CHAPTER XII: The “Snowballing” of Distress
This distressed behavior is bad enough. It is, however, not the last of the mischief. The “thinking machinery” is inoperative once again. Once again information is fed through the sense channels to an intelligence that isn’t functioning.
The information input from this new experience is new. It cannot be evaluated, however, while the rational processes are interrupted. This information input also mis-stores in the same way as the original distress experience.
The effect is as if more random, unevaluated debris clogs more areas of our thinking machinery. One might say that “more gears are jammed,” or that “the booby trap acquires more triggers,” or that “the ten-inch recording grows to a twelve-inch one.” (Fig. 10)
The net effect is that each experience of being re-stimulated or “reminded too much of” in this way leaves the person predisposed to be upset more easily, by more things, more often, more deeply, and for longer periods of time.
The effect is a snowballing one. It is as if the hurt patterns were sticky surfaces which attract and add new sticky surfaces at a geometric rate.