If you have ever seen Inside Out then the the term console will give a different visual in this context. In the movie, they use it as a visual for this… central operating system of the brain. It is a good comparision. They have a lead emotion driving each person whose brain we see. For Riley, it’s Joy. The internet sleuths have noted that for her mom it was Sadness and for her Dad it was Anger.
I don’t think it is talked enough about how for abuse survivors, it isn’t just that Fear is the leader of that console. It is that he is chained to that console. We have to actively fight to saw and melt and break that chain because we don’t want fear to lead any more than it wants to. Yet we break one link and move to the next only to turn back and see something has reforged the one we had just started to snap. It is a truly grueling process that at times seems endless.
To say I have reached its end would be untruthful, but I have started learning how to make some progress. The answer for me has been to stop trying to work the problem alone, or even with a small team. Complex problems require complex solutions. I need someone calming my little purple dude so the red guy can fire up and melt the chain all while someone else is running the console and managing life’s problems. Then I need a couple bouncers saying nah, we didn’t ask for any welders to get in here an make a chain to guard the door Boy would I love a cartoon of that.