Tag Archives: anxiety

Borderline-Level Defenses, what are they:

Borderline-level defenses are a group of psychological defense mechanisms that are more primitive than neurotic defenses but more organized than psychotic defenses. They are typically associated with borderline personality organization.

These defenses are common in individuals with intense emotional instability, identity diffusion, and unstable relationships, but they can also appear temporarily in highly stressed individuals.

Core Borderline-Level Defenses

1. Splitting

Seeing people (or oneself) as all good or all bad, with no middle ground.

  • “They are perfect.”
  • Later: “They are evil.”

This reflects difficulty integrating positive and negative aspects of the same person.

2. Projective Identification

Not just projecting unwanted feelings onto someone else, but subtly behaving in ways that pressure the other person to actually feel or enact what is projected.

Example:

  • A person unconsciously feels anger.
  • They accuse the therapist of hostility.
  • Their behavior becomes provocative.
  • The therapist starts feeling irritated.

3. Primitive Idealization

Overvaluing someone unrealistically:

  • “You are the only person who understands me.”
  • “You are extraordinary.”

Often followed by devaluation when disappointment occurs.

4. Devaluation

The flip side of idealization.

  • Sudden shift to: “You are useless.”
  • Intense contempt or dismissal.

5. Denial (Primitive Form)

Refusal to acknowledge emotionally threatening reality, even when evidence is clear.

6. Omnipotence

An exaggerated sense of power or specialness to defend against vulnerability.

  • “I don’t need anyone.”
  • “Rules don’t apply to me.”

Structural Context

Borderline-level organization includes:

  • Identity diffusion (unstable self-concept)
  • Primitive defenses (like splitting)
  • Intact reality testing (unlike psychosis)

This differs from:

  • Neurotic organization: repression, rationalization
  • Psychotic organization: severe reality distortion

Clinical Insight

Borderline-level defenses often appear in contexts of:

  • Intense attachment needs
  • Fear of abandonment
  • Grandiose or persecutory relational narratives
  • Rapid shifts in perception of mentors, institutions, or belief systems

Importantly, these defenses are not “bad”, they are protective adaptations formed early in development, often in response to inconsistent or traumatic attachment.

Shervan K Shahhian

Mental Health Subjectivism, explained:

Mental Health Subjectivism is the philosophical view that mental health is primarily determined by an individual’s personal experience rather than by objective, universal standards.

In simple terms:

A person is mentally healthy if they feel psychologically well or experience themselves as functioning well, regardless of external judgments.

Core Idea

Mental health is defined by subjective inner experience, such as:

  • Sense of meaning
  • Emotional satisfaction
  • Personal coherence
  • Self-acceptance
  • Felt well-being

This contrasts with approaches that define mental health through:

  • Functional impairment
  • Social norms
  • Biological markers

Philosophical Roots

Mental health subjectivism draws from:

  • Phenomenology 
  • Existential psychology
  • Humanistic psychology

These traditions emphasize the first-person perspective over external classification.

Example

Two people meet criteria for depression:

  • Person A feels deeply distressed and hopeless.
  • Person B reports feeling at peace with their slowed pace of life and does not feel impaired.

A strict medical model may diagnose both.
A subjectivist approach would argue that Person B may not be “mentally ill” if their lived experience is not one of suffering.

Strengths

✔ Respects individual differences
✔ Avoids over-pathologizing
✔ Centers personal meaning
✔ Reduces stigma

Criticisms

✖ Risk of ignoring serious impairment
✖ Hard to standardize for treatment
✖ May conflict with public safety concerns
✖ Difficult in cases of poor insight (e.g., severe mania or psychosis)

In Clinical Psychology

In practice, most modern clinicians integrate both:

For example, even if someone feels powerful during mania, clinicians may intervene if the condition threatens safety.

  • Subjective distress
  • Objective dysfunction
  • Risk assessment
  • For example, even if someone feels powerful during mania, clinicians may intervene if the condition threatens safety.

Shervan K Shahhian

Money and Trauma, the connection:

Money and Trauma:

The connection between money and trauma is complex and deeply psychological. Money often carries emotional, cultural, and symbolic weight beyond its practical function. Trauma can significantly shape how people think about, handle, and relate to money. 

