This technique was Presented by Reinette Steyn to the Psychology (PsySSA)Conference in Cape Town on 13 Aug 2009.

Whether big or small, Trauma has always implied disruption of our sense of being “OK”.

The German word Traum means Dream, suggesting an experience in Dream State, or Nightmare, if you will.  Traumatic experiences generally have dream state power: symbolism, irrationality, unpredictability, polarised effects, and 2-dimensional characters – good or bad, victim or perpetrator.

Psychoanalyst Melanie Klein held that the Imagoes or mental representations we create of people who have in some way damaged us, are far fiercer and more relentless than the real life people on whom they are based; they are indifferent to all others’ pain or even delight in it.

I believe the same holds true for damaging or threatening events or experiences in general. 

They seem one-sided and overpower us with their unmittigating attack – Nightmare stuff.

The counter-balance for a nightmare, with all its vivid imagery, movement, unpredictability, and frenetic action, can’t be just a calm dream.  We need a similar strong arousal level as that of the trauma or nightmare experience, one that would stimulate the release of large quantities of positive neurochemicals to neutralise or displace the negative ones.

We need colour, movement, rush of action, stimulation of all senses, and exuberant energy in our healing imagery.  Let’s call it a Brightmare!  A wonderful, bright, positive dream state experience, with imagoes as impossibly real and incongruous to everyday experience, as those of negative trauma states.

The changing of the brain state to a positive but aroused state is an important intervention since we know that our brain functioning is so-called “State-Dependent”:  It is very difficult for us to access positive memories or habits if we’re feeling depressed, or calm memories or experiences if we’re feeling anxious, or powerful feelings when we’re in a trauma-induced powerless state.  And since the brain appears to prioritise highly aroused states as mode of ensuring survival, we need to create a similar level of arousal priority for the brain to change to a more positive and powerful state of functioning.

Different de-briefing therapies appear to have 3 common elements in their various protocols:
1]  Re-visit the traumatic experience in minute details, accessing all 7 senses, and replay with different perspective and speeds.
2]  Re-frame aspects of the experience so that they are more empowering & validating.
3]  Generate a containment / safe space experience.

In EMDR the protocol typically ends with 3 containment steps:
a]  De-potentiate the threatening negative imagoes, for instance by putting them into a Perspex bubble, or a composting tank, or shark cage.
b]  Anchor a feeling of being protected through a suitable image – blue light, angels, huge dog, etc.
c]  Help client to create or access a Conflict-Free Image [CFI].  Examples from patients include floating in a dam, playing with their dog as a child, flying overseas on holiday, throwing clay at opponents across a stream, giving birth, a secret place in a garden, etc.

Making light of actual traumatic events [big or small] is likely to be harmful, invalidating the painful experience, causing repression of the negative impact, and hugely annoying the defensive or protective ego-states, which may have disruptive and damaging consequences…

But we can speed up the process of re-empowerment and stabilisation of the self by enlivening the safe space imagery to create an effective counter-balancing “Brightmare” to the trauma-bad dream experience.  We do this through adding incongruous, laughter-evoking imagery to the client’s CFT or safe space.

Example:  To a young rape victim’s Safe image of eating ice-cream on the beach, one ciould suggest that the “ice-cream baby” had a big protector ice-goose that would nozzle her neck with its flat orange beak, and tuck her under its belly to keep her safe, till she sneezed so hard that it somersaulted backwards and looked very funny trying to regain composure.  Experience shows that clients, old or young, keep remembering the incongruous image and e laughter thus evoked seems to speed up the creation of efficacy and normalcy neuronal pathways.

We can thus play the role of movie or dream state director, generating strong and vivid positive states, to create an exciting Brightmare through suggesting additions to patient imagery, using the following tools:

- Add colour, brightness, temperature, physical comfort – or even slight discomfort such a tickling, texture, smell, taste, sounds.
- Enlarge the protagonist/s [including the Self] to absurdly huge size in relation to other elements or characters.
- Add incongruous characters, actions, occurrences, and situations.  It should end up being “silly” and laughter-provoking, while remaining reassuring and protective.
- Add fast movement, unexpected behaviours or events, dramatic, positive action, and make sure the client is part of the action in a powerful way.

