This honestly explains some of the nonsense that I see coming out of pop psychology and TikTok self-diagnoses. I was wondering why the word "trauma" was appearing everywhere in discussions of psychology for the past few years.
While the individuals writing these books may NOT be too far off Boomers / Gen X age, their 'wisdom' is purely fictional and designed to feed / create the zeitgeist which is the current overly self indulgent population. Humans have been experiencing bad births, poor upbringings, wars since first arriving on the scene. Somehow though, it's only the past 30 - 40 years which appears to have manifested in mass trauma, ADHD, PTSD (and the rest) diagnoses. Interestingly, for about the same length of time that poor ultra processed diets and chemicals have skyrocketed. You're a critical thinker, Joseph, stay that way.
Good takedown of bad science of Trauma. But speaking from experience, trauma can cause chronic stress and mental disfunction. It can fuel feedback loops that make life incredibly hard and painful, which is stressful, which makes it worse. And prolonged chronic stress does cause terrible health problems.
Your point about some people being predisposed to trauma is very important. It's very unequal between people. But this supports the idea that more people have trauma than recognize it. We have a cultural idea of trauma (something horrific happened to you). But the cause of trauma is overwhelming negative feelings, which depend on how sensitive you are. A sensitive person, and children in general, are more easily traumatized. For example I read a story of someone traumatized because he was falsely blamed for something as a kid and his dad didn't believe him. He depended on his dad to protect him, so it felt like a deep betrayal to not be trusted when he was scared and upset and telling the truth.
The severity of trauma also depends deeply on what happens after the bad experience. If you return to wholeness and safety (acceptance, understanding, care), you can fully express the pain and let it pass. It will leave and imprint but rarely a crippling one. But if you don't have anyone you feel safe being vulnerable with, it's terrifying and overwhelming. That's why losing trust in your family is so dangerous. It can spiral into getting more traumatized. This kind of trauma can start with a small seed and get very bad. I speak from experience.
Trauma varies in severity, so depending on what bar you set, lots of people have trauma. I agree that the point of revealing that shouldn't be to get people to obsess over painful childhood experiences. It's to help people see the conditioning in their mind that keeps them afraid, disconnected. Those can be known as feelings in the body, no memories required. And connecting with those feelings, sharing them with others, helps bring people back to wholeness.
Psychology is pseudoscience. This is why 70% of social science studies cannot be replicated. The reason being is that we are all very different. Each group that you study is going to give different results. Plus the person performing the research is fallible, may already have a result they want to achieve in mind, and their funding may hinge on getting that result.
But that's not a reason to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
And you're right, trauma alone doesn't cause mental illness. But its not just genetics either. Its both.
Also, PTSD, like all mental illness, festers in isolation. When we have communities to help us process traumatic events, theyre less likely to linger, but we live in a very isolating world today.
There are so many psych treatments and medications because we are all so nuanced that its like throwing darts at a board. Bessel dismisses CBT in The Body Keeps the Score, but it works very well for many people.
Also, he tells an anecdote of EMDR completely eradicating PTSD symptoms in a woman. EMDR doesn't work for everyone, and its just a half assed version of clinical hypnosis.
Exercise, go outside, eat clean, healthy relationships, and community do more for mental health than anything.
Every person I've ever known who is struggling isolated themselves. Get out of your own head. The world wants you to come kick it with us.
That said, some people are simply born with broken brains and absolutely need psych meds.
But the vast majority are suffering the consequences of a screwed up culture consumed by consumption. Its difficult to eat clean when everyone around you does not care. Moms do not give a shit about your diet. No choice but to refuse food and suffer the social consequences.
So many people are never outside, or believe that its going to make their face rot off. Sun exposure provides endogenous opioids. Endorphins.
The good news is that its a great time to be alive for the disciplined.
The theory is that the body needs to do something to return to normal after sympathetic nervous system activation, and that this gets skipped in many cases.
I am currently reading a book titled "Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind" by Dr. Georgia Ede. In early parts of the book, she explained that majority of psychiatrists, are too focused on psycho-social side of mental health, and overlook the biology side of it. An example is about "emotional eating".
People who experienced emotional eating feel they cannot control their urge to eat when they are under stress. It feels as if the stress is what driving the desire to eat, but it is the other way around. Eating too many of the wrong carbs too often causes a rise in stress hormone (cortisol) that urge us to eat to stabilize our metabolism.
Many people feel hopeless about mental health because of misinformations that are circulating. "You have mental illness because of your genetic, traumatic experience and or family history". No buddy, you just need more protein, more sunlight, more exercise, less sugar and less vegetable oil :)
I think that some of your recent topics might made you a little too skeptic. Psychology is not that simple and it seems like you are lacking knowlage in it, I can't agree on a few of your last works. Great content otherwise, cheers.
This honestly explains some of the nonsense that I see coming out of pop psychology and TikTok self-diagnoses. I was wondering why the word "trauma" was appearing everywhere in discussions of psychology for the past few years.
