Supplementary Content – We Are Superpowered

Comic book heroes gain their powers in three different ways.  Some are born with powers; Wonder Woman, the X-Men (and women!), Eleven in Stranger Things.

Others choose to be superheroes, building skills and technology to defeat villains: Catwoman, Batman, Iron Man.

Then there are those who are subject to harm, causing them to develop powers. Wanda Maximoff, manipulated into being experimented on became the Scarlet Witch. Marc Spector’s mother abused him, causing his Being to split into different parts; an Egyptian God superpowered him and he became Moon Knight.  Doctor Strange discovered his potential for magic after a car accident crushed his hands. Peter Parker was bitten by a spider, giving him superpowers as Spider-man.

Spider-Man’s powers included; a “spidey sense" alerting him to danger, super strength, fast healing, super agility. But it wasn’t all easy.  Spider-man had to learn to control his powers, had difficulty with relationships, and had daily challenges.

Comic book heroes are fictional, but there remains a deeper truth that our bodies become superpowered when they detect we are unsafe. During a threatening or harmful situation, our body deploys the Five F superpowers; Fight, Flight, Freeze, Flop or Friend, to keep us safe.

Like Spider-Man, adrenaline and cortisol will rise dramatically to enable us to fight or flight. This gives us the stamina and power needed to resist the threat. We will become hypervigilant, so we can sense what the threat is going to do next.

Freeze or flop immobilises us, preventing us feeling or being consciously present until the threat is gone (the fancy name is dissociation).  When threatened, Doctor Strange dissociates to see alternate timelines to help the heroes win the battle.  Dissociation is a bit like a combination of time travel and invisibility.

Just like the Scarlet Witch, who created a whole world of friends to overcome the threat of her husband dying, Friend allows us to remain calm and unflustered, seemingly unaware of the threat.

Like Moon Knight, if we are subject to ongoing serious harm, particularly in childhood or adolescence, our superpowers may include our Being separating into different parts to safeguard our most vulnerable parts.  Some of these parts may talk to us or tell us what to do, trying to keep us safe.

If the bad stuff ends, our bodies have gained superpowers.  Even though the threat is now gone our body might have got used to using the superpowers.  It might go into overdrive if our newly acquired “spidey sense” (AKA hypervigilance) tells us there’s a threat.  We might find ourselves stuck with different parts, hearing voices, or feeling numb.

Our body might try to distract us from the bad stuff through overwork, sleeplessness or embracing chaos; so we never have to look back at the pain of what was done to us.  Our body might try to comfort us through things like alcohol, drugs, food, gambling.  If the pain gets unbearable self-harm or considering suicide may become ways our body tries to take back control.

There are lots of people who’ve spent their lives being relatively safe.  They’ve always had their needs met.  They’ve never been subject to a serious threat.  Their body is not superpowered.  These people will have a “safenormative” perspective.  They presume that it is normal for everyone to be relatively safe.  They may not accept that we’re superpowered.

Instead, they think we are broken. Through their “safenormative” lenses, these people may think we’re ill, and we may end up with a diagnosis or medicated.  It might be that we take on their ideas about us.  Instead of thanking our body for protecting us during the bad stuff, we feel like our body let us down.  It didn’t fight back, say no, run away, or do whatever else we think it should have done..  It does weird stuff that gets in the way of everyday life.  We hate what our bodies does and see it as broken and wrong.

However, our body has always been trying to protect us.  If we fight our body, we become an enemy to ourselves. Instead, we can thank our bodies for trying to keep us safe.  We can work towards owning our lives.

If our bodies start to know they are safe, they will only use the superpowers when we’re in actual danger.  In learning we are safe, we may no longer need the strategies we’ve been using to distract from the pain, comfort ourselves, or feel in control.

Life is definitely more difficult with superpowers (even for Wonder Woman!).  But by thanking our body and working towards our body knowing we are safe, we can move forward.

We are not broken.  We are superpowered.  And that is okay!