Benefits are numerous, for instance:

- Neuro-chemicals evoked by laughter and energetic imagery create a brain state in which it is easier to recall victory and positive experiences, in contrast to the disempowering state created by traumatic experiences;
- Re-association to three-dimensionality of one’s life and reintegration of positive life experiences into the life narrative can occur readily;
- Through the balancing of Nightmare Dream States with Brightmare Dream States, normalcy is validated and permission is given to the self to laugh and experience happy feelings “in spite of” negative experience, etc.

The possibility for selection of possible characters and events is endless:  Why can’t the Elvis impersonator surfing on a Harley Davidson bike near the person’s safe place not have a mouse with long green eye-lashes playing ego-strengthening songs on the red lacquered guitar across his back, while the foam that shoots up from the Hog comfortingly tickles the client’s cheecks?

As long as the characters and events maintain the client’s sense of safety and security, and integrity of self, and add humour and some form of reconnection to happier or more ppowrful experiences, anything is possible.

(Note:  In fact, the name does not do justice to this technique: skin-tapping [tactile] or auditory stimulation on both sides of the body have similar results to eye movements.  Some people use the terms  “Bi-lateral” or “Bio-lateral Stimulation” instead of EMDR.)

Psychoanalyst David Grand calls this phenomenal and highly efficient new form of psychotherapy “Emotional Healing at Warp Speed“.

I was very dubious when I first heard this description but over the past four years of using EMDR an average of three to eight times a week, this flattering description appears to be quite justified!  My colleagues who also have advanced training in EMDR and who use it, frequently, agree.  In some cases, people have been in psychotherapy twice or thrice a week for many years without much alleviation of their suffering; often, after only one or two sessions of EMDR, their whole world can feel more comfortable, more friendly, more accepting, and much much safer.

From the field of Psychoanalysis concerns sometimes are expressed about psychotherapies that appear to work much faster to alleviate distress and specific symptoms: are the changes in the patient real and lasting, or do they just bring temporary relief at the superficial level, with the symptoms soon to be replaced by others?

EMDR is considered the most thoroughly researched form of psychotherapy yet.  Through such modern developments as PET scans, we can actually see how effectively this therapy helps to process traumatic experiences in the brain as the activity of the brain shifts in the course of a single set of eye movements from the right hind brain area to the left and right frontal and temporal lobe areas.  The changes in sensitivity to triggers, in conclusions about self and world and future, in the sense of security and safety of self, and in self-worth, appear to be permanent more than a decade after treatment!

 How does it work?

Traditionally, the therapist sits quite close to the patient and, after a protocol of several questions, asks the patient to open his/her eyes and follow the therapist’s hand which is waved to and fro.  The length of a set of eye movements is determined by different factors such as the patient’s level of distress, a certain length of time felt by some practitioners to be adequate, non-verbal signals from the patient suggesting a readiness for feedback, or indications of stuckness in a thinking-loop, etc.. In some situations practitioners use 24 to 50 movements to left and right each, as the basic set; sometimes the set can run for many minutes.

After each set, the patient is asked to give some feedback, which is written down by the therapist for later connections or reference. 

Certain specific interventions called “Interweaves” that have a specific therapeutic stimulus quality, are sometimes added before the next set of eye movements commences.  Very impressive results are obtained with specialised Hypnotic interweaves [see Maggie Phillips's work in this regard.]

The process continues until all aspects of the presenting problems situation are dealt with, or until a significantly lower level of distress is achieved.  If this does not occur before the end of the therapy session, the patient is helped to access a safe and peaceful, conflict-free image or situation, which helps to contain anxiety and distress until the next session.

It is remarkable that during a session, often a single set of eye movements creates sufficient processing for the patient to feel immediately calmer  in mind and in bodily symptoms of distress.

Some EMDR therapists do not use their arms to facilitate eye movements, but instead make use of machines with lights that flicker to and fro for the same effect.

For persons with lights-sensitive eyes, or blind people, one can also use auditory or tactile stimulation.

How long does it take?

The length of treatment is determined by many factors: for instance, whether the patient has had previous unresolved traumatic experiences, the age and personality of the patient, whether other persons had been hurt or killed, and especially whether there was a single-event trauma, or whether the trauma was of long and ongoing duration (such as physical, emotional, or sexual abuse over time).

