Believed to Death
Believed to Death
“The fear of death may itself be sufficient to bring about death.”
—Walter Cannon
Believed to Death
Walter B. Cannon, a Harvard physiologist and pioneer in stress research, examined reports from anthropologists describing individuals who, after believing themselves fatally cursed, rapidly deteriorated in health and actually died. In his 1942 paper Voodoo Death1, Cannon proposed that extreme fear itself would trigger an overwhelming activation of the sympathetic nervous system.
Those who truly believed—whose voices continually reinforced they were doomed—would sustain a prolonged adrenal overactivation and this subsequently led to cardiovascular failure. As they began to notice symptoms of their curse—the results of their fear—they would see it as confirmation which would scare them further, increase the response, and ultimately cause them to believe themselves to death. Fear can literally kill us, and fear is the backbone to most negative emotions. In a similar study, we have obtained extensive evidence that negative emotions in general are just as deadly.
In the late 1990s, Kaiser Permanente, a US healthcare organization, in conjunction with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) performed a study2 with about 17,000 adults. They were mostly your middle-class, insured, and employed adults—not a high risk sample. They were all asked some questions regarding Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) as illustrated below. As you will see, all these questions relate to negative emotional experiences. How many sections would you have a yes for?
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Questionnaire
Emotional abuse
Did a parent or other adult in the household often or very often:
– Swear at you, insult you, put you down, or humiliate you?
– Act in a way that made you afraid that you might be physically hurt?Physical abuse
Did a parent or other adult in the household often or very often:
– Push, grab, slap, or throw something at you?
– Ever hit you so hard that you had marks or were injured?Sexual abuse
Did an adult or person at least 5 years older than you ever:
– Touch or fondle you in a sexual way?
– Have you touch their body in a sexual way?
– Attempt or actually have oral, anal, or vaginal intercourse with you?Emotional neglect
Did you often or very often feel that:
– No one in your family loved you or thought you were important or special?
– Your family didn’t look out for each other, feel close to each other, or support each other?Physical neglect
Did you often or very often feel that:
– You didn’t have enough to eat, had to wear dirty clothes, or had no one to protect you?
– Your parents were too drunk or high to take care of you or take you to the doctor if you needed it?Mother treated violently
Was your mother or stepmother:
– Often or very often pushed, grabbed, slapped, or had something thrown at her?
– Sometimes, often, or very often kicked, bitten, hit with a fist, or hit with something hard?Household substance abuse
Did you live with anyone who:
– Was a problem drinker or alcoholic?
– Used street drugs?Household mental illness
Was a household member:
– Depressed or mentally ill?
– Did a household member attempt suicide?Parental separation or divorce
Were your parents ever separated or divorced?Incarcerated household member
Did a household member go to prison?
The number of questions marked yes was tallied up to create an ACE score. And then came the health comparisons. The medical records of all participants were compared against their answers and the results were astounding. Each question serves as an emotional tell for disastrous results:
With an ACE score of only 2 or greater, one has an elevated risk of diabetes which increases steadily with each additional ACE value.
An ACE score of 4 or greater was additionally associated with:
1.9x increased risk of cancer
2.2x greater likelihood of smoking
2.2x increased risk of ischemic heart disease
2.4x increased risk of stroke
3.9x increased risk of chronic lung disease
4.5x increased risk of depression
7x greater risk of alcoholism
12x increased risk of attempted suicide
An ACE score of 6 and above increased the risk of suicide attempt from 12x to 30x more likely, and made subjects an additional 10x more likely to use injected drugs. Perhaps the most shocking of all, is at this stage of 6 and above, life expectancy plummets a whopping 20 years. And at 7 and above, suicide becomes 40x more likely.
This data is rather sobering but quite enlightening. The emotional trauma we experience as children appears to have a significant impact throughout our lives. The emotions sit buried within us and quietly guide the stories our voices tell us about ourselves. What is sad, but hopeful, is that it doesn’t have to be this way. These events create the backbones of our moods and expectations and the resulting emotions and stories we tell ourselves perpetually impact our health. So if we change those moods and change those expectations, we could very well move past the trauma without the ill effects. Not only that, but we can possibly even reverse the damage.