Here’s a thorough breakdown:

1. Early Life Experiences

  • Childhood experiences with scarcity, neglect, or instability can create lasting financial anxieties.
  • Examples:
  • Growing up in poverty hyper-vigilance around spending and saving.
  • Witnessing parental financial conflict money may trigger fear, guilt, or shame.
  • These patterns can persist into adulthood, often unconsciously influencing financial behavior.

2. Money as a Trauma Trigger

  • Certain money-related situations can reactivate past trauma:
  • Receiving bills or debt notifications may trigger panic or shame.
  • Discussions about salary, inheritance, or financial decisions can evoke childhood fears or feelings of inadequacy.
  • Trauma survivors may associate money with control, danger, or powerlessness.

3. Financial Coping Mechanisms

Trauma can lead to specific money-related behaviors:

Behavior Possible Trauma Link Hoarding / Over-saving Fear of scarcity or loss from past deprivation Impulsive spending Attempt to self-soothe, regulate emotions, or seek immediate relief financial avoidance Anxiety so intense that one avoids bills, budgeting, or money discussions Debt accumulation / gambling Attempt to regain control or escape feelings of inadequacy

4. Money and Self-Worth

  • Trauma can make financial status tightly linked to identity and self-esteem:
  • “If I have money, I am safe.”
  • “If I lose money, I am a failure.”
  • Chronic trauma may lead to shame or guilt around financial success, even if objectively achieved.

5. Intergenerational Trauma

  • Money habits and attitudes can be transmitted across generations:
  • Families affected by war, migration, or poverty may pass down beliefs like “money is dangerous” or “rich people are bad.”
  • Children internalize these messages, shaping their financial behavior and emotional response.

6. Healing and Integration

Trauma-informed approaches to money can help break cycles:

  • Awareness: Identifying emotional triggers and patterns related to money.
  • Reframing: Redefining money as a tool rather than a source of shame or fear.
  • Mindfulness & Emotion Regulation: Learning to tolerate financial anxiety without reacting impulsively.
  • Therapeutic Support: Trauma-informed therapy, such as EMDR or somatic approaches, can address the root emotional wounds tied to money.

Key Insight:
 Money isn’t inherently stressful, but trauma can make it a symbolic battlefield — representing safety, control, identity, and self-worth. Healing the financial relationship often involves addressing the underlying emotional trauma, not just the budget.

Here’s a detailed list of common money-trauma patterns along with practical ways to work through them. I’ll organize it so it’s easy to apply personally or in therapy:

1. Financial Hoarding / Over-Saving

Pattern:

  • Extreme fear of running out of money.
  • Reluctance to spend even on necessary items.
  • Viewing money as the only form of safety.

Trauma Link:

  • Childhood scarcity, poverty, or unpredictable finances.

Ways to Work Through It:

  • Budget with Intention: Allocate money for essentials and some “joy spending” to normalize spending.
  • Gradual Exposure: Start with small, intentional expenditures to retrain emotional responses.
  • Therapy: Explore underlying scarcity beliefs and reframe money as a tool, not a survival anchor.

2. Impulsive Spending / Retail Therapy

Pattern:

  • Buying things to cope with anxiety, sadness, or boredom.
  • Accumulation of unnecessary items or debt.

Trauma Link:

  • Early emotional neglect, abandonment, or unmet needs leading to self-soothing behaviors.

Ways to Work Through It:

  • Track Triggers: Note emotional states before spending.
  • Alternative Coping: Replace spending with healthier self-soothing (journaling, walking, connecting with supportive friends).
  • Set Boundaries: Use cash-only or spending limits for non-essential purchases.

3. Financial Avoidance

Pattern:

  • Ignoring bills, bank statements, or budget planning.
  • Procrastination and anxiety around money discussions.

Trauma Link:

  • Feeling powerless or unsafe in childhood financial matters.

Ways to Work Through It:

  • Structured Approach: Schedule a short, consistent time weekly to review finances.
  • Emotional Check-In: Pair financial tasks with grounding exercises (breathing, mindfulness).
  • Professional Support: Financial counseling combined with trauma-informed therapy can reduce overwhelm.

4. Debt Accumulation / Gambling

Pattern:

  • Repeated borrowing or risky financial behaviors despite negative consequences.
  • Seeking quick fixes for emotional relief or control.