Single-event traumata tend to be resolved quite effectively in 2 to 3 double sessions of EMDR, even such horrific for them to as being gang-raped, or being held hostage during a robbery with a limpid mine to one’s head, or being hijacked and shot, or having somebody throw themselves in front of your fast moving car or train…

For persons whose childhood was sufficiently traumatic for them to have developed a so-called Personality Disorder, 6 to12 months of once-a-week sessions can allow similar permanent changes to occur in the personality, as what may be found in three or more years of twice a week, or even thrice a week sessions of some of the psychoanalytically orientated psychotherapies.  It must be noted though, that for such severe problems situations, one can only engage in the acceleration forms of therapy (like EMDR or hypnosis) within a stable therapeutic alliance, and when the patient has sufficient external support for the distress that might need to be managed.  It might take several months, therefore, before one actually introduces the patient to EMDR, and there may be breaks of a week or more between consecutive sessions of EMDR, to facilitate processing and/or stabilisation of the patient.

What does it cost?

For adults it is often necessary to commence with one or two longer sessions of about 100 minutes each.  Medical aids now allow for a double session per day.  Even if the therapist gives a considerable discount for the double session, you may have to pay some extra money out of your own pocket for one or two sessions.  Thereafter, it is sometimes safe to continue with normal 50 minutes or 60 minutes sessions.

 Some therapists are prepared to work at medical aid rates but many psychologist specialists in EMDR are also prepared to offer substantial discounts, e.g. for cash payments.  You may inquire about cost when you make initial telephonic contact.

What are the side effects?

Usually, for about one day after the first session you may find an increase in symptoms (for instance a patient who requires therapy for binge eating, may have the desire to binge even more than usual for a day or so after the first session, before the symptoms tend to be alleviated significantly).  Many people also feel quite tired and drained, or may have a headache after the first session, mainly because they access strong emotions and may even cry quite a lot doing the session.  A restful evening and perhaps some over-the-counter medication for headache tend to alleviate these side effects effectively.

I always advise my patients about what they can expect so that we can choose a time for the first session — and sometimes for subsequent sessions, when their lifestyle can allow them the necessary periods of recovery.

As with any psychotherapy, people might also feel strong emotions like anger towards persons who have injured them — which may be a problem if you are living in the same house, or working in the same office, as these persons.  The therapist can help the patient to be alert for such reactions and to find ways of managing the situation until the emotions are processed.  Fortunately, in EMDR and hypnosis, such processing can occur much faster than in some other psychotherapies.  Irrationally strong emotions tend to abate very quickly during a few sets of eye movements. 

Which problems can be helped with EMDR?

People who have had the opportunity to use the power of EMDR either as patient or as therapist, are in agreement that this is the most powerful form of psychotherapy for disorders like PTSD (Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder), every kind of phobia, loss and grief due to death or illness and even decision-making in the present.  The healing that occurs both at symptom and deeper personality layers seems to be permanent.  Using EMDR even after single-event traumata does more than just restore the patient to previous levels of functioning;  the conclusions about self and world that change during EMDR, tend to generate to many other levels of conscious and unconscious experience, as evidenced by anecdotal report from patients, as well as by observations by clinicians, and friends and family of the patient.

Using EMDR in conjunction with other psychotherapies, such as Psychoanalytic Self Psychology, Client-Centred therapy, Schemata therapy, other forms of cognitive and/or behavioral therapies including group therapy such as Psychodrama, various forms of Hypnosis, body-orientated therapies such as Thought Field Therapy (TFT) and Emotional Freedom Technique [EFT], appears to speed up the process of healing dramatically and facilitate lasting strengthening and cohesion of the self.

I have found EMDR to be a powerful tool in just about every form of distress that clients have brought to my consulting rooms:  anxiety and panic attacks, distress about arguments in the home, depression and mood swings, postnatal depression, decisions about things like changes in careers, whether to stay with or separate from a partner, physical illness of all kinds, recovery after surgery, preparation before surgery or other medical treatment, and all kinds of compulsive disorders including substance abuse, eating disorders and even Trichotillomania (hair-pulling).  I must point out that there is not much literature on the successful use of EMDR in compulsive disorders, and for such disorders I always use it as part of an integrative psychotherapy approach for the specific problem and the specific patient. 

