Emotional responses automatically release chemical reactions within one’s body. Adrenaline, cortisol, epinephrine, oxytocin, serotonin, and dopamine are naturally created, stored, and distributed within human bodies. They are all helpful to human survival. An anger response to something wrong can lead one to engage that wrong with right action. A fear response can help one react quickly to danger with life-saving action. A sadness response can cultivate fundamental personal grieving processes as well as important community-building empathy from others. A disgust reaction can save one from engaging with something poisonous. A happiness response can release vital pleasure endorphins within one’s body. Hungarian-born Canadian physician and Nazi genocide survivor Gabor Maté specializes in the study and treatment of addiction, and also widely recognized for his teaching on trauma, wrote;
“Early on in the process of evolution, primitive responses of attraction or repulsion became essential to the life and reproduction of living creatures. Emotions, and the physical cells and tissues that make them possible, evolved as part and parcel of the apparatus of survival. It is no wonder, then, that the basic molecules that connect all the body systems of homeostasis and defence also participate in emotional reactions. Messenger substances, including endorphins, may be found in the most primitive of creatures who lack even a rudimentary nervous system. It is not that the organs of emotion interact with the (psychoneuroimmunological) system—they form an essential part of this system.”[1]
The four “darker” emotions (anger, fear, sadness, and disgust – and their myriad of related variations) are basically reactions to stressful experiences. I suggest that you take a look at the appendixes at the back of this book now and throughout your reading, to familiarize yourself with some of the concepts I am using to differentiate between the variations of each core emotion as well as the differences between the core emotions and other feelings.[2] One cannot control life’s dangers, and one cannot control one’s reactions to them. If one feels unsafe, one’s body will react to protect oneself. Traumas (big T and little t)[3] will occur, and human bodies will react. Dangerous stressful events cause humans to react with the famous “five Fs”; Fight (aggression), Flight (avoidance), Freeze (paralysis), Fawn (appeasement), and Flop (physical collapse or disassociation). These are natural human survival reactions that have kept our species from extinction throughout human evolution. But when these emotions are ignored, or when the adrenaline, cortisol, epinephrine, oxytocin, serotonin, and dopamine hormones are unregulated, they can become stored in places within our bodies, often released when activated by unrelated stresses at unhelpful moments. We can become trapped in cycles of triggered fights, flights, freezes, fawnings, and flops. These may be manifested in personal conflicts, detachments, addictions, abuses, and sicknesses. Our common, natural reactions to life’s circumstances can become unhelpful problems and hinderances to life-giving relationships, personal development, and health, and can keep us fettered in unhappiness. American psychiatrist, author, and trauma researcher Bessel van der Kolk states, “Being able to feel safe with other people defines mental health; safe connections are fundamental to meaningful and satisfying lives.”[4] Award-winning South African psychologist Susan David states that emotions “signal rewards and dangers. They point us in the direction of our hurt. They can also tell us which situations to engage with and which to avoid. They can be beacons, not barriers, helping us identify what we most care about and motivating us to make positive changes.” [5]
[1] Gabor Maté, When the Body Says No: The Cost of Hidden Stress (Penguin Random House Canada, Toronto, ON, 2003), p. 173
[2] See Appendices A WORD ABOUT VARIATIONS OF EMOTIONS and A WORD ABOUT DIFFERENCES BETWEEN EMOTIONS AND OTHER “FEELINGS”.
[3] See Appendix A WORD ABOUT TRAUMA.
[4] Bessel van der Kolk, The Body Keeps Score: Brian, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma (Penguin Random House LLC, New York, NY, 2014), p. 352.
[5] Susan David, Emotional Agility: Get Unstuck, Embrace Change, and Thrive in Work and Life (New York: Avery, 2016), 85.
