 In Jordan Peele's new movie, Us, the beach scene was the perfect depiction of a trauma response. So in this video, we're going to 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 different 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 if you're into 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 down in the description below. There's going to be some resources. All right? 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. All right? So anyways, yeah. So let's talk about leading up to the beach scene. So Adelaide, when Adelaide was a young girl and she got separated from her parents at Santa Cruz Beach and she went inside, you know, the little mirror fun house 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 well Adelaide gets talked into going back to Santa Cruz Beach. All right? So 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 tripped her and they end up going to the beach. And in a minute, I'm going to talk about avoidance of trauma survivors. But anyways, 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 in the in the sand and stuff like that, but then she lose sight of him. So the first thing I want to talk about is like Jordan Peele, the way he wrote and directed 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 when 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, managed 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 know, it was 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 then she like kind of shakes him. Like, don't do that. Don't do that, right? So what we're going to 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 in the description below. But anyways, so when you or anybody else experiences a trauma, it doesn't matter what age you are, right? So this could be childhood trauma. It can happen in your teenage years. It can happen when you're an adult, whatever it is, what happens is is when that traumatic experience happens, it locks into your brain. All right. Some of you have been around my channel for a while. Let's do the hand model of the brain real quick from Dr. Daniel J. Segal. All right. So anyways, so if you put your hand up like this, all right, this is, you know, your spinal cord, this is your brain stem. 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, the amygdala as well as the hippocampus, those are part of the limbic system. Okay. 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's responsibility is to store memories. Okay. Then the amygdala is the part of your brain that is part of your fight, fight or freeze response. So when a trauma happens, so for example, when Adelaide was at beach as a young girl and she experiences a trauma that locked 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, it's hijacked. It goes into this uber, uber survival mode, right? So when you see Adelaide at that beach, basically what's happening is that her amygdala is just in full force. All right. 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 Adelaide's 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 that they're already at and, 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 talks about 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 have been 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 trauma can 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 of years ago, we had, you know, one of the biggest mass shootings 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 are affected by 9-11 who are nowhere even near, you know, the Twin Towers. So the next scene 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. OK, so Dr. Faith Harper 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 going to 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 talking to Adelaide and he tries to joke about it. You know, you can see the looks on his face, which, you know, she takes offense to 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 him 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. OK, get help. There's nothing wrong with getting help. Even if you are an adult now and there's something that you experienced a long time ago, if you notice that it 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. All right, there's things like cognitive behavioral therapy and a wide assortment for some people to peer support groups can be very beneficial. For example, veterans, like at the treatment center I was working at, we got a lot of veterans as well as first responders. Like, you know, talking about, you know, the Las Vegas 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 there's this comfort and being around people who get it and understand what you've been through. All right, 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 the person you're going to work with specializes in certain forms of mental illness, such as PTSD. OK, 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 BetterHelp Online Therapy. So if that's an option that you would like to try out, click or 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. All right, but there are options out there. If you are a loved one of somebody who is experiencing 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 going to 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. All right. But anyways, if you saw the movie, I was like, let me know like what your thoughts were, how they depicted like, you know, not even just trauma, but just anxiety as a whole. All right. But that's all I got for this video. If you like this video, please give it a thumbs up. If you're new, make sure you subscribe and ring that notification bell because I make a ton of videos and a huge, huge thank you to everybody supporting the channel over on Patreon. You're all amazing. And I will be recording the Patreon Q&A this week. And if you would like to become a patron, get involved in our monthly Q&A and all that good stuff. Click the top right there. All right. Thanks so much for watching. I'll see you next time.