One of my favorite chapters in the Emotional Brain is titled “Where the Wild Things Are” which describes the link between what he has learned about the amygdala, hippocampus, and common emotional problems.
Top 5 take-away’s from Joseph’s talk
1) There is evidence that early traumas, even those that occur right after birth, get seared into the amygdala (emotional memory) and stay with us for life.
Even though our ability to remember a trauma requires some development of the hippocampus, and likely does not begin until around the age of three, we can still react emotionally to particular triggers that we were exposed to prior to the age of three even if we have no memory of what happened.
2) Trauma changes the physical brain and how it operates, and in so doing, influences the behavior of the person. People respond very differently to trauma, even when exposed to the same traumatic events.
3) We are hard-wired to respond to threatening situations behaviorally before our rational brain evaluates a situation and makes a determination of whether something is dangerous.This is why we jump back when we see something squiggly on the ground.
It is an evolutionary, survival response. And if the squiggly thing is a killer snake, then good thing we jumped before we thought about it.
4) Traditional anatomy and physiology texts teach that our emotions come from the limbic system. LeDoux’s work has shown that emotions like fear involve many parts of the brain that extend beyond how we understand the limbic system. So…he believes we should do away with the limbic system – it doesn’t exist.
5) The work of psychotherapy is about our neocortex learning to exercise control over the evolutionary old emotional systems – over the amygdala.
For those who struggle with addiction
Addictive behavior can be understood as an unhealthy coping strategy to an amygdala that likely has some emotional wounds. This is why so many relapse prevention programs focus on mindfulness and CBT strategies for behavioral self-regulation.
I continue to believe that all who struggle with addiction can benefit from trauma resolution work.
This makes a lot of sense to me. It reminds me of what a counselor once said to me in my first session of counseling. She said that the issues I struggle with most, the ones that I have been struggling with all my life, will never fully go away. I may learn to manage them, but the initial emotional response will always be there. I believed her. Nonetheless, it is pretty cool to find that science is adding to our understanding of this process.
Dan, I fully agree, linking science and practice is very cool. Your response reinforces the idea that some issues require both management and resolution approaches. Thanks.
J
What makes this subject even more intriguing is that the trauma can be either physical or emotional; the end result is the same – a damaged system that produces unacceptable outcomes. How do people handle those outcomes? Our society tends to deny that the behaviors exist or to medicate folks until they change.
For example, I recently spoke with the Executive Director of the Oregon Brain Injury Association who stated that 80% of children on medications for ADD/ADHD have had a physical brain trauma at some point. What percentage then are exhibiting symptoms related to emotional trauma?
Add another layer to the onion – was it a single event trauma or multiple events from living in a negative environment? Trauma, whether physical or emotional, has a cumulative effect on the performance of the brain.
The lasting effects of trauma even impact the neurobiology, changing the behavior through over-/under-production of dopamine, serotonin, and other neurotransmitters that regulate our moods. Hopefully, the recent advances in neuroimaging will shed more light on how trauma changes not just the structures but the functions of the brain.
This is such an interesting topic that is gaining much more interest in the world of research. Many studies have related early childhood experiences to changes in the expression of genes which affect behavior and fear modulation. Perhaps the prior experiences that change people’s reactions to situations can predispose these people to drug use as a form of self-medication. Eventually, this can lead to addiction.
In order to be able to combat addiction in these cases, it may be helpful to focus on the underlying issues. For example, by working on alleviating stress caused by a situation, a person may not have as great of a drive to use drugs to alleviate the stress. Thus, you are able to decrease the reinforcing effect of taking the drugs.
What makes this subject even more intriguing is that the trauma can be either physical or emotional; the end result is the same – a damaged system that produces unacceptable outcomes. How do people handle those outcomes? Our society tends to deny that the behaviors exist or to medicate folks until they change.
For example, I recently spoke with the Executive Director of the Oregon Brain Injury Association who stated that 80% of children on medications for ADD/ADHD have had a physical brain trauma at some point. What percentage then are exhibiting symptoms related to emotional trauma?
Add another layer to the onion – was it a single event trauma or multiple events from living in a negative environment? Trauma, whether physical or emotional, has a cumulative effect on the performance of the brain.
The lasting effects of trauma even impact the neurobiology, changing the behavior through over-/under-production of dopamine, serotonin, and other neurotransmitters that regulate our moods. Hopefully, the recent advances in neuroimaging will shed more light on how trauma changes not just the structures but the functions of the brain.
I believe with what this post says. Our brains are chemical and mechanic. We train our brain to learn things, memorize, remember. And trauma that occurred when we were younger deeply impacts our lives whether or not we choose to acknowledge it. A certain song, food, the way someone talks to you or touches you can all be trigger s. Our brain is not immune to what were feeling. There’s no way to block out what you’d like to forget unless you deal with it. Because sooner or later that trigger that resurfaces a memory or emotion is going to occur.
We’ve all had those times where something happens or you see something that reminds you of a good time you’ve had. Well it also happens with the bad. Drinking trying to forget about what’s happening or not wanting to remember. Then you’re drinking all the time to feel better and for you it’s a way to forget and ignore what is happening. For others around you they see you’re addicted.
