Sarah Sultan – Muslim Mental Health – Wired For Danger – Effects of Trauma on Brain

			You remember, we were talking about trauma, right? What happens to your brain on trauma? This this
fear center is on the decision making process is off. Right? You're living in constant fear. Our
decisions are not even our own at that point, right? If somebody then takes her life because she
can't handle, who are we to judge, it's up to Alice has data to judge that situation where he knows
her better than she even knows herself to bring your prefrontal cortex the decision making part of
your brain back online, out of the trauma, fear center, danger mode, survival mode part of your
brain, how would we do that for ourselves? Right? And so part of the the way that I find to be most
		

			beneficial, because if if we're trying to like change, like some people might say, will change your
thought process, right? Change. But you can't think right, you can't think straight, to be able to
change your thought process to think, Oh, this is not a rational thought. And this is a rational
thought, this is unhealthy. And this is healthy, you can't do that. And so you have to do it from an
approach that doesn't require thinking. And that approach is through your body, physically, right.
And so that's either through mindfulness that's surrounding that through reclaiming the fact that
you you were traumatized, then, and you were unsafe, then but you're safe now. And your body can
		

			tell that to your brain. Because your brain is not going to believe it. If you say it. If you say
oh, hey, I'm safe. Now.
		

			Does that make a difference? No. But if you can control your breathing enough, right, so that your
body is saying, If I really was in danger, I would be out of breath. But the fact that I can take in
a deep breath, the fact that I can sit here, relax, the fact that I can take the tension out of my
body, the fact that I can feel the ground beneath my feet and focus in on that sensation, the fact
that I can focus on water on my hands, the fact that I can focus on these things, tells me that I am
no longer in that unsafe situation. I am currently in a different moment. And I can focus on this
moment. And that helps to bring your brain back online. If you think about it in terms of jujitsu,
		

			right?
		

			Is you is not just breathe, right? But you you focus in, okay, I'm like, I have this person who's 50
pounds heavier than me. They're blocking my airway. Right? And, and I'm feeling panicked, right?
Because I have to get out of this. The more you panic, the less capable you'll be. But if you focus
on, okay, because what, what, what causes panic and what causes fear? What if this and this and this
happens? It's a fear about the future. That's what causes that panic and fear, right? And so and so
as soon as you can get out of the what ifs, and you focus in on what is the present moment, you
think, okay, this person has their hand over here, their leg is here, you focus in on the pressure
		

			points, you focus in on what you are feeling in the present moment. And that focus calms you down
enough to be able to get out of it. Right. But if you're focusing in on Well, what's going to happen
if I don't get out of it, then you won't get out of it. Because you're too busy focusing on
something you have no control over, versus focusing in on what is in your control at that moment.
That's one of the techniques that I use in therapy a lot. Yep, is when you when you can identify the
worst case scenario, say it out loud, and how you would deal with that worst case scenario, it loses
its power, right? And you're not as scared anymore. And you can go into that situation. You know,
		

			like I had several clients who were taking, like, really big exams, whether it's the MCAT, or
whether it's like some big exam and their graduate school program and everything and there's so much
fear, right? So much fear in terms of like, well, what if I fail? What if this happens and
everything I'm like, Okay, well, what if? Let's talk about it? What if you do fail? What if you
spent all these years working toward this goal, and it doesn't happen?
		

			Then what, what what now? What would you do? You're like, Okay, well, I guess I can still do this
and that and everything like, exactly, it's not the end all be all. It's not the end of the world,
as you say that now how do you feel about it? You're still nervous, but you're not terrified
anymore. And so you're not going into the you're going into the exam with typical anxiety and
nerves, not in like survival mode of like, if I fail, my life is over. Right? And so it really helps
to explore the worst case scenario.