The Bear
The "Bear" is a unique part of my work with students and clients. You'll see the Bear incorporated in my brand logo, as the mascot of my recovery school, and in various content I create. You'll also hear me reference Bear in our work together, and for good reason. Below is a short introduction to this very important concept and why it matter in recovery.
What is "The Bear"?
In my work, the Bear is a simple way of describing the brain’s survival system, the limbic and threat-detection circuits designed to keep us safe. The Bear represents millions of years of complex survival evolution, and it is the very parts of the brain that benzodiazepines tranquilize to produce a calming effect. However, when this system senses danger, it activates fear, anxiety, physical sensations, and a strong urge to protect you. It can formulate powerful fear pathways that can become stuck in loops of self-perpetuating dysregulation.
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In situations like medication withdrawal, trauma, chronic anxiety, burnout, or prolonged stress, this survival system can become hypersensitive, hyperreactive, and significantly dysregulated. The Bear begins reacting to internal sensations, uncertainty, and emotional discomfort as if they are threats, even when no immediate danger is present.
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This experience can feel overwhelming, confusing, and very real. But it is not a sign that you are broken.
It's important to understand that the Bear isn't a withdrawal. It's our limbic brain's response to withdrawal, and it is responsible for amplifying withdrawal to unbelievable levels.
We use the Bear as a metaphor for our survival intelligence because, like a Bear, the limbic brain has its own unique behaviors, traits, triggers, reinforcers, and ways to calm it. Each of us has a different Bear we must befriend & retrain.
What the Bear is Not
The Bear is not withdrawal itself. Withdrawal is a physiological healing process, whereas the Bear is the nervous system’s reaction to that process. When the system is sensitized, it can misinterpret normal sensations, emotional fluctuations, and uncertainty as signs of danger, even when the body is recovering as it should. The online benzo communities are notorious for triggering and feeding the Bear through the sharing of false information, doom-n-gloom content, and the perpetuation of fear.
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Further, the Bear is also not permanent damage. A nervous system in alarm can feel convincing and all-consuming, but this state reflects heightened sensitivity, not irreversible injury. These responses are learned, reinforced, and — importantly — reversible. The Bear is not your personality, your character, or your true self. Fear can be loud, persuasive, and persistent, but it does not define who you are or where your recovery is headed.
Why Fighting the Bear Makes Things Worse
Nothing elevates glutamate and the excitatory system more than fighting the Bear and the withdrawal & recovery process. This alone can take a very manageable taper and spiral it into something unbearable. This is understandable because the instinctive response to chemical withdrawal fear is to fight it, avoid it, control it, suppress it, analyze it endlessly, or escape it. Unfortunately, these reactions often send the nervous system the message that danger really is present.
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Constant symptom monitoring, reassurance seeking, avoidance, or trying to force calm can unintentionally reinforce the Bear’s alarm — keeping fear and physical symptoms elevated and looping. This isn’t a personal failure. It’s simply how the survival system instinctively learns. However, we can retrain this. For most people, withdrawal doesn't need to be quite so painful, scary, or complex. Learning to speak the language of your limbic brain will allow you to establish a better dialogue, thereby reducing stress response, calming symptoms, and rewiring fear circuits.
Why This Matters for Recovery
When fear remains chronically activated, the nervous system stays locked in a state of vigilance. In this state, the brain prioritizes survival over restoration, making it challenging to regulate sleep, mood, digestion, energy, and emotional balance. The Bear keeps glutamate, histamine, cortisol, and norepinephrine significantly elevated, while suppressing our feel-good chemicals and hormones. He creates powerful, looping pathways in the brain to our symptoms, obsessive ruminations, and crippling fears. This doesn’t mean healing isn’t occurring. It means the system is operating as if it isn’t safe enough to stand down.
Recovery often stalls not because the body is incapable of healing, or because you've permanently injured GABA receptors, but because fear continues to reinforce the stress response. This creates a dynamic symbiotic relationship. As long as the Bear interprets sensations, emotions, and uncertainty as threats, the nervous system struggles to regain stability and to trust its own progress. The Bear takes over, keeping us in survival mode.
Learning how to relate to fear differently — without fighting it, feeding it, or identifying with it — changes this dynamic. When the Bear begins to calm, the nervous system is no longer consumed with protection and can redirect resources toward regulation, repair, and adaptation. Over time, this allows neuroplastic healing to unfold naturally, restoring flexibility, confidence, and a felt sense of safety in the recovery process. As a recovery coach, I can tell you I've seen it produce unbelievable results. I've worked with countless people who were stuck in BIND for years, and have finally gotten moving forward again, and are seeing meaningful progress.
When you're ready to learn more about neuroplastic recovery and the Bear, schedule a session or consultation, or consider joining the Recovery School and going through the Bear Manual modules, or the Four Stage Program.