And running from your problems leading to an addiction and that’s the only way you know how to cope, it can be very difficult letting go.
I believe this article points out a lot of good points and that addiction does require management and can be managed. And I hope more people can be open to this.
This post offers a lot of insight for me, however, in my life the idea of trauma is rather weak in reference to my alcoholism. I’ve been struggling with this problem for just over 10 years. I look back at my childhood and I do see key signs that would eventually lead to my situation, but they are mostly signs that would stem from trauma (such as anger, depression, etc). The part that is leaving me with questions is that I have no definable moment in my life that would give me a source to these alcoholic precursors. I do not have any memory of a specific trauma other than being raised by a single mom. After reading through the post, I am left wondering if there was a trauma prior to me being 3, that I may not remember. What I
would like to know is if there is a way, in order to succeed with alcoholism, to seek out what I could potentially have in long forgotten memory?
Thanks for the comment. Not everyone has a deep, dark hidden trauma lurking in the past. Sometimes it is the subtle, developmental constrictions or deficits that come from a parent (or parents) that generationally pass on their own developmental blind spots. When this happens, it can be hard growing up engaging in relationships, and thus alcohol becomes a good social lubricant. Succeeding with ending your problems with alcoholism require, first and foremost, attention to your emotional development. This means going beyond talk therapy and using your body and emotions as guides to healing. Check out http://www.focusing.org and the book Growth of the Mind by Stanley Greenspan – both provide a wealth of information about how to deepen life in a way that ultimately can help you better manage your drinking. Good luck.
J
I have many times before identified trauma especially extreme sexual trauma that occurs to a child like a poker or ice pick into your soul. But it is a silent wound. It hides. If the trauma was extreme enough, one gets to block it out for years and years. Then you get to feel only the pain and the confusion that says you are not shit and you are not sure why. The thoughts and knowledge can hide from the victim for many years. But that poke begins to get infected. It freezes the emotional growth of the person. The sickness from the wound causes more and more pain and noise in the affected child. It is very confusing
The person ceases to grow; only the pain grows. Then one day drugs or alcohol gets introduced. It is a miracle the pain doesn’t hurt anymore. The relief is amazing. The solution to what is a dull constant roar inside your soul and body is not felt. An, addict is unleashed. It doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t have too. The child doesn’t feel the hurt. The shame or guilt for moment in time doesn’t matter.
The goal of feeling nothing is born. The possibility of getting out of your skin is found. I just wanted to go away and I would do anything for that. Nothing else matters. I am numb.
I am curious about the issue of addiction globally. I wonder if the US/Western cultures experience more addiction because we are more disconnected/isolated from our family/community groups (because of work/dislocation/pursuit of money, etc.). Mother Teresa was quoted once as saying “The United States is the richest country in the world and the poorest, because its people have lost a sense of community.” I remember traveling/living in Mexico in the 1980s and while it certainly had its problems (poverty being one), there was a sense of tight-knit family/community bonds. Look at Mexico now and it has imploded — because of drugs, but there must be other strains as well, perhaps what we in the US have imported.
That last post made me think of an article I read in the NYTimes about a professor in Washington who has studied the treatment of schizophrenia in Zimbabwe and compared success rates (success being fewer episodes of relapse) with the US. People with schizophrenia actually fared far better in Zimbabwe – why? It was explained that culturally there isn’t the stigma there is in the US; the disease was not seen as the person’s fault but as evil spirits from the outside. In addition, the person was given jobs and a role in the community and when they were in a down cycle, secluded and cared for. The disease was treated as something cyclical and taken more in stride by the family/caregivers; research has shown that the less emotionally reactive the family is, the better the outcome for family members with schizophrenia.
All of this makes me think of the Create/Manage/Resolve model of addiction — and CRAFT. It seems the outcome for a person with addiction is so much better if 1) the stigma is taken away, i.e., this is a disease not a moral weakness, 2) the family/community is involved in treatment/maintenance and 3) there is less emotional reactivity (but not withdrawal/ostracism) among those who love/care about those with addictions.
This post brings me back to a course I took called “Attachment with your Adopted Child.” The presenter, Ally Burr Harris, a local psychologist who specializes in adoption, gave a short lecture on the structure of the brain using the hand to represent the different parts of the brain. The amygdala was represented by the thumb which was curled up under the fingers and hand (pre-frontal cortex). She then talked about how many times in adoption there is almost always a trauma of separation from the birth mother, even without abuse, neglect or some high drama, which results in some sort of developmental delay in self-regulation. The type of self regulation and how it manifests depends on the age of the child, the temperament, the trauma, etc. but self regulation resides in the amygdala. She spoke about when a kid’s amygdala becomes disregulated, the parents react and meet the kid’s behavior of disregulation with their own adult disregulation and things escalate. This is especially true in adoption where early childhood trauma is very common and the instinctual, react before you think, impulse is very dominant. She gave a technique that she uses with her own adopted daughters when they begin “acting out” and that is she tucks her thumb into a fist and repeats to herself several times: “calm your amygdala, calm your amygdala…” While this is comical, it essentially gives her enough of a pause to regulate herself so that she may respond to her kids in a much more mindful way that will assist them to regulate through her and ultimately learn to do that for themselves.