Dear Elizabeth Mack:
I read part of your post yesterday and all of Sweetglow’s reply today. I very much like the reply. I am responding to the following part of your post: to my understanding you were outside a night club and you were very much AFRAID when you passed by the overdosing or possibly overdosing young woman. Looking back you wished you got her some help and possibly saved her life that was possibly then in danger. My response has to do with something I read this very morning: “When the right brain is hyper-activated in flashback, the left-brain is also fully engaged.” This means that when the “emotional brain”- the emotional neurological circuitry in the brainn is activated, that is when you are AFRAID, your “thinking brain” is deactivated, that is, “OFF”. so you are biologically not in a thinking mode. Like Sweetglow wrote if you will be in a similar situation in the future you will know what to do, that is you will not be that afraid because the situation will no longer be so new, you will have some sense of mastery (knowing what to do)- so your fear will be more manageable and your “thinking brain” will not be as deactivated. Is this any help to you?
Take Care:
anita