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358 REVERSIBLE DISORDERS OF BRAIN DEVELOPMENTblunting of emotions through the use of alcohol/drugs, denial, disengagement orresignation, is associated with depression (e.g., Billings & Moos, 1984) and lowerlevels of hardiness (Maddi, 1999a, 1999b).It has been proposed that active coping, both at the time of trauma and uponreexposure to trauma reminders, may impact the neural circuitry of fear conditioning.Active coping at the time of stress or trauma may inhibit the development offear-conditioned responses to the trauma (reviewed in LeDoux & Gorman, 2001).Also, using rodent models, LeDoux and Gorman have proposed that active copingat the time of reexposure to fear-conditioned stimuli may decrease the intensity offear-conditioned responses by redirecting activity in the lateral and central nucleiof the amygdala away from the brainstem and toward the motor circuits in the ventralstriatum. This has the effect of reducing brain-stem-mediated responses to fear,such as freezing behavior and autonomic and endocrine responses. This redirectiontakes place only when the organism is active, not passive, in coping upon reexposure.Active coping reduces or attenuates fear conditioning, and may decrease the intensityof already conditioned associations, thereby reducing the likelihood of developingtrauma-related psychopathology and functional impairments such as avoidanceof feared situations (LeDoux & Gorman, 2001).In addition, active coping can be seen as the inverse of learned helplessness.Animals and humans, in the face of inescapable stress, often develop a set of behaviorsincluding passive withdrawal, resignation, and resistance to reversing anegative experience (Abramson et al., 1978; Seligman, 1972); in short, the organismstops trying to improve the situation or remove the stressor. The phenomenonof learned helplessness is a well-known animal model for depression and isthought to produce a dysregulation of serotonin in the dorsal raphe nuclei (Greenwoodet al., 2003) and a reduction in hippocampal cell proliferation. Becauseserotonin has far-reaching effects in shaping and regulating the limbic system’scircuitry, a dysregulation due to learned helplessness may have serious and pervasiveeffects on mood. Thus, active coping in the face of trauma can prevent theneurobiological disruptions associated with passive coping/learned helplessnessand therefore contribute to a more resilient psychology.Facing FearsFacing fears is another component of the active coping paradigm. As discussedearlier, fear conditioning plays a major role in the development and maintenanceof posttraumatic psychopathology. Individuals with PTSD avoid a wide variety oflife’s opportunities (people, places, events, etc.) that may serve as reminders ofthe trauma; thus conditioned fear is maintained rather than extinguished. Resilientindividuals are more likely to use fear as a warning signal that danger may beimminent, to utilize fear as a guide to accurately appraise threat, and to direct appropriateand adaptive action. They learn and practice skills necessary to movethrough fear and thus extinguish or attenuate the conditioned fear.