Body Alarm Reaction / Survival Arousal Syndrome

[Isis]

Hi Everyone

Well i've been working away slowly with intu-flow and taking it easy on the joints that are more problematic. It has been interesting to find out which ranges of motion i don't have ha ha.:D

My friend lent me Coach Sonnon's Body-Flow book as they felt it would be worth reading to better understand his approach to training the body. It was really good and certainly helped improve seeing the development of practise and why things are done the way they are. It reminded me of stuff i read ages ago and it got me thinking.

I wasn't quite sure where to ask this so thought i'd put it in here.

From other reading i've done in the pyscho-physical area i've come across the notion of Body alarm reaction or B.A.R. I was wondering what if any relationship this has with Fear reactivity?

They appear to discuss some similar as well as some different things. Is there a cross over in understanding, or are they completely different?

Thanks for any help,

Abi x

[Scott Sonnon]

Abi,

The B.A.R. or the Survival Arousal Syndrome as its known in psychophysiology is the hard-wired reflex to a degree of intensity of surprise or perceived danger.

Fear-Reactivity is the myofascial (muscular and connective tissue) pattern of movement/tension which becomes conditioned through repeated bracing, flinching, clenching and flailing.

The SAS is an internal event, F-R is an external event. You can become desensitized to a particular intensity level of surprise or danger through certain breathing exercises, emotional control and mental toughness so that you do not elicit fear-reactivity. But whenever your threshold crests over the intensity level you've prepared to address, fear-reactivity will happen.

The more that you allow specific patterns of fear-reactivity to be repeated, the stronger they become, the faster they elicit and the harder to recover from.

Fear-reactivity also lingers after the danger/surprise passes. The more that you allow those patterns to be conditioned, the more permanent they become, encasing you in an armored echo of fear.

[Isis]

Hi Coach

Thank you for taking the time to respond. Yes that makes things ALOT clearer, i just went back and re-read the relevant parts of the book too. Sorry i should have picked up on it that way round first time through.

So B.A.R. is just another term referring to the same phenomenon S.A.S. does. Ok makes sense, and that is the 'platform' that can support the development/occurance of fear reactivity so to speak. So S.A.S. is it a prerequiste for Fear-reactivity, no S.A.S. no Fear-reactivity? (given the nature of S.A.S. this is more hypothetical).

Regarding desensitization, does this occur for both S.A.S. and Fear-reactivity? or are those hard wired reflexes unavoidable, with only Fear-reactivity being managable?

I found your writing so fascinating in part because of an assignment i had to write a couple of years ago on PTSD. This is an excerpt from one of the more interesting journal articles i read (don't know if anyone has seen it) that, with hindsight, appears to be trying to better understand the area Fear-reactivity addresses, well as i currently understand it at least :) Some of the conclusions certainly appear to be in-line with Fear-reactivity, any thoughts?

'A broader view of trauma: A biopsychosocial-evolutionary view of the role of the traumatic stress response in the emergence of pathology and/or growth'

Michael Christopher 2004

"The purpose of writing this paper was to provide clinical psychologists with a sketch of a biopsychosocial evolutionary perspective for understanding the traumatic stress response, in terms of its role in adaptation, maladaptation, pathology, and growth. I offered seven theoretical conclusions: (1) Stress is best understood as the primary prerational form of biopsychological feedback regarding the individual’s relationship with its environment; (2) The normal outcome of traumatic stress is growth rather than pathology; (3) Most psychopathology is a function of the maladaptive modulation of the stress response; (4) Whether stress produces an adaptive or maladaptive outcome, it always leaves the individual transformed on a biological as well as psychological level; (5) The general biological process underlying psychological and social responses to stress is universal, but the specific dynamics is always a function of the unique sociocultural environment and psychological make up of the individual; (6) Stable psychopathological symptoms are often associated with changing biopathological conditions; and
(7) Rationality is humanity’s evolutionarily newest and most sophisticated stress-reduction behavioural mechanism.

In general, I argued that the normal trauma response is better understood as an evolutionarily inherited mechanism for metalearning, which shatters and reconstitutes the metaschema (i.e., concepts of self, society, and nature) in which learning normally takes place. I believe that this perspective has a wide range of important clinical implications, which are only briefly touched on in this paper."

Anyway enough rambling ha ha,

Thanks again, all the best,

Abi

[Scott Sonnon]

Hi Coach

Thank you for taking the time to respond. Yes that makes things ALOT clearer, i just went back and re-read the relevant parts of the book too. Sorry i should have picked up on it that way round first time through.

So B.A.R. is just another term referring to the same phenomenon S.A.S. does. Ok makes sense, and that is the 'platform' that can support the development/occurance of fear reactivity so to speak. So S.A.S. is it a prerequiste for Fear-reactivity, no S.A.S. no Fear-reactivity? (given the nature of S.A.S. this is more hypothetical).

Regarding desensitization, does this occur for both S.A.S. and Fear-reactivity? or are those hard wired reflexes unavoidable, with only Fear-reactivity being managable?

I found your writing so fascinating in part because of an assignment i had to write a couple of years ago on PTSD. This is an excerpt from one of the more interesting journal articles i read (don't know if anyone has seen it) that, with hindsight, appears to be trying to better understand the area Fear-reactivity addresses, well as i currently understand it at least :) Some of the conclusions certainly appear to be in-line with Fear-reactivity, any thoughts?

In general, I argued that the normal trauma response is better understood as an evolutionarily inherited mechanism for metalearning, which shatters and reconstitutes the metaschema (i.e., concepts of self, society, and nature) in which learning normally takes place. I believe that this perspective has a wide range of important clinical implications, which are only briefly touched on in this paper."

Anyway enough rambling ha ha,

Thanks again, all the best,

Abi
Abi,

My background involves more neuroscience than behavioral psychology, so I can't speak to the latter theoretical discussion.

"So S.A.S. is it a prerequiste for Fear-reactivity, no S.A.S. no Fear-reactivity?"

Yes, except SAS is a guarantee. You can't live in a bubble, nor would you want to as we are only looking at the shadow of blissful experience in life. Even from a training perspective, to know the threshold you must approach it which also includes accidentally crossing it periodically. Idiosyncratic patterns of breathing, bracing, clenching, grasping, etc... must be compensated for, or become conditioned, rooted, and mostly-permanent, causing postural distortions, leading to neuropathy and organ issues, all of which release chemicals and hormones which alter and amplify our emotions, etc...

"Regarding desensitization, does this occur for both S.A.S. and Fear-reactivity? or are those hard wired reflexes unavoidable, with only Fear-reactivity being managable?"

To my knowledge, you can't modify a hard-wired reflex, like the Moro reflex (at least not with our current legal technology). You can only sensitize yourself to a particular intensity level of specific stress, but this has inherent dangers: stress levels and compensatory adaptation phases must be carefully monitored with the appropriate technology, otherwise latent arousal gets up/down regulated... and leads to issues such as in PTSD.

Fear-reactivity however is accessible for us to address, and leads to a host of subsequent issues if un-addressed.

[Isis]

HI Coach

I've read more in the area of the behavioural sciences in the past, neuroscience always felt way over my head :eek: haha.

Maybe some day....

Thanks for adding further comments.

All the best, Abi