Also note that EMDR is not a magic potion: it is not comfortable to work through and process the problems that have shaped us to the personality, with its specific defensive structures, that presents for treatment.  EMDR sessions are anything but peaceful and calm; the work is painful and tiring for the patient.  But the surgery we sometimes have to undergo for physical healing is also not fun: it can require the anaesthetic to make the pain manageable, as well as considerable recovery time.  Compared to that, EMDR can be defined in terms of “a lot of healing in the long-term is worth a little bit of pain in the short term”.

You can find out more about EMDR in books by, for instance, Dr David Grand or by the originator of this remarkable psychotherapy, Francine Shapiro, or on the website for the EMDR International Association (www.emdria.org).

Clients in the Western Cape who wish to find an advanced practitioner of EMDR close to their home or work, can phone Reinette Steyn at her Milnerton practice
(Tel +27  021  555-4248  Office hrs;  GMT +2)

 A panic attack is one of the most frightening experiences you can have. Most patients consult psychologists only after they have been tested in many ways for angina (heart attacks) or other serious diseases. Many patients also resent receiving a psychological diagnosis when their symptoms are painfully real at a physiological level.
The fact that a panic attack has its origins in psychological rather than physical distress, does not mean that the symptoms are not real. However, the good news is that virtually every one who suffers from panic attacks can be helped through psychological means to gain complete control over their disorder and never suffer severe symptoms again.

The following steps have been found to be essential for speedy and effective mastery of the symptoms of panic disorder.

1. Have a thorough physical check up: because the symptoms of a panic attack can be indistinguishable from other serious disorders, like heart attacks, it is important to rule out the possibility of physiological reasons for your symptoms.

If your doctor feels that the symptoms are not due to a psychological illness, consult a psychologist or a psychiatrist who has been trained to give you the following corrective treatment steps.

2. Every one of your distressing symptoms needs to be listed and you need to be given a thorough understanding of how your brain and body has worked together to create the symptom. You need to understand why your brain and body found it necessary to create the symptom so that you can help your mind and body to remove the symptom. All symptoms are there to protect you and only when your mind understands why they are inappropriate, will they be easy to remove.

The good news is that almost all of the patients who have consulted me for panic attacks, were able to overcome their disorder and control their symptoms after only two sessions: in the first they learn how their brain has produced the symptoms and in the second session they learn how to take the symptoms away.

3. The next step is much easier and far less scary than it might be to read it here: the therapist will demonstrate how to create the symptoms and how to take them away through a technique called “over-breathing”, supported by some other common relaxation techniques. The patient is then helped to do the same, i.e. bring on the panic attack symptoms, then take them away, quickly and completely - usually this second step takes only three and a half minutes!

Usually after this session, patients can manage the symptoms quite adequately. However, it is always useful to know why the symptoms started in the first place so that one can avoid a recurrence, and so that one can pay attention to the correction of the distress which underpins the panic symptoms, which should lead to increase general psychological well-being. While not everyone can afford the extra sessions that it might take to correct underlying trauma for panic symptoms, I recommend that you prioritise your emotional well-being as soon as you are able to do so.

4. Fortunately, uncovering the psychological origins of various psychological disorders can these days be done more effectively by a variety of acceleration techniques, such as working with Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing [EMDR], imagery, dance, art, psychodrama, hypnosis, eye movement therapy, thought field therapy, and other holistic medical techniques like massage and pressure point stimulation.
At the same time, it is important that you learn a variety of ways of managing stress more effectively, and caring for yourself - physically, emotionally, socially, spiritually, professionally, etc - more appropriately: This is how we grow stronger.

Will the removal of panic symptoms interfere with “long-term” / psychoanalytically orientated psychotherapy?

In my opinion, no. In fact, in my practice I have found that the removal of symptoms like these has only benefited the longer term therapy. There are many benefits and not all may be understood by the lay reader but I will mention a few: the symptoms and discussion around the symptoms can actually distract and prevent progress at a deep psychoanalytic level; removal of symptoms can be experienced as a “gift” which facilitates deepening of trust and dependency allowing fruitful work on the many so-called “Transference” issues that arise; feelings of empowerment and efficacy strengthen the ego, allowing for difficult work to be done in the therapy. If necessary, such special sessions may be arranged at different times and days than the sessions of more psychoanalytically orientated work — a consideration that is also useful when, for instance, a sudden traumatic event in a patient’s life may need specialized intervention, such as eye movement therapy [EMDR].

