoF FeArMaryAnne Banich Massey, EdS

Most of us have thought about what it would be like to experience a frightening

situation such as a robbery or a car accident, a plane crash or a fire, a hurricane

or a tornado. We have imagined how we would react in those situations—would

we be brave and save ourselves, would we be heroes and save other people, or

would we perish? how would those precious moments be spent—pounding heart,

sweating, praying, calling or texting a loved one. What would we say? is there any

way we could prepare ourselves for such situations? if there were, would you take

the time to learn?

It turns out that we have something called disaster personalities. While it is difficult to determine why we do what we do in extreme danger, we can begin by taking a closer look at how the oldest part of our brain works. According to Amanda Ripley in her book, The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes and Why (2008), our disaster personalities are older and more complex than we know and they also are impressionable.

Faced with extreme danger, our bodies and minds go into survival mode without even thinking about it. In fact, we don’t think we react. Physiologically we are mobilized for action. The hypothalamus signals the adrenal glands to produce more of the hormones adrenaline and cortisol for release into the bloodstream. These hormones speed up heart rate, breathing rate, blood pressure, and metabolism. Blood vessels open wider to let more blood flow to large muscle groups. And the blood chemically changes to coagulate more quickly so we bleed less if we are wounded.

Our pupils dilate to improve vision. Our livers release stored glucose to increase the body’s energy. Our body conserves energy by slowing down the digestive system, slowing the production of saliva, and sometimes we lose bladder control. Our bodies produce sweat to cool us. All of these physical changes prepare us to react quickly and effectively to handle the pressure of the moment. In fact, this often is called survival mode because it all happens without us consciously doing anything.

24 f a m i l y t h e r a p y m a g a z i n e j a n u a r y f e b r u a r y 2 0 0 9 25

Bill O’Hanlon, MS

Losing the Battle to AntidepressantsTracy Todd, PhD

The physical response we have to fear is just the beginning. According to research, nothing makes more of an impression on our brains than fear. We have all heard about or know someone who experienced a frightening situation that they cannot forget. They play the details over and over in their head. The incident becomes an emotional scar and sometimes they need therapy to heal. Our brains use these memories to help keep us from getting into a similar situation.

Sometimes we can experience dissociation, which feels like the slowing down of time. Things usually seem to take a lot longer than reality. In extreme cases of dissociation, we can have an out-of-body experience. According to Dr. Robert Scaer of Colorado (2008), such an experience can get stuck in our minds and bodies and permanently change the structure of the brain, the mind’s perception, and the function of the body.

David Smith recalls feeling that slowing down of time when he was kidnapped while on a business trip in Florida. “I went to my car to get a phone charger. It wasn’t dark out, there were lots of people around and my hotel was across the street from Universal Studios. There wasn’t a lot of reason to be fearful something was going to happen to me,” he remembers. Two men approached him and forced him into the back seat of his car. “One of them got in the front to drive and the other one stuck a gun in my stomach and got in the back seat with me.” The person in the backseat with him put the gun in his mouth and told Smith he was going to die. Smith’s fear response got him thinking about how he was going to get himself out of the situation. “I knew I could not overpower them, so I started talking about my four sons and how they would be without a dad if they killed me.” Smith kept talking. The person with the gun rolled down the window and shot up in the air and told him if he kept talking he was going to die. Smith kept talking. He talked so much they stopped the car and put him in the trunk.

“I kept thinking they were going to drive somewhere and open the trunk and shoot me, because they were not disguised in any way and I had memorized what they looked like.”

Because Smith knows a lot about cars, he knew there was a latch somewhere in the trunk that would pop it open—he just had to find it. “I had a lighter in my pocket, so I used it to find the latch and when I did, it was funny because it had a picture of a man jumping out of the trunk on it. That’s what I wanted to do right then, but something kept telling me to wait, that the timing wasn’t right.” After the kidnappers abandoned the car, Smith opened the trunk and drove himself back to his hotel where he called the police and his family.

“I just kept thinking about my family and that I needed to get out of there. I was sweating, but I don’t really remember a lot of how I was feeling.” Smith did remember in detail everything that had happened to him that night though. And he kept thinking about it, having nightmares for months afterward. But because he was able to recall everything, he was able to help put his kidnappers behind bars for a long, long time. Smith also experienced the imprinting of the frightening situation. “For about six or nine months after that, if I pulled up to a mini-mart or something like that, and there were people around who looked like my kidnappers—young, black males—I wouldn’t get out of the car. I felt stupid about it, but I couldn’t.”

It seems our responses are not random physical reactions. According to Joseph LeDoux (1996) in his book, The Emotional Brain, they each play a role in the emotional reaction we have under duress. Our response to fear looks a lot like it does in other animals, so it is easier for scientists to study and to understand than other emotions. LeDoux says fear is fundamental in that there are key triggers that turn it on and well-developed responses that help us cope. According to Ripley, there is a “survival arc,” which we all travel each time we are faced with a fearful situation.

