in Jordan peele's new movie us the beach scene was the perfect depiction of a
trauma response so in this video we're gonna break down that scene discuss
trauma so maybe you can learn a little bit about your own experience or you
might be able to help someone that you know what is up everybody this is Chris
from the rewired soul where we talk about the problem but focus on the
solution and if you're new to my channel my channel is all about mental health
and what I like to do is pull it with topics from movies TV shows music and
all sorts of other stuff to try to teach you how to improve your mental and
emotional well-being so the ending that stuff make sure you subscribe and ring
that notification bell so yeah in this video we're going to be talking about
childhood trauma and trauma the way it was depicted in the movie us and kind of
explained it a little bit further and deeper and just before we get started
quick disclaimer if you're new to my channel I am NOT a licensed therapist I
am somebody who has worked in the mental health field I love to read books and
educate myself about mental health but if you are somebody struggling with
trauma or you know somebody who is check out in the description below there's
gonna be some resources alright so anyways yeah I want to focus on the
beach scene as well as another scene so if you haven't seen the movie there is
like a very minor minor spoiler that I'm going to be talking about in this video
but whatever it's not that huge of a thing okay so anyways yeah so let's talk
about leading up to the beach scene so Adelaide played by lupita nyongo when Adelaide was a young girl
and she got separated from her parents at Santa Cruz Beach and she went aside
you know the little mirror funhouse place and she saw her doppelganger and
it traumatized her and she didn't speak after that well when she's older and
she's married to Gabe and they have their own kids and they're going on
their little vacation they decide or oh I'd let gets talked into going back to
Santa Cruz Beach all right well before they actually went Adelaide was like
trying to make every excuse there is not to go to that Beach and talking to Gabe
Gabe kind of guilt trip there and they end up going to the beach and
in a minute I'm gonna talk about avoidance of trauma survivors many ways
they go to the beach and Adelaide is sitting there and you know she has her
eyes on Jason who's over there building little tunnels and uh in the sand and
stuff like that but did she lose sight of them so the first thing I want to
talk about is like Jordan Peele the way he wrote and was directing this scene was
absolutely amazing like so I'm somebody who has been diagnosed with a
generalized anxiety disorder so I can just go into anxiety just at
random times even sometimes we're not triggered and I remember sitting there
watching the movie and when Adelaide was you know experiencing her trauma
response of being back at that Beach he Jordan Peele managed to manage to
capture that perfectly right just like the hyper focusing on
everything and all of your senses just completely aroused like if you're
somebody who struggles with anxiety like you know exactly what I mean like you
know it showed like the birds flying away and then like kids like laughing
and playing and then you knows people talking to her and Adelaide is just kind
of like just in like this this defense mode right just like ready for anything
and I thought he did an excellent excellent job so then when Adelaide
realizes that Jason's missing she freaks out runs off finds him and she's like
kind of shakes them I don't do that don't do that right so what we're gonna
be talking about is what actually happens like and why that scene was so
good and and and it explains what a trauma response is actually like so
first off let's talk about the neuroscience what's happening in the
brain when it comes to a trauma response okay so anybody who's been through a
traumatic experience so I will be referencing one of my favorite books on
trauma which is this one right here and it's called on your brain by dr. faith
Harper amazing amazing book I'll link it down to the description below
but anyways so when you or anybody else experiences a trauma it doesn't matter
what age you are alright so this could be childhood trauma it can happen your
teenage years it can happen when you're an adult whatever it is what happens is
is when that traumatic experience happens it knocks
your brain all right some of you have been around my channel for a while let's
do the hand bottle as a brain real quick from dr. Daniel J Siegel alright so
anyways so if you put your hand up like this alright this is you know your
spinal cord this is your brainstem if you fold your thumb over this part right
here is the amygdala and this little part of your thumb that is called the
hippocampus fold your fingers over you got your prefrontal cortex so basically
when a trauma happens this part right here is the amygdala as well as the
hippocampus those are part of the limbic system ok the limbic system is your most
developed part of the brain and it is for your survival all right so as you
can see that the hippocampus and the amygdala are tied in together
the hippocampus is responsibility is to store memories ok then the amygdala is
the part of your brain that is part of your fight flight or freeze response so
when a trauma happens so for example when Adelaide was at that beach as a
young girl and she experiences a trauma that rocked into her hippocampus which
is tied into the amygdala so basically what happens is later on in life since
that has been burned into your memory and your brain wants to protect you if
anything triggers it which can be sights sounds smells you know whatever it is
then your amygdala its hijacked it goes into this uber uber survival mode right
so when you see a delayed at that Beach basically what's happening is that her
amygdala is just in full force alright so when you're experiencing any type of
anxiety or panic or whatever it is your your your body changes all right you get
adrenaline pumping your blood pressure goes up your pupils change you might
sweat so anyways in dr. Faith Harper's book she talks about what's happening or
why people you know may avoid trauma and things like that so she talks about
arousal the amygdala is always wearing its crazy pants and you find yourself
freaked out when you shouldn't be or don't want to be you may
or may not know why but your brain may process something it considers a threat
that you aren't even cognizant of and all of a sudden you are falling apart in
the middle of the grocery store or in a delayed situation she was falling apart
in the middle of the beach right so then it says avoidance you find yourself
avoiding things that trigger arousal grocery store was bad I can order my
groceries online really don't need to leave the house for groceries right so
that's what I was talking about with the earlier scene with Gabe when Adelaide