Trauma Link:

  • Early experiences of instability, lack of control, or inconsistent rewards.

Ways to Work Through It:

  • Immediate Accountability: Work with a financial coach or trusted partner.
  • Identify Emotional Drivers: Use journaling to uncover feelings driving risky behaviors.
  • Therapy for Impulse Control: CBT, DBT, or trauma-informed therapy to build healthy coping.

5. Money-Linked Self-Worth Issues

Pattern:

  • Self-esteem tied to earning, spending, or saving money.
  • Shame around financial status, whether high or low.

Trauma Link:

  • Family messages linking worth to financial success or failure.
  • Experiences of judgment or criticism around money.

Ways to Work Through It:

  • Internal Validation: Practice self-compassion independent of finances.
  • Cognitive Reframing: Challenge “I am my money” thoughts with evidence of intrinsic value.
  • Affirmations & Gratitude: Focus on non-financial achievements and relationships.

6. Intergenerational Money Anxiety

Pattern:

  • Fear or distrust of money inherited from family beliefs (e.g., “rich people are greedy”).
  • Repeating parents’ money mistakes unconsciously.

Trauma Link:

  • Historical family poverty, war, or financial instability.

Ways to Work Through It:

  • Awareness: Identify inherited beliefs versus personal values.
  • Create New Patterns: Intentionally practice healthy financial habits.
  • Ritual or Symbolic Acts: Writing letters to ancestors or creating “financial affirmations” can reframe inherited trauma.

7. Avoiding Financial Conversations

Pattern:

  • Fear of discussing money with partners, family, or advisors.
  • Leads to secrecy, conflict, or passive financial patterns.

Trauma Link:

  • Childhood experiences where money talk caused conflict or shame.

Ways to Work Through It:

  • Safe Communication Practice: Start with neutral topics or shared goals.
  • Therapeutic Coaching: Practice assertive financial communication in therapy.
  • Joint Planning: Use tools or systems to make money discussions objective rather than emotional.

 Key Insight:
 All of these patterns are adaptive responses to past trauma. Healing involves awareness, emotional regulation, gradual exposure, and reframing beliefs about money as a neutral tool rather than a threat or measure of worth.

Shervan K Shahhian

Allowing Graded Exposure, what does that mean:


Allowing graded exposure is about letting yourself meet what you fear in small, tolerable doses—instead of avoiding it or forcing yourself through it.

Think of it as “approach without overwhelm.”

What it is

Graded exposure means:

  • You intentionally allow contact with a feared situation, sensation, memory, or thought
  • In steps, from least activating to most activating
  • While staying within your window of tolerance

The key word is allowing, not pushing, not white-knuckling.

What it’s used for

It’s especially effective for:

  • Anxiety and fears
  • Trauma responses (carefully paced)
  • Avoidance patterns
  • Somatic fear (sensations, emotions, bodily cues)
  • OCD and panic cycles

Avoidance keeps the nervous system convinced the threat is real.
Graded exposure updates the nervous system through experience, not logic.

What “allowing” changes

This is subtle but important.

Forcing exposure:
“I have to do this so I stop being afraid.”

 Allowing exposure:
“I’m letting myself touch this a little, and I can stop if needed.”

That shift alone reduces threat activation.

How it works (step-by-step)

  1. Map a fear ladder
    • Rate triggers from 0–10
    • Start around 2–3, not 7–8
  2. Enter with choice
    • “I’m choosing to be here.”
    • Choice restores agency (critical for trauma)
  3. Stay just long enough
    • Until anxiety peaks and begins to fall
    • Not until exhaustion or dissociation
  4. Track safety signals
    • “Nothing bad is happening.”
    • “I can leave.”
    • “My body is settling.”
  5. Repeat
    • Consistency matters more than intensity

Somatic version (very relevant)

For body-based fear:

  • Allow 10–20 seconds of a sensation
  • Then orient outward (look around, move, breathe)
  • Pendulate between activation to safety

This teaches the body: activation is survivable.

Common mistakes

  • Going too fast (“flooding”)
  • Using exposure to get rid of feelings
  • Skipping regulation skills
  • Treating discomfort as danger

Discomfort ≠ harm.

