Jeremy

Bill, the early signs suggest that young men are having the hardest time dealing with what’s going on right now. Young women are also struggling a bit. However, conditional have definitely shifted.  It looks like boys are trapping themselves in a virtual world where everything looks controllable. They can win over and over again. They never die. They’re in this artificial environment that is very addictive. A lot of these young men are lost.

Bill G

Bill B, I’m glad you brought up the intersection between trauma and the perception of agency. I think we’re all aware of the increasing evidence that we really don’t believe we have much agency in our life—and the biblical authors realize that. However, the perception of agency seems to be very helpful. With regard to what you’re talking about in Estonia, there were many men who had a misconception of their agency. By contrast, the women seem to have a much more realistic view of what agency they actually could exercise. Our discussion about neurotransmitters–the peptides—may relate to the more macro view of whether or not you have a realistic view of what agency you can actually implement. I think this connection between the micro (neurotransmitter) and macro (perception of agency) might be very important. There are several recent articles that came out in the family medicine literature concerning how much more satisfied physicians have been if they retain a sense of agency and control over their environment than those physicians who have felt that they had very little agency and little control over their environment. It goes back to Jeremy’s first point about freeze. You end up being mobilized, but you can’t do anything about it. So, it just chews you up in the state of freeze.

Bill B

Jeremy, why don’t you offer a couple of closing comments, because we’re at the hour. This has been a wonderful conversation. As always.

Jeremy

You never know where these trails will lead. This has been a fascinating conversation. I appreciate everybody’s perspectives.  I think we’ve addressed a timely topic. Trauma is very important and very impactful. Most people associate trauma with physical harm. They rarely consider these other dimensions of trauma. Our concepts of threat seem to provide a malleable framework for discussion of this critical issue. And so, I’m looking forward to hearing Gay provide a follow-up to this topic–perhaps where we can learn about neurofeedback and EMDR and other related procedures. I found this to be a fascinating topic. I think this topic inevitably involves several areas of neurobiology, neurophysiology, and neurochemistry. There’s just a lot going on—much as in the case of the metabolic system. I find the metabolic system of the mind to be quite fascinating, and we’re learning so much about this system. It’s really exciting in particular to see what might be termed “harder research” being addressed to these softer topics. I’m encouraged by our conversation. I feel enriched and appreciate everybody’s additions to the discussion.