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Most of us have probably seen the movie
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Inside Out. If not, put it on your list
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of things to do in short order because
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it is unparalleled as far as this topic
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goes. So, in the movie Inside Out, fear,
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the character, is portrayed as anxious,
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jittery, constantly scanning for danger.
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He overthinks. He catastrophizes. He
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anticipates worstcase scenarios. I call
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this waiting for the other shoe to drop.
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And yet, fear isn't the villain of the
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movie. There's a line in the movie where
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fear essentially says, "My job is to
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keep Riley safe." And that's the truth.
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Fear is not a weakness. Fear is
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protection. So in a healthy emotional
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system, fear works alongside joy,
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sadness, anger, and disgust. And he
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speaks up when there's danger and then
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he steps back. But what happens in the
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movie when joy and sadness disappear?
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Fear takes over the control panel. And
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that's where things really begin to
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unravel. because when I'm waiting for
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the other shoe to drop everywhere that I
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turn, I'm going to overassess threat
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when it doesn't exist. And so now we're
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going to talk a little bit about what
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fear is in the brain and the body. So
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neuroscientist Dr. Andrew Huberman
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describes fear as coordinated brain body
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response to perceived threat. Now we use
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the word perceive because there can be a
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perception of threat when it isn't
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actually there and this is a trigger. So
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when fear activates our amygdala, which
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is the alarm of the brain in our nervous
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system, it detects danger and it sends
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threat. So the sympathetic nervous
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system mobilizes, the heart rate begins
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to increase, our muscles tense up, our
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attention narrows in, and the body now
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prepares for action. And so this
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response is automatic. It is so fast and
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it's not verbal. In fact, it's one
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million times faster than anything that
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we can think through when our fear
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system is triggered. And it doesn't ask,
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is it logical? Is this reasonable? Is
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this safe? So, in inside out, fear pulls
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levers, rings alarms, slams buttons. And
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in real life, fear kind of does the same
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thing through hormones, through muscle,
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through breath, through attention. Fear
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is designed to be temporary. But when we
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have trauma, it changes that. So now
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we're going to talk about how fear can
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stay on and that's from trauma. So
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trauma is defined by what happened. It's
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defined by what overwhelmed the nervous
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system and couldn't be resolved. Bessel
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Vanderolk, one of the game changers in
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our profession, wrote the body keeps the
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score. And in this book, it explains
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that trauma is stored not as a story but
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as a sensation, a reaction, and an
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expectation. So when fear stays on, that
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amygdala, that alarm system becomes
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hyperreactive. It sees threat where
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threat isn't. And when that happens, the
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preffrontal cortex struggles to regulate
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because it's not active. And the body
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remains in that state of readiness. It's
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like scanning all the time. And so this
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is why people often say, I know that I'm
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safe, but I don't feel safe. That's not
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resistance. That's not denial. That is
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just biology. So like Fear in the Inside
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Out movie, never leaving the chair even
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when the room is quiet. And so it's
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maladaptive memory encoding. It's stored
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in trauma time. So when the past lives
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in the present, this is a time
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orientation issue in trauma. And so one
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of the most important trauma concepts is
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maladaptive memory encoding. When danger
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happens without resolution, without
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protection, without choice, so there's
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powerlessness, or without support, the
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memory is stored without a time stamp.
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It's live. It's like ongoing. And so the
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nervous system doesn't encode that it
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happened then, that it's over,
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that we don't need to be afraid anymore.
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It encodes this could happen again. In
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fact, it likely will happen again, so we
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better be ready for it. So, what we end
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up having is a tone of voice or facial
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expression or a slammed door or a
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deadline or a raised eyebrow or any of
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those things can activate that same fear
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response as the original threat when it
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happened in the first place. So, in
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Inside Out, when Riley's core memories
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shift, her entire emotional world
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reorganizes. And in humans, trauma
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reshapes our emotional islands, for lack
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of a better word. also to trust
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connection, safety, and identity. Fear
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isn't reacting to now. It's responding
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to unresolved then when it's stuck in
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the on position. Now, it doesn't mean
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we're not going to be afraid for a
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moment. In fact, I've got a funny story.
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The other day, u my youngest son and I,
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we were walking down the dock where we
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keep our boat, and he joked and he acted
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like he was going to push me in the
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water, and he didn't. But my response to
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him was, "All systems are working." and
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he just laughed at me. And what that was
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was that was me saying I felt the
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adrenaline of the fear in that moment
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like I was going to end up in the ocean,
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but then it calmed down. And that's how
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I knew that I was anxious about almost
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getting pushed in the water or being
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afraid that I might get pushed in the
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water. And he said to me, "Oh my gosh,
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it's such a funny way that you said that
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because I just went, "All my systems are
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working." Because I felt that rush. So
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anyways, trauma is what happened and
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what didn't happen. So, it's not just
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the things that we went through, it's
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also what support we didn't get when the
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thing happened. One of my favorite
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people that I follow about this topic is
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Dr. Gabbor Mate. And he reminds us that
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trauma is not the bad thing that
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happened most of the time. It's the
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disconnection with the people that were
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supposed to keep us safe and supported
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that happened inside of us. And so fear
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often develops not from one dramatic or
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drastic event, but from chronic
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emotional neglect, inconsistent
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caregivers, um living with
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having to suppress emotions to stay
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connected because our emotions were too
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overwhelming to the people around us. Or
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when no one helps a child regulate, fear
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becomes the regulator. So in the movie
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Inside Out, when joy and sadness are
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gone, fear and anger run the system. And
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that's not dysfunction, that's survival.
