...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S39NaDPNDtk

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Sweat and Steam

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I've always dislike crowds - 

Never feel comfortable within them -  

Ever since I was a kid, I'd found them

Hard to predict, claustrophobic,

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suffocating.

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"Early childhood experience,"

Is what the therapist would tell me. 

"You grew up as a visible minority 

In a violent environment, and so, 

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"Large groups made you feel unsafe." 

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"True," I would probably respond, 

"But that doesn't really help me now."

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Apparently, the amygdala 

Is the part of our brains that regulate human emotion, 

It relates emotion to memory and is responsible

For the hormones that correspond to stimuli.

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It's also the fear center in our brains -  

The oldest emotion, the flight or fight response,

The post traumatic hair-trigger or 

The genesis of survivor's guilt.

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Cortisol,

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Apparently, it's cortisol that triggers a fear reaction,

The bang that electrifies our nervous system,

Incites our muscles into movement, 

That initiates the impulse 

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to take action, or to run away.

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As I understand it, there are only a few things 

That can induce the body to circulate cortisol,

To cycle fear from our brain stems 

And filter it out of our blood: 

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sweating, and crying. 

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I'm not really of a mind for tears, 

But sweat,

Sweat is something that I can relate to well enough.

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