Goodness affords the only comfort which can be enjoyed without a partner. For now, I want to emphasize that emotion is not opposed to reason; our emotions assign value to experiences and thus are the foundation of reason. Our self-experience is the product of the balance between our rational and our emotional brains. When these two systems are in balance, we feel like ourselves. However, when our survival is at stake, these systems can function relatively independently.  #RandolphHarris 1 of 9

If, say, you are driving along, chatting with a friend, and a truck suddenly looms in the corner of your eye, you instantly stop talking, slam on the brakes, and turn your steering wheel to get out of harm’s way. If your instinctive actions have saved you from a collision, you may resume where you left off. Whether you are able to do so depends largely on how quickly your visceral reactions subside to the threat. #RandolphHarris 2 of 9

The relationship between the rational brain and the emotional brain have been compared to a competent riders and his unruly horse. As long as the weather is calm and the path is smooth, the rider can feel in excellent control. However, unexpected sounds or threats from other animals can make the horse bolt, forcing the rider to hold on for dear life. Likewise, when people feel that their survival is at stake or they are seized by rages, longings, fear, or sexual desires, they stop listening to the voice of reason, and it makes little sense to argue with them. Whenever the limbic system decides that something is a question of life or death, the pathways between the frontal lobes and the limbic system become extremely tenuous. #RandolphHarris 3 of 9

Psychologist usually try to help people use insight and understanding to manage their behavior. However, neuroscience research shows that very few psychological problems are the result of defects in understanding; most originate in pressures from deeper regions in the brain that drive our perception and attention. When the alarm bell of the emotional brain keeps signaling that you are in danger, no amount of insight will silence it. Anger-management program participants may extol the virtue of the techniques one’s learned by saying, they are great and work terrific—as long as you are not really angry. #RandolphHarris 4 of 9

When our emotional and rational brains are in conflict (as when we are enraged with someone we love, frightened by someone we depend on, or lust after someone who is off limits), a tug-of-war ensues. This was is largely played out in the theater of visceral experience—your guy, your heart, your lungs—and will lead to both physical discomfort and psychological misery. So when the emotional brain and the rational brain are out of balance, people often experience Depersonalization-derealization disorder. People who suffer from this disorder do not feel like they are in control of their thoughts, mind, nor body. #RandolphHarris 5 of 9

Depersonalization-derealization disorder makes people feel like they are possessed, but unlike traditional possession, these people are aware that they are not themselves nor in control of themselves, so to speak. They feel like they cannot even control their own speech and experience emotional or physical numbness of their senses and response to the World. They may feel like their memories are not theirs and they cannot connect with them emotionally. People suffering from derealization may feel like they are in a movie and they are alienated from and unfamiliar with their surroundings. #RandolphHarris 6 of 9

People who experience head trauma, have served in a war, travel overseas a lot, of have had a near death experience often suffer from derealization disorder. They feel disconnected from the people they care about, like they know them, but no longer know who they are. Their surroundings feel distorted, blurry, colorless, or artificial. These individuals have a heightened sense of awareness and clarity of their surroundings, conversely. Many will feel shifts in perception of time, such as recent events feeling like the distant past.  #RandolphHarris 7 of 9

Sometimes when you experience traumatic events and you slowly move beyond them and recover, but then people reenact the painful events or bring them up, and can disrupt your psychological equilibrium and mentally take you back in time to when these feelings and emotions were fresh. You may have been separated from a loved one in the past and gone months without seeing them, but then are reunited. However, this healing may be disrupted when people purposely brings the old memories back up and although the initial trauma happened years ago, and you just saw this person a few days ago, you feel like it has been months, or years and return to that state of shock. #RandolphHarris 8 of 9

Depersonalization-derealization disorder produces a feeling of being separate from self and this feeds a sense of suffering. This type of conflict and suffering is a lot like what babies experience when being born into a new World and that is why they are so sensitive and require so much love and attention to feel safe. What is being generated here are messengers, which signal that misperceptions, introjection, and projections are taking place. However, conflict and suffering are not something to get rid of. Instead, we have to overcome our fears and expose and deconstruct these things that make us feel separated, find peace within ourselves, and the suffering will disappear. This is why some feel comfortable in nature, and exactly why your critics stalk you, so that you cannot come back into equilibrium. #RandolphHarris 9 of 9