The Taproot Podcast - ☄️Astrophobia: Why are so many trauma patients afraid of space?🌌

Episode Date: September 9, 2022

Find more free resources on the website: https://www.gettherapybirmingham.com/   Our phobias are often metaphors for our most unconscious parts of self. In the 2013 movie Gravity, Sandra Bullock plays an astronaut marooned in space. At every moment she is seconds from spinning into the hopeless oblivion of deep space. Bullock’s character must use her ingenuity to navigate the shuttles and space stations to find her way back to earth. During her time in space Bullock is haunted by trauma from her past. Numerous shots suggest that her time in space causes her to regress to infancy and face not only trauma but primal childhood fear. It’s fairly common for patients with insecure or reactive attachment to have had an intense fear of darkness as children. Some of them still have a fear of the dark as adults. Darkness takes away the control and awareness that our eyesight provides us. Children who learn that mystery and uncertainty are not safe spaces come to fear the dark. It takes secure attachment to learn that we can go into the great unknown and survive its surprises. I work primarily as a trauma therapist and a surprising large number of trauma patients have a fear of outer space. So many that I have started to ask if patients have a fear of outer space when certain things come up in therapy. Patients are shocked that I am able to detect such a specific and seemingly bizarre phobia. Why outer space? We might encounter spiders, or snakes in our everyday routine but outer space is something few people have a direct encounter with. Why do our primal fears manifest as a fear of space? At a surface level it might not seem to make sense. However space is an extended metaphor for many of our most basic fears. For one space is dark. It is cold. It is inhospitable to us. People that feel unwelcome or incapable can project this inadequacy on the impossibility of surviving in space. On another level space represents a complete lack of control and orientation. There is no up or down. Every direction leads to the same hopeless void. There is no gravity. There is no ability to center ourselves. These extreme conditions manifest the lack of our most basic needs for orientation control and power. Most mythological systems begin with a primal void. Water is added to the void and then land. This archetype appears in almost every creation myth. Space represents a reality stripped of the basic elements we need to survive. Space threatens the importance of all the things our ego needs to maintain integrity. Space represents the ultimate existential threat to all of the projects we create and all the things we identify ourselves with to make meaning. The most ambitious human projects mean nothing from the window of a rocket. Even the great wall of china is a thin line. The Vatican is a tiny dot. Our families, our careers, our religions, our sports teams… all of these things fail to matter in the midst of the cosmos. Space represents the ultimate existential annihilation. It reminds us of our ultimate limitations against the enormous scale of the universe. When starting trauma therapy we must find our worst fear in order to confront and overcome it. Many times imagining space is the best place to start because it encompasses so many of our fears. What does space make you think of? What parts of it frighten you?   #space #astrophobia #astrology #trauma #ptsd #therapy #psychology #growth #psychotherapy  Website: https://gettherapybirmingham.com/ Check out the youtube: https://youtube.com/@GetTherapyBirminghamPodcast Website: https://gettherapybirmingham.podbean.com/ Podcast Feed: https://feed.podbean.com/GetTherapyBirmingham/feed.xml Taproot Therapy Collective 2025 Shady Crest Drive | Hoover, Alabama 35216 Phone: [phone] Fax: [phone] Email: [e-mail] The resources, videos and podcasts on our site and social media are no substitute for mental health treatment. Please find a qualified mental health provider and contact emergency services in your area in the event of an emergency to a provider in your area. Our number and email are only for scheduling at Taproot Therapy Collective are not monitored consistently and not a reliable resource for emergency services.

Hi, this is Joel Blackstock with the Taproot Therapy Podcast, and today we're going to talk about why so many trauma patients are afraid of outer space. Our phobias are often a metaphor for our most unconscious parts of self. In the 2013 movie Gravity, Sandra Bullock plays an astronaut marooned in space. At every moment, she is seconds from spinning out into the hopeless oblivion of the deep universe. Bullock's character must use her ingenuity to navigate the shuttles, space stations, and debris in her way to find a way back to Earth. During her time in space Bullock is haunted by trauma from her past. Numerous shots suggest that her time in space causes her to regress to infancy and face not

only trauma but primal childhood fears it is even one reading of the movie that Sandra Bullock coming out of the blackness of space and back to the stability and light of Earth is a metaphor for birth or maybe her rebirth from childhood pain into adulthood. It's fairly common for patients with an insecure or reactive attachment to have an intense fear of darkness as children. Some of them still have a fear of dark as adults. Darkness takes away the control and awareness that our eyesight provides us with. It takes away one of our senses that keeps us feeling the most safe. Children who learn that mystery and uncertainty are not safe spaces come to fear the dark. It takes secure attachment to learn that we can go

into the great unknown universe and survive its surprises. I work primarily as a trauma therapist and a surprisingly large number of trauma patients have a fear of outer space. So many that I have started to ask patients if they have a fear of space or darkness when certain things come up in therapy. Patients are often shocked that I'm able to detect such a specific and seemingly bizarre phobia. Why outer space? We might encounter spiders or snakes in our everyday routine, but outer space is something that few people have a direct encounter with. Why do our primal fears manifest as a fear of space? At a surface level, it might not seem to make sense. However, space is an extended metaphor for many of our most basic fears. For one, space is dark, and it is cold.

It is inhospitable to us. People that feel unwelcome or incapable can project this inadequacy on the impossibility of surviving in space. On another level, space represents a complete lack of control and orientation. There is no up or down. Every direction leads to the same hopeless void. There is no gravity. There is no ability to center ourselves or even find a center within the universe. There is no ability to make meaning out of chaos. These extreme conditions manifest the lack of our most basic needs for orientation, control, and power.

Most mythological systems begin with a primal void. Water is added to the void and then land. This archetype appears in almost every creation myth. Space represents a reality stripped of its basic elements that we need to survive. Space threatens the importance of all things that our ego needs to maintain integrity. Space represents the ultimate existential threat to all of the projects that we create and all of the things that we identify ourselves with to make meaning. The most ambitious human projects mean nothing from the window of a rocket. Even the Great Wall of China is a thin line. The Vatican

is a tiny dot. Our families, our careers, our religions, our sports teams, our armies, our nations, all of these things fail to matter in the midst of the cosmos. Space represents the ultimate existential annihilation. It reminds us of our ultimate limitations against the enormous scale of the universe. When starting trauma therapy, we must find our worst fear in order to confront and overcome it. Many times, imagining space is the best place to start, because it encompasses so many of our fears. What does space make you think of? What parts of it frighten you?

I'm going to end, as I often do, with a quote, this time from John Updike, All in Your Stories, a quote to me that is a reflection on the death of the ego and many of the things that space represents. Without warning, David was visited by an exact vision of death. A long hole in the ground, no wider than your body. Down which you are drawn while the white faces above recede. You try to reach them, but your arms are pinned. Shovels put dirt into your face.

There you will be forever in an upright position, blind and silent, and in time no one will remember you, and you will never be called by an angel. As strata of rock shifts, your fingers elongate, and your teeth are distended sideways in a great underground grimace, indistinguishable from a strip of chalk, and the earth tumbles on, and the sun expires, and unaltering darkness reigns where once were stars. And wow, after that bleak reflection on trauma, space, and death, who would not want more?

You can check out our website at GetTherapyBirmingham.com. I promise that not everything that we put out is this bleak or morose. A lot of it is very uplifting. Although it is honest. you