First comes denial. An example comes from Anne (last name withheld). She arrived home from work to find her front door standing open. She describes her first thoughts as wondering why her husband had left the front door open. A bird flew past her as she walked in and found her living room to be in shambles—sofa cushions turned upside down, photo frames on the floor. She thought, “Boy, he turned the house upside down trying to get that bird out of here.” It would be several more minutes of walking through other rooms in her house before she could realize that a burglar had broken in and robbed her. Later, she explains that she could not believe the off-the-wall scenarios her mind came up with just so her world would remain the same as when she had gone to work that day—safe.

Ripley writes that the duration of our denial depends on how we calculate risk, which is linked to our belief of how likely the frightening event is to happen or not. Anne stayed in denial much longer than David Smith, although Smith says he had never considered anything like that happening to him. We calculate risk in our lives on a daily basis. For instance, there are potential big “D” disasters we might call catastrophes (choosing to ride out the hurricane) and potential little “d” disasters, which are present in our everyday lives (wearing a seat belt or not).

Second on the survival arc is deliberation. Ripley writes this is the part where we know something dreadful has happened, but we don’t know what to do about it. The final and third stage of the arc is action, she says. We now know we are

in danger, we have surveyed the options and must choose a plan and execute. Sometimes we panic; sometimes we become paralyzed with fear.

The arc does not always happen in a linear way, Ripley writes. Sometimes we move through the three phases—denial, deliberation and action—in a manner that looks more like the loop-d-loops of a roller coaster. But why are some of us able to, like Smith, keep our cool enough to survive, while others of us hang out in the denial phase longer, like Anne? According to Ripley, the denial phase can be a time for us to gather the information we need to make a plan of action.

We know the amygdala is hardwired to trigger our primal coping skills physiologically. But what else is there to help us survive? Oddly enough, it is experience. Ripley writes, “Among experts who train police, soldiers and astronauts, nothing matters as much.” The more prepared we feel, the less fear we have, and the better our chances of survival. But how do we prepare to manage our fear response? We already know that our fear response is primordial. So, the idea that we can affect our disaster personalities is a radical one, as pointed out in Ripley’s The Unthinkable. Our brains can literally change in structure and function. Therefore, we are able to hone our fear response, if we practice. However, most of us will never have the opportunity to train for a life-or-death situation, so there are not many occasions for us to get to know our disaster personalities. As we have all heard, life is not a dress rehearsal.

There is one way, as ancient as fear, we can learn to overcome our most basic responses in a life-threatening situation. It is breathing. Ripley says if we can learn to control our breath during a life-threatening situation, our chances of survival increase. “Over and over again, when I ask combat trainers how people can master their fear, this is what they talk about,” she writes. “Of course they call it ‘combat breathing’ or ‘tactical breathing’ when they teach it to Green Berets and FBI agents. But it’s the same basic concept taught in yoga classes.”

Our breath is the window that connects the sympathetic nervous system (the systems we have control over) and the para-sympathetic nervous system (the systems we do not have control over: heart rate, digestive system, etc.) So, by slowing down our breathing rate, we can intervene in our primordial fear response. The yogis were on to something when they meditated on their breath as a way to bring the conscious brain and the unconscious brain together.

Another big factor in surviving your fear response is to have a plan and stick to it. Know your way out of town when a hurricane evacuation is called for; know where the stairs are and where they lead before you have to evacuate the building. Having hope also lends an advantage to those of us who have it. Ripley notes that hope gives us the courage to push through denial and deliberation and take action to save ourselves and sometimes others.

The more control we think we have in a given situation, the more prepared we feel, and the better our chances are of not only surviving, but also of recovering and healing from the trauma. So take time to get to know your disaster personality and be prepared. n

MaryAnne Banich Massey,

EdS, LPC, is an Affiliate Member of the AAMFT and is in private practice

in Columbia, SC. She co-authored the chapter, Using Bibliotherapy in Transcultural Counseling in the book, Culture and Counseling: New Approaches, Allyn & Bacon (2003). She currently is working on a book about integrating counseling and spirituality.

References LeDoux, J. (1996). The emotional brain: The mysterious underpinnings of emotional life. New York: Simon and Schuster.

Ripley, A. (2008). The unthinkable: Who survives when disaster strikes—And why. New York: Crown Publishers.

Scaer, R. C. (2008). Trauma soma. Retrieved December 1, 2008, from www.traumasoma.com.

The Ontario Division of the AAMFT

Annual Conference

April 24-25, 2009

The Ontario Division of the AAMFT will hold its annual

conference at the Travelodge Hotel in Ontario, Canada.

Speakers:

Gabor Mate and Bill Madsen

Contact: OAMFT by email at

ad_oamft@yahoo.com or www.oamft.on.ca

You may have

already completed

all the coursework

for your Master’s or

Doctorate without

knowing it.

Find out at

www.iugrad.edu.kn

Nothing makes more

of an impression on

our brains than fear.