Rachel Ritan was a budding figure skater who struggled with performance anxiety. She experienced the same frustration about her behavior as author Gemma Hartley did after taking an epidurals. To Rachel, that skater who was having a panic attack seconds earlier was as much of a stranger as the raging incredible Hulk was to mild manner David Banner.
When mild-mannered David Banner gets mad he transforms into the raging Incredible Hulk. Dr Laurie Santos loves this comic book tale - because it reflects real life. Intense things like anger, pain, even hunger, can cause us to act in extreme ways that we might not predict beforehand or forgive afterwards.
When we're in so-called "hot states" we might become a total stranger to ourselves. This can have a serious impact on our happiness, by stopping us properly planning for how we'll react to strong emotions and causing us to be unfairly harsh on our inner Hulks.
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