In the film White Squall, starring Ryan Phillippe, he played a bright young man called Gill Martin. Gill got along with everyone and wanted to fit in. However, he had a fear of heights and one day the Skipper forced him to climb a robe, but Gill screamed and hollered as he climbed the rope because it reminded of how his brother fell from a tree and died when they were climbing together. However, the skipper wanted to help Gill come out of his shell and grow up to be a fearless man.  This situation is similar to a phenomenon covered in most introductory psychology courses: your mouth starts to water when you hear a dinner bell, which signals that food is about to be served. However, if the ringing of the bell becomes random, and you keep finding an empty buffet whenever you go to fill your plate, you gradually learn to ignore that bell, and its ringing no longer makes you salivate.  #RyanPhillippe 1 of 10

WHITE SQUALL,  1996, (c)Buena Vista Pictures

So using this same method, skipper thought that if he could force Gill to climb the rope and nothing bad happened that he would eventually overcome his fears and maybe even learn to enjoy heights. Much like with the bell, losing an automatic trained association between heights and death, or the bell and food, this is known as extinction. This is the corner stone of Cognitive Behavioral Treatment (CBT), in which people are repeatedly exposed to signals that remind them of the past trauma until the interpretive system in their brains realizes that they are, in fact, safe, and that whatever is going on is simply a noise, sensation, or image that no longer constitutes a threat.  #RyanPhillippe 2 of 10

Listen to what the parable of the White Squall means: When anyone hears the message about the Albatross and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what is sown in his heart. This is the seed sown along their journey at sea. By climbing that rope, with supervision, Gill received joy and this will remove fear from his heart and allow more blessings to come into his life because he is not living in fear of anything. Again, the kingdom of Heaven hidden in the ocean. When Gill Martin found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy persevered by overcoming his fears of heights and climbed the rope symbolically reaching Heaven, reconnecting with his brother and making him proud. #RyanPhillippe 3 of 10

What is less well known is if Gill Martin survived his trip on the Albatross and if so what would he have been like after overcoming almost drowning in the icy white squall. As the White squall hit the ship, Gill Martin was sleeping and when he woke up, he was under water, up to his nose and locked in his room with no means of escape. In another version of the film, Gill Martin survived, but after the water receded he continued to be terrified, even though he was physically uninjured. He broke down emotionally, behaviorally, and physiologically. Sometimes he would lay around motionless, barely paying attention to what was going on around him.  #RyanPhillippe 4 of 10

This loss of emotions and motions is a sign of ongoing terror, which had obliterated any curiosity in his surroundings. We now know that physical immobility and loss of curiosity are also typical of frightened, traumatized children, and some adults. Gill would sometimes sit shaking in the corner of his room, while other times, he reacted in anger because he lost his friends and his brother by perusing his dreams. This is well-known behavior in traumatized adults and children. After exposure to extreme stress, an individual finds a new internal equilibrium different from the previous organization of their internal housekeeping. The traumatized Gill Martin kept acting as if he was in grave danger long after the waters of the white squall had receded.  #RyanPhillippe 5 of 10

When measured Gill Martin’s physiology, it was found both markedly increased and depressed heart rates in response to minor stresses, signs of instability of the autonomic nervous system, as well as full-blown startle reactions in response to slight changes in his environment, like the approaching of a stranger asking for assistance. These dramatic changes are attributed to the existence of two conflicting physical impulses: during the white squall while the ship was being flooded, Gill Martin was trapped in his room and had been physically immobilized—trapped in his cabin—while his body was programmed to run and escape in the face of life-threatening danger. This resulted in: the collision between the two contrary processes: one of excitation and the other of inhibition, which were difficult to accommodate simultaneously…[which] causes a breakdown of equilibrium. #RyanPhillippe 6 of 10

What Gill Martin was experiencing is called inescapable shock, a physical condition which the organism cannot do anything to affect the inevitable. Confrontation with the reality that there is nothing one can do to stave off the inevitable leads to learned helplessness, a phenomenon that is critical for understanding and treating traumatized and humiliated human beings. After all, the agony of Gill Martin being trapped in his cabin while the Albatross was sinking in a white squall may not be so different from children who are put down by their parents or teachers, and have nowhere to go, or women and men who are trapped in violent intimate relationships struggling with two opposing impulses: one, to maintain a loving relationship and the other, to escape their pain, hurt, and betrayal, like Ben Crawford (Ryan Phillippe) in the hit ABC TV series Secrets and Lies. #RyanPhillippe 7 of 10

It was noted that after washing ashore, Gill Martin no longer responded to people, it was like he lost part of his soul, and loud sounds no longer bothered him. He barely reacted to things that would upset most people. We see similar reactions in traumatized people: Reggie Campo was allegedly sexual assaulted and beaten by Louis Roulet, in the film Lincoln Lawyer, but Louis claims that he was late to pick the prostitute up and she was beaten by her former boyfriend and is just trying to get some money out of him because he is a rich real estate investor. This is possible, women who are beaten will often take their aggression out on an innocent man, while she may have barely reacted to her boyfriend’s brutality. #RyanPhillippe 8 of 10

Nonetheless, for traumatized people, the important factor of life means that all creatures require a purpose—they require the power to organize themselves to make their way in the World, like saving up to go to college, or saving up to buy a house so you can have shelter in the Winter, and learning skills to make a living. One of the most devastating effects of trauma is that it often damages the reflex purpose. How do people regain the energy to engage with life and develop themselves to the fullest? The sense of purpose involves both movement and emotions and God. Emotions propel us into action: beneficial emotions to appetitive states like food and love, and negative emotions to defend and protect ourselves (and our offspring).  #RyanPhillippe 9 of 10

This invites us to focus on emotions and movements, not only as problems to be managed, but also as assets that are required to be organized to enhance one’s sense of purpose. See, all your angry enemies lie there, confused and humiliated. Anyone who opposes you will die and come to nothing. You must worship no other gods, for the LORD, whose very name is jealous, is a God who is jealous about his relationship with you. If God can save Gill Martin from a white squall or Louis Roulet from a lying prostitute, just know he can resurrect your life, your body, your mind, and spirit, too. #RyanPhillippe 10 of 10