Dr. Michael Kilgard

We need the diversity.

We need that context.

That information is useful to us.

When we shield ourselves, as we did from peanuts, many people got peanut allergies.

Now that we've gone back to exposing children, you don't have that problem nearly as bad.

I work with Boy Scouts, and so we have a big giant peanut allergy warning thing.

Right, right, right.

That's right.

Or it just pops up randomly.

So for PTSD, cognitive behavioral therapists do five different things because people say, you're going to expose me to this.

I'm going to get better.

It doesn't make any sense.

I'm already exposed.

I think about it all the time, but they're not thinking about it enough.

They're thinking about it where they're losing control.

So control, as you know from some classic neuroscience experiments, is really important.

Getting shocked is not bad for you.

It's getting shocked in an uncontrollable way where you're not in charge of it.

If you can influence it, have some agency over it, then I can make a story about it.

When I can reflect on it, I know, hey, bad things happen, but I have a role to play in it.