A simple reframe

Graded exposure isn’t about proving you’re brave.
It’s about teaching your nervous system that contact doesn’t equal catastrophe.

Shervan K Shahhian

Cognitive Coping, what is it:

Cognitive coping is about using your thinking to regulate emotion, stress, or threat—basically working with the mind to keep the nervous system from running the show.

Here’s a clean, useful way to understand it.

What cognitive coping actually is

Cognitive coping uses top-down processes (attention, meaning-making, appraisal) to change how a situation is interpreted, which then changes how it feels.

You’re not changing the event—you’re changing:

the story about it

the focus of attention

the meaning assigned to it

Common forms of cognitive coping

These are the big ones clinicians usually mean:

Cognitive reappraisal “Is there another way to understand what’s happening?”

Perspective-taking Zooming out in time, context, or role (e.g., “How will this look in a year?”)

Reality testing Checking assumptions: “What evidence do I actually have?”

Normalization “This reaction makes sense given the context.”

Self-talk / inner dialogue Using language to soothe, guide, or ground.

Meaning-making Integrating the experience into a larger narrative (“This is hard and it fits into my growth arc.”)

What cognitive coping is good at

It works best when:

arousal is mild to moderate

the nervous system is already somewhat regulated

the person has cognitive flexibility online

It’s especially helpful for:

rumination

anticipatory anxiety

moral injury / shame narratives

existential or identity-based distress

Where cognitive coping breaks down

This is key—and often missed.

Cognitive coping fails when:

the body is in high threat (fight/flight/freeze)

shame or attachment threat is activated

the prefrontal cortex is offline

That’s when it turns into:

intellectual bypass

arguing with emotions

“I know this isn’t rational but I still feel it”

increased self-criticism for “not coping correctly”

Cognitive coping vs body-based regulation

Think of it like this:

Body-based regulation: calms the signal

Cognitive coping: interprets the signal

Best practice (and what you’ve been circling lately):

Body first → cognition second

Once the body settles even 10–15%, cognitive coping suddenly works again.

A gentle integration move

Instead of “changing the thought,” try:

“What would a regulated mind naturally think right now?”

That question respects the nervous system and cognition.

Shervan K Shahhian

Difficulty Accepting Compassion, an explanation:

Difficulty accepting compassion is very common—especially in people who grew up needing to be self-reliant, vigilant, or emotionally contained. It’s less a flaw and more a learned survival strategy.

Here’s a clean way to understand it, psychologically and neurobiologically:

What “difficulty accepting compassion” really means

It’s not that compassion feels bad.
It’s that compassion feels unsafe, unfamiliar, or destabilizing.

When someone offers warmth, care, or gentleness, the nervous system may interpret it as:

  • a loss of control
  • a setup for disappointment or betrayal
  • an invitation to dependency
  • a threat to a hard-won identity (“I survive by being strong / competent / independent”)

So the system subtly resists.

Common internal experiences

People often report:

  • Feeling awkward, exposed, or undeserving
  • A reflex to deflect, minimize, joke, or intellectualize
  • Sudden tension, numbness, or irritation
  • Thoughts like:
    • “They don’t really know me.”
    • “I should be able to handle this myself.”
    • “If I accept this, I owe something.”

These are protective responses, not character flaws.

Developmental roots (typical pathways)

Difficulty receiving compassion often develops when:

1. Care was inconsistent or conditional

Compassion came with strings attached, role reversal, or emotional cost.

Result: care = danger or debt

2. Vulnerability was punished or ignored

Needs were met with shame, dismissal, or overwhelm.

Result: softness = exposure

3. Identity formed around competence or insight

Being “the strong one,” “the wise one,” or “the self-sufficient one” became how safety was maintained.

Result: receiving care threatens identity coherence

Nervous system explanation (why it’s felt in the body)

Compassion activates social engagement systems (ventral vagal).
If those circuits were underused or paired with threat early on:

  • the body may respond with unease, vigilance
  • numbing, dissociation

So even kindness can feel like overstimulation or collapse.

Subtle forms of resistance (often overlooked)

  • Preferring to give compassion rather than receive it
  • Framing everything as insight, spirituality, or theory
  • Accepting compassion cognitively but not somatically
  • Feeling safer with respect than with warmth

These are elegant adaptations.