While the individuals writing these books may NOT be too far off Boomers / Gen X age, their 'wisdom' is purely fictional and designed to feed / create the zeitgeist which is the current overly self indulgent population. Humans have been experiencing bad births, poor upbringings, wars since first arriving on the scene. Somehow though, it's only the past 30 - 40 years which appears to have manifested in mass trauma, ADHD, PTSD (and the rest) diagnoses. Interestingly, for about the same length of time that poor ultra processed diets and chemicals have skyrocketed. You're a critical thinker, Joseph, stay that way.
Good takedown of bad science of Trauma. But speaking from experience, trauma can cause chronic stress and mental disfunction. It can fuel feedback loops that make life incredibly hard and painful, which is stressful, which makes it worse. And prolonged chronic stress does cause terrible health problems.
Your point about some people being predisposed to trauma is very important. It's very unequal between people. But this supports the idea that more people have trauma than recognize it. We have a cultural idea of trauma (something horrific happened to you). But the cause of trauma is overwhelming negative feelings, which depend on how sensitive you are. A sensitive person, and children in general, are more easily traumatized. For example I read a story of someone traumatized because he was falsely blamed for something as a kid and his dad didn't believe him. He depended on his dad to protect him, so it felt like a deep betrayal to not be trusted when he was scared and upset and telling the truth.
The severity of trauma also depends deeply on what happens after the bad experience. If you return to wholeness and safety (acceptance, understanding, care), you can fully express the pain and let it pass. It will leave and imprint but rarely a crippling one. But if you don't have anyone you feel safe being vulnerable with, it's terrifying and overwhelming. That's why losing trust in your family is so dangerous. It can spiral into getting more traumatized. This kind of trauma can start with a small seed and get very bad. I speak from experience.
Trauma varies in severity, so depending on what bar you set, lots of people have trauma. I agree that the point of revealing that shouldn't be to get people to obsess over painful childhood experiences. It's to help people see the conditioning in their mind that keeps them afraid, disconnected. Those can be known as feelings in the body, no memories required. And connecting with those feelings, sharing them with others, helps bring people back to wholeness.
Psychology is pseudoscience. This is why 70% of social science studies cannot be replicated. The reason being is that we are all very different. Each group that you study is going to give different results. Plus the person performing the research is fallible, may already have a result they want to achieve in mind, and their funding may hinge on getting that result.
But that's not a reason to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
And you're right, trauma alone doesn't cause mental illness. But its not just genetics either. Its both.
Also, PTSD, like all mental illness, festers in isolation. When we have communities to help us process traumatic events, theyre less likely to linger, but we live in a very isolating world today.
There are so many psych treatments and medications because we are all so nuanced that its like throwing darts at a board. Bessel dismisses CBT in The Body Keeps the Score, but it works very well for many people.
Also, he tells an anecdote of EMDR completely eradicating PTSD symptoms in a woman. EMDR doesn't work for everyone, and its just a half assed version of clinical hypnosis.
Exercise, go outside, eat clean, healthy relationships, and community do more for mental health than anything.
Every person I've ever known who is struggling isolated themselves. Get out of your own head. The world wants you to come kick it with us.
That said, some people are simply born with broken brains and absolutely need psych meds.
But the vast majority are suffering the consequences of a screwed up culture consumed by consumption. Its difficult to eat clean when everyone around you does not care. Moms do not give a shit about your diet. No choice but to refuse food and suffer the social consequences.
So many people are never outside, or believe that its going to make their face rot off. Sun exposure provides endogenous opioids. Endorphins.
The good news is that its a great time to be alive for the disciplined.
Wow. Thanks.
I´m Bodyworker and have often recommended Kolk's book.
Now I have a lot to think about.
Look into Trauma Release Exercises (TRE)
The theory is that the body needs to do something to return to normal after sympathetic nervous system activation, and that this gets skipped in many cases.
Great articles WIL, and I agree with you!
I am currently reading a book titled "Change Your Diet, Change Your Mind" by Dr. Georgia Ede. In early parts of the book, she explained that majority of psychiatrists, are too focused on psycho-social side of mental health, and overlook the biology side of it. An example is about "emotional eating".
People who experienced emotional eating feel they cannot control their urge to eat when they are under stress. It feels as if the stress is what driving the desire to eat, but it is the other way around. Eating too many of the wrong carbs too often causes a rise in stress hormone (cortisol) that urge us to eat to stabilize our metabolism.
Many people feel hopeless about mental health because of misinformations that are circulating. "You have mental illness because of your genetic, traumatic experience and or family history". No buddy, you just need more protein, more sunlight, more exercise, less sugar and less vegetable oil :)
I think that some of your recent topics might made you a little too skeptic. Psychology is not that simple and it seems like you are lacking knowlage in it, I can't agree on a few of your last works. Great content otherwise, cheers.