Member-only story
A Vaccine for Coronavirus Psychological Damage
How We Can Heal from the Pandemic Emotional Wounds.
We are as wired for survival, as we are wired for healing.
Think about a cut on your skin and the way it heals. We can apply the same simile to many other functions of our system — including the emotional one. We all have witnessed the miracle of skin regeneration; when the skin is injured, our brain sets an automatic series of steps into motion in order to repair the injured tissues. It’s often referred to as “cascade of healing” (Clark & Henson, 1996).
If the healing of the wound goes well, the bleeding will stop, the tissue will close, new tissue will develop, and it will become strong and flexible. There may be a scar, but maybe nothing else will be left of the cut. If it doesn’t go well, an infection can develop, an ulcer can appear, or it can leave mechanical damage — to mention just a few of the consequences.
As I explained in other posts, when we are in danger, the brain sets into motion an automatic series of mechanisms in order to maintain the person alive. It’s sometimes called “defense cascade” (Kozlowska et al., 2015) because of the cascade of hormones and the succession of changes in the system.
