THE PUNCH OF WORDS

In a study with a group of women, brain activity was observed through a semantic session and a physical sensation of pain session. In the semantic session, the women were exposed to “positive words, negative pain-unrelated words, physical pain-related words, and social pain-related words.” The nociceptive session involved a skin activation that could be painful or non-painful. Each participant reported their personal reaction to each condition (Zephr).

Results indicated that many words in the semantic session associated with social pain activated the same areas found for physical pain.

While neural processing of pain due to physical injury isn’t the same as the effect of language, there is an apparent overlap. This is not news for those of us who teach the somatic release of stress due to workplace stressors. We’re well aware of the emotional tension that crams pain into the body.

However, it isn’t just the immediate effects of, for example, micro-aggressions or gas-lighting. The brain can warn us about impending danger or potential injury such as the reflex that keeps us from stepping out into traffic. A quick jolt and we step back to safety. Similarly, the anticipation that something bad is about to go down in the workplace kitchen heightens anxiety. Anyone who’s had negative experiences with insults or “jokes” will anticipate the experiences will be repeated. But it’s not a single quick jolt. It’s a series of shocks that become, for many women, the norm.

This is crucial. Let’s break it down: someone who is told they’re “just imagining” that they were insulted will not only somatically and emotionally react to that slur and the gas-lighting, but will expect their next interaction to repeat the experience – whether it does or not. The expectation of a negative experience, that may or may not happen, will pack the same somatic punch as the actual event did. Worse, it expands the potential future negative experience into anything associated with the original experience.

The ripple effects are significant and the damage is compounded so that it turns into a kind of feedback loop where the prospect of pain confirms fears, anxieties, and stereotypes. And exacerbates the somatic effects into chronic pain, insomnia, and disease. Statistics indicate that women experience depression at roughly twice the rate of men and systemic racism puts people of color at a higher risk for anxiety disorders. Ya think?

So, the already overwhelming work of cultivating authentic, thoughtful, and respectful communication in the workplace must now also address the de-escalation of anxiety, particularly for women of color.

Women of color who have been damaged by thoughtless and hurtful comments, compounded by gas-lighting, have the choice of getting sicker or leaving for less toxic work environments. And bully culture – “it’s just a joke” is also bullying -- doesn’t only damage the individual. It affects anyone who witnesses it. And that, as DEI specialists will attest, pervades the entire work culture and fractures the ability of groups to work successfully in collaboration, problem-solving, creativity and adaptability.

So, the claim that “it’s just a joke” is indefensible. It is, in fact, like a round of poisonous beer. Hey bartender, gut punches and stress-associated diseases for everyone.

NOT generated by Chat GPT

?

Zephr, Paul. “Sticks and Stone Break Your Bones But Words Hurt Your Brain.” ?https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/black-belt-brain/202310/sticks-and-stones-break-your-bones-but-words-hurt-your-brain

?

M. Myriah MacIntyre, et al. “Anxiety-Relaxed Disorders in the Context of Racism.”

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9841144/