Season 2, Episode 2

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Self-identified squishy meat bags, Jason (guest co-host), Karen (host), and Jonas (OTCTBT Steering Committee member), discuss trauma with Registered Clinical Counsellor, Sabine Sasakura. (Go to 18:51 for the squishy meat bag context).

 

Starting with trauma referenced in the Deconstructing Your Inner Asshole episode and including the birth of children, the crew discusses how our daily lives are affected by trauma including what the fight/flight/freeze response looks like on a work site. They discuss anger and resentment. Karen lightbulbs at the given definition of resentment: when you’re mad because you didn’t make or keep your own boundaries. Sabine helps us understand how we subconsciously experience trauma when we’re working in a place that is inherently physically or socially dangerous.

 

Jason identifies the foundation of anger: fear, and the group squirms a bit at the truth of it. We connect to themes in Kale’s Story of ‘fit in or fuck off’ and how that culture can also cultivate subconscious trauma. Jonas elaborates further on how his trauma manifests into physical symptoms. The crew discusses how substances both hurt and help our symptoms and the way our understanding of substance use is changing toward medically-researched supports for our trauma.

 

The discussion wraps up with how do we change the conversation around the negative parts of this sometimes-traumatic culture?