Book recommended by Eleanor’s therapist
Amygdala makes associations which can be strong and immediate. The amygdala deals in emotions not logic. Cortext can trigger amygdala response but you can’t reason your way out of Amydala response.
You have to breath, calm yourself and then retrain your amygdala by finding triggers and exposing yourself to them with the understanding that you will re-train your amygdala over time.
Sleep, and exercise are important.
A variety of studies have shown that techniques that promote relaxation, such as breathing exercises and meditation, reduce activation in the amygdala
the brain is hardwired to allow the amygdala to seize control in times of danger. And because of this wiring, it’s difficult to directly use reason-based thought processes arising in the higher levels of the cortex to control amygdala-based anxiety.
If you want to change the anxiety you experience, you need to change the neural connections that lead to anxiety responses.
effective approach is using deep breathing techniques
the hypothalamus, a peanut-sized region of the brain that controls a variety of bodily processes, including metabolism, hunger, and sleep
research has clearly revealed is that when the stress response is activated, the amygdala’s signals can influence and dominate brain functioning at all levels, something described by Joseph LeDoux (2002, 226) as a “hostile takeover of consciousness by emotion.
in the midst of a panic attack, there are three amygdala-based coping strategies that will work to calm you down: deep breathing, muscle relaxation, and exercise.
When you feel panicky, it’s important to resist the strong urge to flee the situation. While it’s an extremely frightening and unpleasant experience, a panic attack won’t physically hurt you. In fact, the sensations you’re experiencing are signs of a healthy, reactive body. Escaping the situation may make you feel better in the short term, but in the long run it will reinforce the power of panic attacks and make them more difficult to overcome.
breathing exercises and meditation, reduce activation in the amygdala
Merely altering your breathing and adopting a slow rhythm of deep breathing can be soothing and relieve stress.
most important goal is to achieve deep breathing and relaxed muscles.
key to reducing activation of the amygdala. The truth is, it doesn’t matter whether you attain this state by directly focusing on your breathing and muscles or by imagining yourself in a setting that allows you to relax.
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meditation is also an effective method for calming amygdala activation, particularly when the focus of attention is the breath.
You need to specifically retrain the amygdala if you want to reduce its influence on your brain, emotions, and behavior. By practicing the exposure techniques described in this chapter, you can communicate new information to the lateral nucleus and rewire the pathways associated with specific triggers.
During each exposure, anxiety typically rises, often to an uncomfortable level, and then begins to subside. The key is to let the anxiety response run its course, peaking and then lowering, without escaping the situation. In this way, the amygdala begins to pair a previously feared situation with safety.
New learning is less likely to occur in a brain medicated with benzodiazepines. In fact, research has shown that taking benzodiazepines decreases the effectiveness of exposure-based treatment
don’t leave the situation while your fear is still high. If you flee and then feel relief, you’ll teach your amygdala that escape is the answer.
[avoid] Carrying lucky charms of various kinds
The only way the amygdala learns is through experience. At times it’s going to be upsetting, even daunting. But if you really want to overcome your anxiety, you need to do this difficult work.
the amygdala can be strongly influenced by both exercise and sleep. Exercise has surprisingly powerful effects on the amygdala, surpassing many anti-anxiety medications in effectiveness. Sleep also has a strong impact on the amygdala’s functioning, with lack of sleep leading to heightened anxiety.
If you run or walk briskly when you feel anxious, you’ll make use of muscles that have been prepared for action. This will lower levels of adrenaline and use up glucose released into the bloodstream by the stress response.
exercise can stimulate the cortex in a manner that produces more positive feelings.
interpretations will lead to a different feeling, demonstrating that it is the interpretation, not the situation itself, that causes the specific feeling.
obsessive-compulsive disorder (Menzies et al. 2008). However, this dysfunction need not be permanent. Research has shown that cognitive behavioral therapy can help reduce obsessive symptoms
This difference between your thoughts and external reality is essential to remember because your amygdala may not recognize the distinction.
Recognizing the difference between thoughts and actual events is essential in managing cortex-based anxiety.
Mindfulness techniques, which we’ll discuss later in this chapter, are also very helpful, as they help you build strength and skill in focusing your thoughts on what you choose and resisting the urge to get lost in thoughts that may or may not reflect reality.
eyes play tricks on us, and this can be true of our other senses too. We see the world through our cortex,
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You might be successful in interrupting a thought by specifically telling yourself “Stop!” This technique is called thought stopping. However, the next step is crucial. If you replace the thought with another thought, it’s more likely that you’ll keep the first thought out of your mind.
Playing games, joking, and engaging in silliness are some of the best distractions. Humor is essential in coping with life’s challenges.
Our natural responses to anxiety are to try to escape it or control it, or to get caught up in suffering it. But mindfulness gives you another path, with origins in Eastern practices of meditation an approach of being open to and accepting of whatever you’re feeling.
mindfulness means understanding that all you ever really have is the present moment, and practicing a new way to inhabit and observe that moment: with a focus on allowing, accepting, and being fully aware of whatever you’re experiencing.
relax your body and train your cortex to take on a non-judging attitude, an openness to what’s happening that puts you in the role of peaceful, detached observer, rather than someone who’s struggling with anxiety and its physical symptoms.
acceptance of your experience is the ultimate antidote to anxiety.
The role of the amygdala is to attach emotional significance to situations or objects and to form emotional memories.
Think of potential goals that you have difficulty accomplishing due to anxiety.
the main sources of anxiety in the brain are two neural pathways that can initiate an anxiety response.
Anxiety treatment typically targets this pathway, probably because it’s a more conscious pathway, meaning that we tend to be more aware of what’s happening in this pathway and have more access to what this part of the brain is remembering and focusing on.
amygdala pathway, on the other hand, can create the powerful physical effects that anxiety has
if you feel like your anxiety has no apparent cause and doesn’t make logical sense, you’re usually experiencing the effects of anxiety arising from the amygdala pathway.
you don’t realize that this feeling is due to an emotional memory because the memory isn’t stored as an image or verbal information.
This activation creates a cascade of changes in the body: heart rate increases, pupils dilate, blood flow is shifted away from the digestive tract to the extremities, muscles tense, and the body is energized and primed for action. In response to these physiological changes, you may feel trembling, a pounding heart, and stomach and bowel distress.
If you’re having a panic attack and people try to provide you with logical reasons why you shouldn’t be panicking, they’re essentially talking to a cortex that’s turned
Strategies that directly target the amygdala, such as physical activity or deep breathing, will be more effective,
association is an essential part of the language of the amygdala.
amygdala-based anxiety is due to associations, not logic,
there’s only one sure way for the amygdala to learn: experience
you need not take every thought or emotion you have seriously. You can allow many thoughts and emotions to simply pass without undue attention or analysis.
Worry is the process of envisioning negative outcomes for a situation. Rumination is a style of thinking that involves repetitively mulling over problems, relationships,
rumination will lead to a solution, what actually happens is a strengthening of the circuitry in the cortex that produces anxiety. In addition, rumination has been shown to lead to depression
If you become anxious when you see a growling dog and begin to hyperventilate, that would be amygdala-initiated anxiety. If you’re pacing nervously as you anticipate an important phone call, that would be cortex-initiated anxiety.
always begins in the brain, not with the situation.
including relaxation strategies, exposure to feared objects or situations, engaging in physical activity, and improving your sleep patterns.
variety of studies have shown that techniques that promote relaxation, such as breathing exercises and meditation, reduce activation in the amygdala