Dr. Alok Kanojia

It's wild, right? So there's a fundamental imbalance in the brain. So our nucleus accumbens, our positive emotions cannot be activated by hypotheticals, whereas our negative emotions can be. We get robbed. This is what's really important about trauma is when we have a negative experience, our brain, for survival reasons, warns us against that experience.

So now if I've had one car accident, we literally know that it creates something called hypervigilance. So you become hyper aware when you go into the car, because most of the time when we're in the car, we're not paying attention to the car, right? Even when we're driving, a lot of that stuff is done on autopilot. You're not consciously thinking about everything all the time.

So now if I've had one car accident, we literally know that it creates something called hypervigilance. So you become hyper aware when you go into the car, because most of the time when we're in the car, we're not paying attention to the car, right? Even when we're driving, a lot of that stuff is done on autopilot. You're not consciously thinking about everything all the time.

So now if I've had one car accident, we literally know that it creates something called hypervigilance. So you become hyper aware when you go into the car, because most of the time when we're in the car, we're not paying attention to the car, right? Even when we're driving, a lot of that stuff is done on autopilot. You're not consciously thinking about everything all the time.

And so what happens with people with trauma is that their brain hyperactivates because it's had this negative thing. It's hypersensitive to potential problems. And we feel really, really, really bad. Now, our treatment for that is usually something called exposure and response prevention. That can be pretty useful where we expose ourself to the thing and then we prevent the response.

And so what happens with people with trauma is that their brain hyperactivates because it's had this negative thing. It's hypersensitive to potential problems. And we feel really, really, really bad. Now, our treatment for that is usually something called exposure and response prevention. That can be pretty useful where we expose ourself to the thing and then we prevent the response.

And so what happens with people with trauma is that their brain hyperactivates because it's had this negative thing. It's hypersensitive to potential problems. And we feel really, really, really bad. Now, our treatment for that is usually something called exposure and response prevention. That can be pretty useful where we expose ourself to the thing and then we prevent the response.

Our body will start to acclimatize to it. The tricky thing that a lot of people trip up with is that even when you go driving, you may not be doing response prevention. You're actually panicking and you're not really able to calm down. So it's almost like it's re-traumatizing, which is why it persists for so long.

Our body will start to acclimatize to it. The tricky thing that a lot of people trip up with is that even when you go driving, you may not be doing response prevention. You're actually panicking and you're not really able to calm down. So it's almost like it's re-traumatizing, which is why it persists for so long.

Our body will start to acclimatize to it. The tricky thing that a lot of people trip up with is that even when you go driving, you may not be doing response prevention. You're actually panicking and you're not really able to calm down. So it's almost like it's re-traumatizing, which is why it persists for so long.

Every time you drive, you're not able to calm yourself down and have a more neutral experience. All it does is ramp you up and then you feel paranoid. You start to use avoidance strategies, which is not actually response prevention. That's the biggest mistake people make.

Every time you drive, you're not able to calm yourself down and have a more neutral experience. All it does is ramp you up and then you feel paranoid. You start to use avoidance strategies, which is not actually response prevention. That's the biggest mistake people make.

Every time you drive, you're not able to calm yourself down and have a more neutral experience. All it does is ramp you up and then you feel paranoid. You start to use avoidance strategies, which is not actually response prevention. That's the biggest mistake people make.

Absolutely. I think that's what a lot of people discover. So the people who end up healing from it discover ways to expose themselves to the dangerous situation and then acclimatize to it so that it no longer triggers that response. Because remember that anything that we do that doesn't reward us and that reward can be negative. Right.

Absolutely. I think that's what a lot of people discover. So the people who end up healing from it discover ways to expose themselves to the dangerous situation and then acclimatize to it so that it no longer triggers that response. Because remember that anything that we do that doesn't reward us and that reward can be negative. Right.

Absolutely. I think that's what a lot of people discover. So the people who end up healing from it discover ways to expose themselves to the dangerous situation and then acclimatize to it so that it no longer triggers that response. Because remember that anything that we do that doesn't reward us and that reward can be negative. Right.

So every time I play with a dog and I don't get bit, that will slowly extinguish the response. The biggest problem that a lot of people run into is that when they experience the response, they'll use an avoidance strategy. They think that they're, oh, I'm exposing myself and so shouldn't that fix things?

So every time I play with a dog and I don't get bit, that will slowly extinguish the response. The biggest problem that a lot of people run into is that when they experience the response, they'll use an avoidance strategy. They think that they're, oh, I'm exposing myself and so shouldn't that fix things?

So every time I play with a dog and I don't get bit, that will slowly extinguish the response. The biggest problem that a lot of people run into is that when they experience the response, they'll use an avoidance strategy. They think that they're, oh, I'm exposing myself and so shouldn't that fix things?

No, it's actually the opposite because now what you're doing is when you feel that negative fear and anxiety and you engage in an avoidance strategy, you're actually strengthening the anxiety's control over you, right? So when the anxiety acts... you act in a different way. So that actually strengthens the anxiety.