To imagine ones “troubles in life” as a horseshoe is to fashion a "Stress/Distress" Curve. Normally, “Too Little” stress in ones life is self-destructive; some, “Just Right”–since it sharpens ones senses into exploring and inventing new things; and “Too Much” stress comes from one or more ‘big bang’ psychic traumas and/or ongoing cumulative microtraumas. Either or both give the Result of a vicious cycle of Self-Defeating Self-Creations. Cumulative Micro-traumas are “repetitive mental and/or physical small traumatic activities extending over a period of time (Bailey, The Handbook for Worker’s Compensation Doctors, p170). These accumulations leave multiple psychic ‘little wounds’ which, in turn, erode (wear away) and corrode (gnaw away) every mental, physical, emotional, spiritual, and soul aspect of a Victim’s Selfhood in layer after layer. Those aspects could be so resistant to healing as to belike a cracked egg continuously oozing out its “yolk”. Such is particularly so in Victims whose “Big Bang” traumas create mental “Raw Nerves” acting as if they are “Inflamed” by a fire. An analogy is a-flamed meteors inside ones mind. This troubled mind automatically causes one to become Self-Absorbed (viewing everything within ones world in relationship to oneself). Simultaneously, one feels “everybody” else is powerful, with all the “right” answers. So, ones acceptance of the best thing to do is in relation to the monitored feedback from ones interpreted experiences with other people and to follow their dictates into External World influences. One gives up who one is. Yet, one never has experiences of ever being fulfilled by what is “Enough,” since one does not know what is wanted.
The “straw breaking the Distressed camel’s back” from carrying ‘big bangs’ and/or cumulative microtraumas is a “Defining Moment”. That collapse ‘flips’ the direction and course of ones life from Good or Neutral over to Bad; or from Bad to “more Bad, more often.” If the Distress occurs in pregnant Black mothers, as was typical of all the Enslaved during slavery, the result is the Fragile Black Baby Syndrome(Bailey, Stopping The Violence). If Distress continues in infants, it can cause slow growth. Later great and continued physical reactions to bad thoughts and hurt feelings show as weight and eating problems in infants—called “Failure to Thrive” (or at any other time in life)–“temper tantrums” in toddlers or in the “Terrible Twos”–bedwetting in kindergartners. Even babies pick up intense stress when it pollutes the atmosphere of a household. Then, upon entering school, aggravations occur—e.g. “will they like me?”—“who will be my friend?”—“can I adjust to being without mom?” Distressed minds show in struggling Black children who have been beaten down by racism in its Overt, Tempered, Masked, or Concealed forms. Next is fighting in adolescents. These, in turn, lead to gradual Selfhood destruction and otherwise prevent one from doing things needing to be done. Struggling Black families’ total dedication to day-to-day survival is a direct consequence of the slavery brainwashed “Stay-In-Your-Place” status quo message. It says: “don’t read”; “don’t get an education”; “don’t try to better yourself”; “don’t be ambitious”; “don’t trust each other or work together to fashion Black Power”; “don’t be uppity” (i.e. do not be like a White man—and morally that is good advice!!); “stay in your place”—meaning Black people should “be about nothing”; “fight among yourselves”; and “spend your money foolishly”. They have found no way to “unlock” this mental prison door. Despite all of the needless bad problems featured in the status quo, most do not want to change since they have built a lifestyle around what is familiar and fear the Unknown.
The expression: "Hope deferred makes the heart sick" was used by the Enslaved to mean it is worse to have had ones hopes raised and then dashed than to have been resigned to not having something at all. They settled with the false: “It’s my Fate!” This crushes the entire idea of having “The American Dream” and is replaced with “Make Do” from day to day. By being brainwashed into falsely believing in their own sub-humanness, many make this a self-fulfilling prophecy in forms ofAggression, Passivity, or being Passive-Aggressive. Bad Environmental influences affecting ones present behaviors combine to act like alarm systems to "Fight, Flight, Fright" threats, disturbances, or dangers, even when the situation is not of a nature requiring self-protection. Such causes chemical brain imbalances which slowly destroy the body. jabaileymd.com; JABLifeSkills; Theievoice.com