So, how and why does the brain create panic symptoms?

The little story I will tell here is not strictly scientific, just a brief paraphrase of the information I would share with a client in my office in such a manner that he or she can easily relate to the complex workings of the human brain. Similarly, the drawings here are not scientific but basic diagrams to help you understand how magnificent a feat of survival it is for your brain to be able to produce such symptoms.

The diagnostic manual for psychiatric disorders has a list of about 14 symptoms that are common to panic attacks. In private practice clients commonly report the following, which I have arranged loosely into groups according to survival function:
(Remember that the main survival behaviour was either Fight or Flight, but sometimes to Freeze was also a survival tool — for instance, if you needed to appear dead to fool a predator.)

• Group 1:
dizzy; faint; headache; nausea; suffocating; choking; grey vision

• Group 2:
palpitations; sweating; shaking; tingling; hot flushes; chills; clammy skin; over-stimulation

• Group 3:
chest pain; belly cramps; dry mouth; urge to urinate or empty the bowels

• Group 4:
feeling dissociated, un-real or de-personalised; loss of focus; “frozen” thoughts; racing thoughts; “floating”; dis-equilibrium

• Group 5:
FEARS: dying; having a terrible disease; appearing foolish; being helpless; loss of control; going crazy

A bit about the brain:

In evolutionary terms, for almost all their time on earth, most creatures that had a brain, did not have the thick white and grey covering part of the brain, full of folds, that we have come to associate with pictures of the human brain (cortex, or neo-cortex). We now know that every one of our emotions and therefore of our emotional reactions, originates in the very old part of the brain, the slight bulge at the top of the spinal cord and a few surrounding bits of brain tissue right at the base of the brain: the medulla, pons, midbrain, hypothalamus, thalamus, hippocampus, basal ganglia, amygdala and related areas (see diagram 1).

This part of the brain is so old that it can be referred to as the “Reptilian brain” — the part of the brain in fact that had already developed in reptiles millions of years ago. You can’t reason adequately with this part of the brain, just as you can’t really reason with a shark or a snake: that part of the brain functions something like a reflex, e.g.:
     See movement > think Danger > bite…
     See movement > think Food > attack…
     Hear movement > think Danger > escape… (etc).

The Grizzly bear

I have made up a little story that is true in spirit though not in essence (after I became fond of my little story, I found out that the appropriate survival behavior when a Grizzly bear confronts you is in fact not to fight or to flee, but to freeze, so it should really be a Black bear, but a Grizzly sounds far more scary!).  It’s about what ancient man — as ancient reptile — may have experienced repeatedly over many centuries until his emotional and physiological responses to this kind of fright became a fixed pattern to which he in voluntarily reverted in “panic” situations.

Remember that when our reptilian brain evolved, there were no such dangerous events as traffic jams, Windows crashing, budgets not balancing, public speaking competitions, being laughed at because mother dresses you funny… so our brain reacts to terror and anxiety in the same way it would have to react to the Grizzly — even though this is usually inappropriate for the modern day stressors. It reacts in the only way it knows how to ensure our survival: it prepares our body to fight physically, actively, or to run away, physically and actively. And this mechanism of survival is a miracle, not the awful experience we’ve come to define it as. So, re-think your symptoms in light of this story, and be prepared to admire the genius of your mind!

THE PUNY HUMAN AND THE MASSIVE GRIZZLY

When fighting a Grizzly (or when running very fast away from it!) the most important organs in the body are the big muscles, and all the organs that helpful them function optimally.
What these muscles firstly need is a lot of oxygen, so much in fact, that if we don’t use it, we get oxygen poisoning. Now, those of you who have had some experience of poisoning, for instance food poisoning, will recognise the symptoms under group 1 as typical of poisoning. When we are afraid, we immediately and involuntarily begin to take in slightly more oxygen than what we can use if we are not actually using big muscles to fight or flee. We “hyper-ventilate” or “over-breathe”.
That is why over-breathing is the method we use to demonstrate how we can create or bring on the symptoms of a panic attack. (And that is also why the first method of correction is always to decrease the oxygen and regulate the breathing… for instance, by using a brown baper bag into which we can breathe, allowing us to take in slightly more carbon dioxide and slightly less oxygen until balance is restored.)