What helps (without forcing openness)

The goal is not to “open the heart” aggressively.

More effective approaches:

1. Micro-doses of compassion

Brief, low-intensity moments (a kind tone, a neutral acknowledgment) tolerated without needing to feel moved.

2. Choice and agency

Compassion that is invitational, not engulfing:

“Would it help if…?”

3. Somatic tracking

Noticing where the discomfort shows up (throat, chest, gut) without trying to fix it.

4. Reframing compassion as regulation, not dependency

Compassion = nervous system co-regulation, not weakness or debt.

A key reframe

Difficulty accepting compassion usually means
you learned to survive without it, not that you don’t deserve it.

That adaptation deserves respect.

Shervan K Shahhian

Does Shame Narrows Perception, why:


Shame narrows perception because it is a high-intensity social threat response that shifts the brain and nervous system from open, integrative processing into defensive survival mode.

Here’s how that happens, layer by layer:

1. Shame Activates the Social Threat System

Shame signals “I am unacceptable; I may be rejected or expelled from the group.”
Because social belonging is essential for survival, the brain treats shame like danger.

Neurobiologically (Consult a Neurologist):

  • The amygdala and threat circuits activate
  • Stress hormones (cortisol, norepinephrine) increase
  • The prefrontal cortex (perspective-taking, nuance, mental flexibility) goes partially offline

Result: the mind prioritizes self-protection, not exploration or complexity.

2. Attention Collapses Inward

Under shame, attention narrows toward:

  • The self as an object of judgment
  • Perceived flaws, mistakes, or exposures
  • Imagined evaluations by others

This produces:

  • Tunnel vision
  • Loss of contextual awareness
  • Reduced ability to mentalize others accurately

Instead of “What is happening?” the question becomes “What’s wrong with me?”

3. Temporal Constriction

Shame compresses time:

  • Past mistakes feel ever-present
  • The future feels foreclosed or catastrophic
  • The present feels frozen

This is why shame often feels inescapable and global rather than specific or momentary.

4. Meaning-Making Becomes Rigid

Shame pushes cognition toward:

  • Global self-condemnation (“I am bad,” not “I did something”)
  • Black-and-white thinking
  • Certainty without curiosity

This rigidity protects against further exposure but blocks learning, repair, and growth.

5. Nervous System Immobilization

From a polyvagal perspective:

  • Shame often activates dorsal vagal shutdown or a collapsed sympathetic state
  • Energy drops
  • Voice, posture, and gaze constrict
  • Sensory richness diminishes

Perception narrows because the body is preparing to hide, disappear, or endure.

6. Developmental Roots

Many people learned early that:

  • Visibility led to humiliation or punishment
  • Being seen meant danger

So the nervous system learned:
“Narrow awareness = safety.”

Shame becomes a perceptual strategy, not just an emotion.

In Short

Shame narrows perception because:

  • It is designed to prevent social exile
  • It shifts the brain into threat-based efficiency
  • It collapses attention, time, and meaning to minimize risk

It is not a failure of insight.
It is survival intelligence doing exactly what it evolved to do—at the cost of openness.

Clinically Useful Reframe

Shame doesn’t mean “something is wrong with you.”
It means “your system believes visibility is unsafe right now.”

Restoring perception requires safety, attunement, and relational repair, not insight alone.

Shervan K Shahhian

The difference between law enforcement psychology and forensic psychology:

Here’s a clear and simple breakdown of Law Enforcement Psychology vs. Forensic Psychology, since they’re often confused but serve different functions:

Law Enforcement Psychology

Focus: Supporting the well-being, performance, and decision-making of police and other law-enforcement personnel.

What it deals with:

  • Psychological screening for police applicants
  • Fitness-for-duty evaluations
  • Counseling officers (stress, trauma, burnout, PTSD)
  • Crisis negotiation and crisis intervention
  • Training officers on bias, de-escalation, communication, use-of-force judgment
  • Improving police–community relations
  • Enhancing teamwork, leadership, and resilience within departments

Think of it as:

“Psychology for the police.”

Forensic Psychology

Focus: Applying psychological principles to legal questions in courts, investigations, and the justice system.

