Social Safety Theory & The Immune Response

Reference Article Linked Here.

What comes to mind when I speak of Social Safety Theory?

Does a smile come to mind when thinking about family gatherings or hanging out with friends or attending a church service. Perhaps you feel less alone, less isolated.

Maybe there is a sign or release. On the other hand, maybe you think of the dangers of COVID, the challenges of social isolation, the violence within the Country, the wars across the globe, unsafety in our cities, and mistrust in our politics. Who and how we were raised directs our attention toward observations of social safety or social threat.

Longstanding patterns of discrimination and marginalization, or socioeconomic inadequacy, or early life neglect or trauma all lead us to seeing the world through a lens of social risk. Our mind maps our environment, both physical, social, mental, emotional, and builds a perceptual framework within which we live.

The Social Safety Theory describes how our social environment influences our thoughts and feelings which then triggers physiologic processes through our sympathetic nervous system, our stress response, our vagal nerve responses, and our ability to conceive of our world. Social Safety is protective.

Social risk influences the immune system to increase inflammation and allergy while reducing immune system vigilance against pathogens and cancer.

 We human beings work better in groups characterized by love and acceptance, understanding and openness, empathy and compassion. Evoking the opposite characteristics induces disease.

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