The muscles secondly need a lot of energy, in the form of sugar (glucose) and other nutrients which are carried by the blood to the big muscles. Since the digestive system itself uses most of the energy that it provides in order to function, the digestive system has to shut down to allow the energy to be diverted to the big muscles. This results in various uncomfortable situations, for instance, a build up of acid in the stomach or spasms of the bowels, which may be felt as severe stomach cramps. The acid may also push up the tube back to the mouth — the oesophagus — causing it to burn and spasm severely, resulting in pains that are indistinguishable from, for instance, a heart attack. Other symptoms from group 3, for instance a dry mouth, are associated with the shutting down of the digestive system.

Because oxygen and nutrients are brought to the big muscles via the blood, our circulatory system also undergoes some changes: the heart has to pump harder to get more blood to the big muscles and we tend to become very scared when we hear and feel it beating agitatedly in our chest. Our blood pressure and our pulse rate increases dramatically, which we also tend to associate with having a heart attack: and even doctors can make this error in diagnosis unless they check their findings with tests such as ECG or cardiac enzyme tests. Blood vessels also retreat from the surface of the skin to the deeper muscle layers (which incidentally also helps prevent our bleeding to death should Grizzly scratch us with his terrifying claws!): this results in two symptoms: clammy skin and “pins and needles” or tingling in the extremities (fingers, toes, nose, etc.). Some of the other symptoms in group 2 are also associated with the circulatory system changes.

But having all this blood and energy is not get enough: in order to fight or flee effectively, we need qualities like aggression and tenacity in the face of extreme danger… we need the natural steroids that our body produces when the need to exert ourselves physically, dangerously exciting things like adrenalin and other scary sounding body chemicals/hormones like catecholomines! It is further also important for us not to feel too happy or too “chilled” when we have to fight the Grizzly, so the body tends to decrease the “feel-good” chemicals like our natural antidepressant serotonin, especially with continual or chronic stress. Natural occurring morphine may be increased to help us to survive the pain of the attack, resulting in sluggishness, headache and nausea after the presumed attack of the Grizzly is over.

The dissociation feelings in group 4 may indicate a freeze reaction — and people suffering a panic attack in the middle of a crowd, or when having to use a lift, often find that they physically freeze as well. But many of the symptoms can also be learnt responses of the conviction that one is completely helpless in the situation, powerless to change one’s reaction to the stimulus. Symptoms like racing thoughts are indeed functional when one is trying desperately to find an appropriate escape route out of the forest covered mountain where several Grizzly bears are ganging up on one!

I hope you can now appreciate that every one of your symptoms is necessary and highly adaptive in the primitive situations of danger where they were learnt so as to ensure your survival!

But it is also true that you do not need these particular reactions in most of the situations that today create the feeling of panic and the symptoms associated with it. We have to re-train the reptilian brain, and fortunately it is really easy to do so! All it requires is a few repetitions of new habits of reaction.

THE CURE:

With the help of a therapist, you can learn quickly how to manage the symptoms of the panic attack when they first begin to be observed, so that they do not need to develop into a full-blown panic attack before you counter them. I believe that you will then soon be able to re-associate the stimulated feelings resulting from adrenalin, oxygen etc. associated with a panic attack, with a pleasant excitement that you have experienced so many times in your life already when you actually enjoy an exciting event or a physical activity such as a game of soccer, or getting the last strokes of the painting you have created just right!

The following steps are all important:

1. Stop the oxygen poisoning by controlling your breathing. For instance, use a brown paper bag or substitute object, or rhythmical breathing (like Yoga breathing exercises), e.g. breathe in slowly on a count of 4, then hold your breath for two seconds, then breathe out slowly on a count of 4, then hold your lungs empty for two full seconds; repeat this pattern for about eight minutes and you should find that all or almost all of your symptoms have disappeared!

2. Move the big muscles vigorously — even if you just march on the spot, or tighten and loosen your arm and leg muscles while standing or sitting still, to combat the effects of excitement chemicals.

3. Focus on something interesting or humorous to interrupt the fear cycle.

4. Do a relaxation exercise such as a four minute self hypnosis or autogenic training exercise.

5. Use appropriate psychotherapeutic techniques such as eye movement therapy [EMDR] to address the causes of the disorder and to help the brain to re-frame and reorganise its responses to stressful events.

The hunting season’s now officially declared open: Go catch yourself that Grizzly!