Think only of the past as its remembrance gives you pleasure.  When the brain’s alarm system is turned on, it automatically triggers preprogrammed physical escape plans in the oldest parts of the brain. As in other beings, the nerves and chemicals that make up our basic brain structures have a direct connection with out body. When the old brain takes over, it partially shuts down the higher brain, our conscious mind, and propels the body to run, hide, fight, or, on occasion, freeze. By the time we are fully aware of our situation, our body may already be on the move. If the stand your ground, escape, of freeze response is successful and we are able to bypass the danger, we recover our internal equilibrium and gradually “regain our senses.”  #RyanPhillippe 1 of 5

If for some reason the normal response is blocked—for example, when people are held down, trapped, or otherwise prevented from taking effective action, be it in a war zone, a car accident, domestic violence, or a rape—the brain keeps secreting stress chemical, and the brain’s electrical circuits continue to fire in vain. Longer after the actual event has passed, the brain may keep sending signals to the body to escape a threat that may no longer exists. Since at least 1889, when the first known scientific account of traumatic stress was documented, it has been recognized that trauma survivors are prone to continue the action, or rather the (futile) attempt at action, which began when the episode happened. Being able to move and do something to protect oneself is a critical factor in determining whether or not a horrible experience will leave long-lasting scars.  #RyanPhillippe 2 of 5

Pleasure and pain are the night and day of life, and succeed one another as duly. Effective action (the result of stand your ground or escape) end the threat. Immobilization keeps the body in a state of inescapable shock and learned helplessness. Faced with danger, people automatically secrete stress hormones to fuel resistance and flee. Brain and body are programmed to run to the house, where safety can be restored and stress hormones can come to rest. In these strapped-down men who are being evacuated far from the war zone, after the Vietnam war, stress hormone levels remain elevated and are turned against the survivors, stimulating ongoing fear, depression, rage, and physical disease.  #RyanPhillippe 3 of 5

When pain is over, the remembrance of it often becomes a pleasure. It is painful to be frustrated in what we propose as our pleasure. I have known a good man wish to have bad news true, merely because he had related them: and we may conceive a saint vexed at not finding a man dead, when he had digested a funeral sermon in his mind, and was ready to bury him. The most important job of the brain is to ensure our survival, even under the most miserable conditions. Everything else is secondary. In order to do that, brains are required to: generate internal signals that register what our bodies require, such as food, rest, protection, sex, and shelter; create a map of the World to pint to where to go to satisfy those requirements; generate the necessary energy and actions to get there; warn us of dangers and opportunities along the way; and adjust our actions based on the requirements of the movement. And since human beings are mammals, creatures that can only survive and thrive in groups, all of these imperatives require coordination and collaboration.  #RyanPhillippe 4 of 5

In the state of future perfection, there will be pleasure without danger and security without restraint. The love of pleasure and the fear of pain are the ruling principles of the human heart; in which they maintain an uninterrupted struggle for superiority. Psychological problems occur when our internal signals do not work, when our maps do not lead us where we are required to go, when we are too paralyzed to move, when our actions do not correspond to our requirements, or when our relationships break down. Every brain structure that I discuss has a role to play in these essential function, and as well will see, trauma can interfere with every one of them. #RyanPhillippe 5 of 5