What it deals with:

  • Competency to stand trial evaluations
  • Insanity defense evaluations
  • Risk assessments (violence, reoffending, sexual offense risk)
  • Expert testimony in court
  • Child custody evaluations
  • Eyewitness credibility and memory issues
  • Criminal profiling (rarely, and usually done with behavioral analysts rather than clinical psychologists)
  • Working with victims, offenders, attorneys, and judges

Think of it as:

“Psychology for the legal system.”

Key Differences at a Glance

AreaLaw Enforcement PsychologyForensic Psychology
Primary ClientsPolice officers, departmentsCourts, attorneys, offenders, victims
GoalImprove officer performance and wellnessInform legal decisions
Typical SettingsPolice agencies, academiesCourts, prisons, forensic hospitals
Main ActivitiesSelection, training, counselingEvaluation, testimony, risk assessment

Overlap?

Yes, in areas like:

  • Crisis negotiation
  • Threat assessment
  • Understanding criminal behavior
  • Consulting on cases

But their purpose differs:

  • Law enforcement psychology → help officers do their job better and safely
  • Forensic psychology → help the justice system make informed decisions

Shervan K Shahhian

Anticipating Emerging Mental Health Risks, an explanation:

Anticipating Emerging Mental Health Risks means identifying psychological threats before they fully develop, so individuals, clinicians, and institutions can intervene early. Think of it as psychological early-warning detection — similar to strategic risk intelligence, but applied to human wellbeing.

Here’s a clear, practical breakdown:

1. Core Idea

Anticipating emerging mental-health risks involves:

  • Detecting early patterns of vulnerability
  • Understanding shifting social, technological, and environmental pressures
  • Predicting where new forms of distress will arise
  • Intervening before the problem becomes a disorder

It’s preventative mental-health strategy at a societal and individual level.

2. Key Emerging Risk Categories

A. Digital & Technological Stressors

  • AI-related job insecurity
  • Deepfake-based harassment
  • Doom-scrolling overload
  • Identity fragmentation from curated online selves
    These produce chronic anticipatory anxiety, self-comparison depression, and attentional collapse.

B. Environmental and Societal Instability

  • Climate anxiety / eco-grief
  • Economic precarity
  • Community fragmentation
    These amplify feelings of lack of control, disconnection, and future insecurity.

C. Loneliness & Social Disintegration

  • Rising single-person households
  • Remote work disconnects
  • Less social ritual and shared meaning
    Leads to depressive drift, existential emptiness, and anomie.

D. Youth-Specific Risks

  • Early exposure to algorithmic adult content
  • Gamified dopamine cycles in apps
  • Identity confusion due to constant comparison
    Produces emotional dysregulation and fragile self-structure.

E. Parapsychological & Altered-State Risks

Given your background:

  • Misinterpreting intuitive or altered-state experiences
  • Boundary erosion between symbolic meaning and literal belief
  • Psychic overload from overstimulation or ungrounded exploration
  • Social isolation due to “experiencer” stigma

These can be stabilized with grounding practices and reflective psychological containment.

3. How Psychologists Anticipate These Risks

1. Pattern Recognition

Tracking:

  • Micro-trends in symptoms
  • New types of client language (“I feel digitally drained,” “AI is replacing me,” etc.)
  • Shifts in sleep cycles, stress patterns, and attention capacity

2. Horizon Scanning

Borrowed from intelligence work:

  • Monitoring emerging technologies
  • Societal disruptions
  • Youth culture shifts
  • Early warning signals in research data

3. Psychological Forecasting

Using:

  • Behavioral science models
  • Stress–vulnerability frameworks
  • Mapping social pressures to likely mental-health outcomes

4. Ecological Assessment

Understanding a person’s:

  • Social ecosystem
  • Digital ecosystem
  • Meaning ecosystem
  • Stress ecosystem
    This holistic map shows where weak points will emerge.

