FACING YOUR “JUMBIE”

“You can’t live your life until you face your Jumbie”

I still remember the episode as clearly now as the day it happened more than 70 years ago. I was about 10 years old and I was staying with my family in Mayaro, a small, picturesque fishing village in the southern tip of Trinidad. It was full moon and everyone was getting ready to go down to the beach to catch crabs as they migrated inland. I was deathly afraid because I had heard that ‘Douen, the local Jumbie’, a mythical spirit of the local Caribbean culture, comes out at full moon to snatch and eat young boys. It took Jacob, the kind caretaker of the compound to persuade me to go with the others. He reminded me of the above quotation, an old Caribbean Island proverb, and the fact that unless ‘I am able to face my jumbies, I will never be able to live my life.’

As I grew up, I learnt over and over again, the truth of this statement, on the countless occasions when I came face to face with the obstacles and challenges facing myself and others around me.  In some of them I was able to face and successfully overcome my ‘jumbie’ and that made me proud of myself. But on others, I unfortunately succumbed to the threats, and subsequently paid the price. These experiences have all left indelible images on my psyche and have served to produce the person I am today.

They confirmed to me the wisdom of the statement often repeated by the incomparably successful entrepreneur, actress, television and talk-show pioneer, Oprah Winfrey, that:

“The thing that you fear most has no power over you.

It is your fear of it that has the power; Facing the truth really will set you free.”

         No human being is immune from experiencing fear. In fact, humans are genetically predisposed to experiencing fear as a normal response, but how they react to fear is what determines the difference. Fear is basically an intrinsic and protective evolutionary instinct embedded in the human psyche and designed to ensure survival of the species. The problem arises when we lose control of this instinct, either as a result of inadequate defense mechanisms, or of saturating exposure to threatening situations. When this happens, the body’s natural inhibitory ability and basic control is lost, resulting in being left to the mercy of these unharnessed anxieties.

          Be that as it may however, for the individual who unfortunately is a victim of these events, life can be extremely challenging. At its worse, it can literally consume every moment of one’s life, rendering it a living hell, and occasionally forcing extreme measures including termination of life itself. In my many years in medical practice, I, like all my medical colleagues, have witnessed countless examples among our patients. In fact repeated studies have supported the suggestion that directly and indirectly, this condition is responsible for the majority of visits for medical assistance.  It causes far more morbidity, increased visits, exaggeration of symptoms and prolonged recovery than any single factor in medicine. At home, it causes severe disruption of life and of relationships, often leading to conflict and dissolution of the family. This will often taking place even though the patient and family recognize the facts and what must be done, but are still unable to do anything to curtail the outcome.

There is only one way to successfully deal with these fears. They cannot be suppressed, ignored or willed away, and any attempt to do so might at very best, provide momentary relief while serving to aggravate the situation by further reinforcing its power. L.L. Cool J, the very popular actor and rap artist, gave the right advice when he said,

“Stand up and face your fears or they will defeat you.”

There is an underlying current of low self-esteem that underpins all our feelings of fear and inadequacy that must be addressed before any change can take place. This must begin with Insight Formation, understanding and acknowledging them and recognizing the hold they have. Until this happens, no progress can take place. This should be followed by a process of Reciprocal Inhibition, where there is a conscious effort to face them and replace them with positive alternatives. By thinking positively and by replacing pessimism with optimism, it is possible to change the way you perceive things and this will result in a change of your life. This process is necessarily slow and tedious and requires on-going commitment by the patient to stay the course.

In the end, I can do no better than to recall the famous statement of one of America’s greatest industrialist, Henry Ford, when he made the following comment based on his own experiences that:

"One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do."
                               

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