In the first installments of TIW I talked about how the makeup of our brain structures both our experience as individuals, as well as societal interactions. We learned how most of our behaviour is informed and often even warped by various subconscious streams. We also learned how the lower parts of our psyche can be corrupted,traumatized and damaged to the point of not working properly.

Today, we will learn about the inner workings of Trauma.

The Invisible War Within Ourselves

We forge the chains we wear in life."

Charles Dickens

Protective Postures

Every single living person on this planet has had traumatizing experiences. It is a natural reaction of our subconscious mind to overwhelming experiences. Some of them may have happened before we were even born. Some may root at a moment in time generations before we were conceived and were handed down through every genetic iteration of your family tree.

It accumulates over decades of our lifetimes, and even beyond the our natural lifespans. It lives on as our legacy, via the wounds we tend to inflict on others after we have been hurt ourselves. It even alters our DNA.

Much like a physical injury changes the way our bodies move and function, a traumatic injury to our psyche changes the way it operates - and is felt most when one puts pressure on it.

And just as the gait of an injured person may look weird to the uninitiated, the behavior of a traumatized person may appear quite irrational. However, within its own logic, it is perfectly reasonable.

An injured person walks funny because he wants to protect the injured bodypart from further harm. The same goes for the traumatized persons behavior. We all need some time to bounce back after a blow.

Sometimes, however, the protective posture becomes permanent. Either by habit or by sheer force of the injury. Some of us are in emotional wheelchairs. We call those drugs.

Method to the madness

Some people seem to easily bounce back from horrific events, others spiral into suicidal depression after merely losing their job. Others may only experience the effects of their own traumatized emotional undercurrents very rarely and seemingly at random - just as some people are slaves to their emotions all the time.

Without proper analytical framework, understanding your own and other people's behavior is a difficult endeavor. Trauma does not act in a linear fashion.

What is Trauma?

Trauma, with a capital T, is a cluster of sensations, emotions and thoughts that, unless stimulated, is not readily accessible to waking consciousness.

It is generated whenever the neocortex is overwhelmed or otherwise impaired and it is triggered by any sensation that is sufficiently strong and similar to the original event.

Trauma rarely occurs on its own. Rather, it has a habit of reoccurring throughout ones life. Let's call those chains of unfortunate events "Chains" for short.

People usually have a few "main Chains", which represent the central conflicts of their lives.

Everytime Trauma reoccurs on a Chain, the Chain gets reinforced.

The stronger the emotion, the stronger the reinforcement of habits. It's a downward spiral.

Once activated, or "triggered", Trauma will begin to warp your perception and behavior.

This is a natural defense mechanism to shield you against further injuries and ensure short term survival - but it is crude and mostly useless as a long term strategy.

The three parts of your brain experience Trauma in different ways and need to be treated differently.

Trauma vs. emotional baggage

Unfortunately, the term "traumatic" has been used on an inflationary basis. However, a lot of events commonly considered are not traumatic in the sense that they cause Trauma. They are merely hurtful events that leave some people unable to cope for a while. We call them Secondaries. They are usually lined up on the Chain with the "real" Trauma at its root.

From a therapeutic standpoint, reflecting on those secondary emotional events mainly serve the purpose of helping you attune to your emotions.

Dwelling on them, or even doing psychoanalysis on them, is not recommended if you want to make use of your time. You may feel a temporary relieve, but no long term gains are made.

Most people have thousands upon thousands of secondary emotional events in their lives, while they usually have at most a few dozen "real" Traumas.

Three Vectors of Trauma

There are three ways to receive "real" Trauma. Overwhelm, Impairment and Fragmentation.

Overwhelm happens when you experience sensory overload as you do with sustained injuries, peak level emotional pain moments of great fear. Examples would be car crashes, combat situations, any type of violence, child birth, etc. Ironically, "positive" overwhelm also exists - exceedingly strong positive emotions can lock you in as well. This is the origin of occult practices like sex magic.

Impairment is the result of the ingestion of any type of drug or lack of oxygen. It reduces the coping capacity of your neocortex and makes otherwise benign emotional stimuli appear overwhelming.

Fragmentation is a little more complex. Other than the Overwhelm and Impairment, Fragmentation happens consciously and willingly. It happens whenever you repress parts of your personality to force yourself to do something that is against your moral code. Fragmentation usually is followed by a strong emotional reward. Examples for Fragmentation: Killing people in combat, cheating on a loving spouse, hurting people for your own good, etc.

If one ore more of the vectors occur in an Event, it can be considered traumatic.

Three Targets of Trauma

Lizard Brain The Lizard Brain gets traumatized by any Overwhelm in direct relation to your individual survival. That is: Getting injured, getting AMOGed, getting rejected sexually, going hungry or thirsty for long periods of time or being very afraid. It will then force you to take action to remove the negative stimuli.

The Overwhelm does not need to be objectively real. Perceived scarcity is just as dangerous.

If properly "fed", the lizard brain is usually pretty resistant to trauma. Abundance mentality, good diet, lifting and sex are key here.

The Limbic System is vulnerable to pretty much anything. Whenever the neocortex is impaired or overwhelmed, the limbic system is struck by unfiltered inflow of information. It thinks in similies, not logic. It does not think: "An improperly handled gun may lead to injuries, some of them deadly." It thinks: "GUN = DEATH". There is no nuance there. This why you can not reason with emotional people.

The Neocortex is, in itself, pretty resistant. Because it posesses the ability to self reflect, it also has the ability to alter itself consciously. You should always aim to protect your neo cortex - that means abstaining from alcohol and drugs, building resilience to emotions and external pressure and un-fucking your limbic system.

The real danger here is Fragmentation. If you are unaware of your own moral code, you will find yourself acting against it all the time - becoming a hollow shell of a person in the process.

Preparation for the things to come

In the next installment I will write about how to rid yourself from Trauma. Until then, you should try to gain some insight as to what your main "Chains" in life are.

  1. Get a pen and some paper. Write down all the areas in your life you feel conflicted about.
  2. What is the content of said conflicts? Be specific.
  3. What Emotions and thoughts do you have about said conflict. Be specific.
  4. Sort the conflicts by topic. ("I feel like a failure in the areas of both work and sex")
  5. Try to identify the chain of events in which the conflict keeps reoccuring in your life.