4. Practical Early-Warning Signs in Individuals

Psychologists look for:

  • Micro-avoidances (subtle withdrawal from interactions)
  • Fragmented attention (jumping tasks constantly)
  • Meaning fatigue (“Nothing feels important anymore”)
  • Somatic whispers (body tension, headaches, insomnia — before psychological labels appear)
  • Belief-rigidity as a coping mechanism
  • Increased magical thinking or symbolic overlay under stress

5. Interventions Focused on Prevention

  • Strengthening psychological flexibility
  • Building future resilience maps
  • Teaching information hygiene and digital boundaries
  • Encouraging micro-rituals for grounding
  • Creating early-alert self-monitoring habits
  • Supporting meaning-making frameworks that don’t collapse under stress

Here is a method for building a personal psychological risk radar — a system that helps you sense emerging mental-health vulnerabilities before they become problems. It possibly blends clinical psychology, self-observation.

PERSONAL RISK RADAR: A 5-SYSTEM MODEL

Your risk radar has five “sensors” that detect weak signals of future distress:

Somatic Sensor (body-based warnings)

Emotional Sensor (mood patterns)

Cognitive Sensor (thought patterns)

Behavioral Sensor (micro-behaviors)

Contextual Sensor (environment, people, digital life)

Each catches different types of early risk.

1. SOMATIC SENSOR — “THE BODY WHISPERS BEFORE IT SCREAMS”

Track:

  • Subtle tension (neck, gut, jaw)
  • Sleep drift (even 20–30 min later than usual)
  • Appetite fragmentation
  • New headaches or heaviness

Why it matters:
The nervous system shows stress before emotions do.

Daily check (30 seconds):
“What is my body telling me about upcoming stress?”
Notice: tightness, speed, heaviness, numbness.

2. EMOTIONAL SENSOR — MICRO-SHIFTS

You don’t look for full emotions; you look for micro-emotions:

  • Low-grade irritability
  • Meaning fatigue (“I don’t care”)
  • Emotional flatness
  • Difficulty feeling warmth toward others
  • Drifting anxiety without a cause

Risk signal:
If the same micro-emotion repeats for 3 days, you are in a pre-risk zone.

3. COGNITIVE SENSOR — PATTERN DISTORTIONS

Notice specific early cognitive signs:

  • More “what if” thinking
  • Black-and-white interpretations
  • Catastrophic forecasting
  • Increased magical thinking under stress (in your case, symbolic experiences turning literal without reflection)
  • Reduced mental spaciousness

Risk signal:
When thoughts speed up or narrow down, risk is rising.

4. BEHAVIORAL SENSOR — THE SILENT INDICATOR

Track subtle behaviors:

  • Increased scrolling
  • Avoiding one specific task
  • Needing more stimulation
  • Small social withdrawals (not returning messages)
  • Lost routines (exercise, hygiene, morning structure)

Risk signal:
A shift in three daily micro-habits means your system is compensating for stress.

5. CONTEXTUAL SENSOR — WHAT IS PRESSING ON YOU

Your context predicts your risk:

Check three pressure areas:

  1. Social: conflict, isolation, misunderstanding
  2. Digital: overexposure, anxiety-inducing content
  3. Life tension: finances, workload, uncertainty

Ask:
“What external pressures are shaping my inner state this week?”

The key is not to take your feelings personally — often they are contextual, not internal defects.

PUTTING IT TOGETHER: YOUR WEEKLY RISK RADAR

 Quick Scan (5 minutes, once a week)

 BUILT-IN PROTECTIVE STRATEGIES

When your radar detects early risk:

A. Ground the autonomic nervous system (somatic)

  • Slow exhalations
  • 60–90 seconds of stillness
  • Drop shoulders + jaw

B. Reinforce psychological container (cognitive)

  • Write one grounding sentence:
    “These are states, not truths.”

C. Restore one anchor behavior (behavioral)

Pick one small routine to re-stabilize:

  • Make your bed
  • Drink water early
  • 10-minute walk
  • Quick journaling

D. Reconnect with a stabilizing relationship (social)

A 3-minute check-in with someone who understands you.

OPTIONAL: INTEGRATE INTUITIVE / ALTERED-STATE SENSORS

CRV, symbolic meaning, and expanded perception:

Create a dedicated check-in question:
“Are my impressions symbolic, emotional, or literal?”

This prevents:

  • symbolic overload
  • misattribution
  • psychological drift
  • overstimulation from intuitive practices

Grounding this keeps your intuitive work stable.

