>>22289545The Life Model
Recovery
How Brains Help Us With Taumas
When brains work the way God designed them, joy is in charge. Brains have trauma-solving mechanisms that allow people to move away from the overwhelming effects of
traumas and get back to joy, so the traumas can be attended to at a later date. It happens automatically, without thinking.
Here is an illustration. When a veteran, wounded by gunfire during battle, hears a car's muffler crack loudly, the former soldier may find himself flat on the ground, groping for his missing rifle, seeking cover. Without thinking, the protective mechanism has kicked in - the one which meant survival - and his
traumatized past becomes his present for a few minutes. He is, right then, living in his pain. We all have moments when we automatically live in our pain, without thinking about it. We need protective mechanisms - sometimes called ego defenses - to promote daily living, and we particularly need them during traumas. This veteran used the defense called "dissociation" that helped him forget the terror of the battlefield so that it would not dominate his entire life. In this way, dissociation helped him find his way back to joy. God, in His wisdom, designed brains to develop enough strength to rebound from traumas. When caretakers provide good early bonding and a safe living environment,
a young person's brain can develop so that the correct brain structures become activated and properly aligned. If there is enough strengthening during early years so that brains can work up to potential, people automatically become regulated by joy.
