Protect each other. Action. Community. Moral values. Justice. (rawpixel.com)

Janis Petzel, MD

In my work, I focus on understanding the impact of trauma and abuse and how to help people heal from them. I know it is strange to be talking about trauma and mental health in a Green Energy Times publication, but in these troubling times when our country’s sense of itself is being torn apart, it is important.

Abuse can be traumatizing. Trauma is a force or experience that threatens one’s life or one’s sense of oneself. At the level of the brain, trauma provokes the fight-flight-freeze response, which turns us into roaring bears or fleeing deer or immobile rabbits. Stress hormones shut off the verbal part of our brains, so it is difficult to talk or explain. This makes sense short term. If there is an immediate danger, Mother Nature does not want you talking it about it, she wants you to move (or freeze).

Not everyone reacts to fear and trauma the same way. Why? I find the developmental stages put forward by Eric Erikson to be the most useful when contemplating the effects of abuse.

In each of Erikson’s eight stages, a specific “task” must be accomplished or risk the consequences. For example, for an infant, the developmental dichotomy is trust vs. mistrust. We tend to call this bonding and recognize the negative consequences of abuse and neglect.

Childhood stages proceed through developing independence; a sense of competence and worthiness (vs. inferiority); a sense of self and identity; a moral compass. In adulthood, healthy development means we learn to love and find intimacy; to make the world a better place for others, especially the next generation; and to reach the end of our lives with a sense of fulfillment rather than bitterness and despair.

Trauma and abuse interrupt healthy development. The earlier they happen, the more difficult the successful completion of the next task.

What is happening now with our government is traumatizing in a fundamental way. The world was already a hard place, but now, it is almost impossible to feel safe or secure. Those of us who are already middle-aged are at risk of feeling like failures if, for example, we do not stop climate change or the current administration from battering so many people’s rights.

We know the actions that are protective for most people (those with narcissistic personality disorder or who are sociopaths are exceptions):

1. People who are task- or action-oriented fare better than those who get stuck in mental loops or inaction (so people who freeze probably suffer more than people who fight or flee).

2. Focus on the well-being of others. This is why community is so important.

3. People who are able to honor their moral values do better than people who compromise them, which is terrible for people who are tortured or whose families are threatened if they do not cave in.

4. Turn to justice rather than revenge.

Abusers instinctively work to isolate people, turn us against each other, and put us in no-win situations, so we may be forced to compromise our moral values. Let us do our best to not let them.

Protect each other. Action. Community. Moral Values. Justice.