¿What is happening to me?

We are living in the middle of the popularization of terms related to mental problems or psychological disorders; depression, bipolar disorder, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, defiant disorder, borderline personality disorder, anxiety, nerves, stress, post traumatic stress disorder, etc. These labels simply confuse rather than help me understand what is happening to me.

Life doesn’t promise you a rose garden, for the simple fact of being alive we are exposed to feel pain and live traumatic situations, this creates a state of physical hypertension in the body and is manifested in signs that tell us something is wrong, headaches, migraines, problems in the neck and back, gastric problems, changes in diet (we eat too much or do not eat), asthma, chronic pain, etc.

By not resolving the state of physical hypertension in our bodies, the discomforts accumulate inside us and the psychological symptoms begin. It is similar to a pressure cooker, if you don’t open it slowly by letting steam escape little by little, the pot will explode or if you uncover it very quickly, it will explode. When someone fills our patience we become reactive and disorganized, irritable and aggressive and therefore we see others in the same way. The other response we have to react is to freeze ourselves; it is that feeling of being dead inside, mentally and physically numbed. We can’t think, it is hard for us to get out of bed and we simply disconnect from the world and people.

When people are in states of hypertension and freezing, they stop learning from their experiences, although they appear to be in control inside they are tense, they become inflexible, stubborn and depressed. All this leads to deterioration in our lives, problems at work, with a partner, and the loss of social relationships. This facilitates the appearance of self-destructive behaviors such as drug use, alcoholism, obesity, having several sexual partners and self-harm.

The mistake made by mental health professionals, is to eliminate these behaviors without realizing that although these behaviors are harmful to them, they are ways of adapting to life and are very difficult to eliminate. When mental health professionals make eliminating these behaviors their priority, the person is not only destined to fail in therapy as it happens so often in addiction therapies, is that they are also more prone to new problems emerging. What one sees, is only the sign of the real problem that remains buried in time, hidden by shame, fear, sadness, secrets, sometimes by amnesia and often by not having a good therapist.

Recovery from trauma requires a restoration of the executive functions controlled by the frontal lobe of the brain, which are responsible for time management, planning, attention, concentration and organization. These functions allow us to remember details and avoid saying or doing something that puts us in danger. By returning these functions to the person, not only do we return their self-confidence, we give back their ability to imagine, create and play; abilities that are lost due to trauma.

In order to change how we react to past traumas, we must access the limbic brain, also known as the emotional brain. We must do Limbic System Therapy "LST"; repairing the failed alarm systems in the brain that put us in hypertension or freezing states. Restoring its function to be a calm presence that takes care of our body of dangers and allows us to connect with others.

¿What is going on with me?

What's happening to you is, that you must learn to tolerate what you feel, knowing what you know.

Pablo A. Clavijo

Creador de la Psicología del Movimiento y Emoción

US Marine, Veterano de la guerra de Iraq, 2005

Especialista en Protección Personal
At-Risk International LLC

Private Investigator
At-Risk International LLC

Diplomado en Psicología Forense 

Universidad Privada Domingo Savio

Certificado Experto en: 

Detección de MicroExpresiones y Expresiones sutiles 

Paul Ekman Group Online

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