was trying to avoid going to the beach altogether and talking about you know
going to the beach at there already you know all those things so people who
experience trauma they may want to avoid places that they know are going to be
triggering for them intrusion thoughts images memories related to the trauma
experience start shoving their way up the things that your brain was
protecting you from don't actually go away and they start bubbling to the
surface without your consent or willingness this isn't the same as
rumination where you worry over a bad memory intentionally but when stuff
shows up when least expected and you can't manage everything that is building
up then lastly it says negative thoughts and feelings with all this other stuff
going on is it any wonder that you never just feel good or even just okay all
right so there's a lot going on for people who have experienced trauma and
trauma like something that dr. faith Harper does a great job in this book
with is she told you how trauma is a different experience for everybody and
that's one of the things just that we need to learn about trauma in general is
that everybody's trauma is different okay like something that might be
traumatic for one person would it be traumatic for another person and it's
kind of like a dick move to be like oh no that wasn't that bad right to
minimize their experience you know what I mean or like with when gatekeeping
happens like oh you didn't have trauma I had trauma you know what I mean it is
completely based on that person's experience and the way their brain
processes that event for some people for example like
twelve mccann be somebody they know you know passing away right or hearing of an
accident like a car accident or something like that I'm thinking about
doing a video about that because I live in Las Vegas and you know just a couple
of years ago less than a couple years ago we had you know one of the biggest
math students in history here and a lot of people in my city struggled with
trauma even though they weren't actually at that event so I might do a video on
how stuff like that happens and like there's there's some studies out there
and stories about people who were affected by 9/11 who were nowhere even
near you know the twin towers so the next seem and last thing I want to talk
about with this was when Adelaide opened up to Gabe that night about her trauma
and like what actually happened and she was telling him that like that was an
example of what you don't do if somebody opens up to you about their trauma okay
so dr. faith helped her in her book she actually has a section on this titled
what if I love someone with a serious trauma history so I'm just gonna read a
small passage from this it says this is not your battle you don't get to design
the parameters you don't get to determine what makes something better
and what makes something worse no matter how well you know someone you don't know
their inner processes they may not even know their inner processes if you know
someone well you may know a lot but you aren't the one operating that life
telling someone what they should be doing feeling or thinking won't help
even if you are right even if they do what you say you have just taken away
their power to do the work they need to do to take charge of their life there
are limits to how much better they can really be if they are continually
rescued by you so in this instance like in the movie in us like Gabe is hiking
to Adelaide and you know he tries to joke about it you know you could see the
looks on his face which you know she takes a
- and all of that this is often why like if you have a loved one who went through
trauma like try to like try to encourage them to get help or let them know that
you're there to talk so lastly what I'll talk about is if you or someone you know
is dealing with trauma here's what should be done okay get help there's
nothing wrong with getting help even if you are an adult now there's something
that you experience a long time ago if you notice that is negatively affecting
your life get help there are many many many different therapies that are
excellent for trauma survivors all right like talk therapy is great there's
something called EMDR therapy which is great alright there's things like
cognitive behavioral therapy and a wide assortment science for some people -
peer support groups can be very beneficial for example veterans like at
the treatment center I was working out we got a lot of veterans as well as
first responders like you know talking about you know the loss of negative
shooting that happened and things like that we had a lot of people who were
first responders who came into our treatment center who developed an
addiction as a result of their trauma and you know they had groups where they
would talk to each other because it there's this comfort and being around
people who get it and understand what you've been through
alright in some you know treatment aspects there's like group therapy
sessions where it's kind of like you know that peer support aspect but it's
being facilitated by a licensed professional so if you need help all
right one of the first steps that I recommend is talk to your doctor talk to
your primary care physician see if they can recommend anybody if you have health
insurance call your insurance company see what kind of therapists they work
with or even psychologists or psychiatrists within your network like
look into that check reviews and like you can also see if if the person you're
going to work with specializes in certain forms of mental illness such as
PTSD okay if you are somebody who is looking for
online therapy there is a link down below it's an affiliate link so I'm an
affiliate of better help online therapy so if that's an option that you
like to try out clicker tap on that link down below and basically what that means
is that you get affordable online therapy working with a licensed
therapist and a little bit goes back to support the channel alright but there
are options out there if you are a loved one of somebody who's experienced in
trauma something that I just recommend is like read books educate yourself
learn about these things see what they're going through like for example
like I said this book by dr. faith Harper is gonna be linked down in the
description below like just educate yourself about this
there's a lot of stuff in here that will help you learn how to help someone you
love who is recovering from trauma alright but anyways if you saw the movie
on its like let me know like what your thoughts were how they depicted like you
know not even just 12 it but just anxiety as a whole
alright but that's all I got for this video if you like this video please give
it a thumbs up if you make sure you subscribe and ring that notification
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involved in our monthly Q&A and all that good stuff click the talk right there
alright thanks so much for watching I'll see you next time