Shervan K Shahhian

Recognizing early signs of Psychosomatic Illness:

Recognizing early signs of psychosomatic illness — where psychological stress expresses itself as physical symptoms — can help intervene before symptoms become chronic or disabling.

Early Signs of Psychosomatic Illness

1. Physical symptoms without a clear medical cause

  • “CONSULT A MEDICAL DOCTOR”
  • Recurrent headaches, stomach pain, muscle tension, or fatigue
  • Normal lab tests and imaging despite persistent symptoms
  • Symptoms that move around or change in intensity

Key clue: The symptoms are real, but they do not follow a consistent medical pattern. “CONSULT A MEDICAL DOCTOR”

2. Symptoms worsen with stress

  • Pain, dizziness, or digestive issues flare up during conflict, deadlines, or emotional tension
  • Symptoms lessen when relaxed or distracted

Pattern to notice: “Good days” align with calm periods, “bad days” align with stress spikes.

3. Difficulty identifying or expressing emotions (alexithymia)

Many people developing psychosomatic symptoms:

  • Have trouble naming what they feel
  • Convert emotion into bodily sensations instead
  • Say things like “I’m not stressed, but my body feels terrible”

4. Heightened body monitoring

  • Constantly checking sensations
  • Googling symptoms
  • Fear that something serious is wrong despite reassurance
  • Hyper-awareness of normal bodily signals

This increases anxiety → which increases symptoms → which increases monitoring.

5. A history of chronic stress or unresolved emotional conflict

Common backgrounds:

  • Caregiving burden
  • Long-term workplace pressure
  • Relationship stress
  • Repressed anger or grief
  • Trauma or emotionally overwhelming events

Psychosomatic symptoms often emerge when coping capacity is exceeded.

6. Symptoms appear after a stressful event or life transition

“CONSULT A MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONAL”

Look for onset after:

  • Job loss
  • Divorce
  • Moving or immigration stress
  • Bereavement
  • Overwork or burnout
  • Emotional shock

Sometimes the connection is subtle or delayed.

7. The symptom “expresses” something emotionally

“CONSULT A MEDICAL DOCTOR”

In psychosomatic conditions, the body often plays out an emotional theme:

  • Headaches → pressure, perfectionism “CONSULT A MEDICAL DOCTOR”
  • Neck/shoulder pain → carrying burdens “CONSULT A MEDICAL- DOCTOR”
  • Stomach issues → difficulty “digesting” stress “CONSULT A MEDICAL- DOCTOR”
  • Fatigue → emotional depletion “CONSULT A MEDICAL DOCTOR”
  • Breath tightness → fear or suppressed panic “CONSULT A MEDICAL- DOCTOR” 

These metaphoric links aren’t diagnostic, but they are clinically common. “CONSULT A MEDICAL DOCTOR”

8. Improvement with psychological intervention

  • Relaxation, grounding, or mindfulness reduces intensity
  • Talking about underlying emotions reduces symptoms
  • Supportive relationships improve physical well-being

This is one of the strongest confirming signs.

9. Multiple symptoms in different body systems

“CONSULT A MEDICAL DOCTOR”

Especially:

  • GI symptoms “CONSULT A MEDICAL DOCTOR”
  • Cardiovascular symptoms “CONSULT A MEDICAL DOCTOR”
  • Neurologic symptoms “CONSULT A MEDICAL DOCTOR”
  • Muscular symptoms “CONSULT A MEDICAL DOCTOR”

When symptoms jump between systems, it often signals a stress-response origin. “CONSULT A MEDICAL DOCTOR”

10. Inner experience of “I can’t keep going like this”

People often recognize their own internal limit:

  • Feeling overwhelmed
  • Emotional numbness
  • High irritability
  • Sleep disruption
  • Feeling disconnected from yourself or your body

This “threshold state” is a precursor to psychosomatic expression.

How Some Mental Health Professionals Rapidly Screens for Early Psychosomatic Patterns:

Emotional triggers: “Do your symptoms get worse during stress?”

Timeline: “When did this start, and what changed around that time?”

Somatic focus: “How much time do you spend thinking about your symptoms?”

Medical rule-outs: “What has been medically evaluated?”

Stress load: “What are you holding in that feels heavy or unresolved?”

This gives a quick differential picture between medical and psychosomatic factors.

Shervan K Shahhian