If you ask anyone who’s taken one of my groups, or a therapy session with me, they will tell you that my favorite part of the brain is the amygdala. Now you would think that having an education I would revere the frontal cortex, but the amygdala holds so many surprises and controls our reactions to emotions: emotions mostly based on fear. Have you heard of the “flight or fight” response? Add onto that the freeze response and you have the main functions of the amygdala.

The Amygdala is found in the temporal lobe of the brain. There are 2 amygdalae, one for each cerebral hemisphere. It gets its name from its almond-like shape. The amygdala is part of the limbic system - a group of structures linked to the processing of emotions, again mainly the fearful emotions. The amygdala is involved in identifying threats and initiating a flight, fight, or freeze response. Recent evidence indicates that the amygdala is active during the processing of positive stimuli as well. The amygdala may be involved with assigning a positive or negative value to stimuli and with the consolidation of memories that have a strong positive or negative emotional component. Research continues to better understand the amygdala’s role in other behaviors ranging from addiction to social interaction.

So why is this my favorite part of the brain? Because you can learn to hack your amygdala and rewire your brain to change your reactions to, and resulting behaviors from, negative or positive emotions and stimuli. When the amygdala is stimulated you get a rush of adrenalin and cortisol. Your system is instantaneously flooded with enough of these hormones to allow you to react to whatever the stimulus is. If someone jumps out and yells boo, your heart jumps, and you are instantly able to run, punch them, or freeze in place. The amygdala gave you the hormones you need to do this. If you receive that call that you just won a million dollars in the lottery your heart jumps, and you can leap into the air and run around the house yelling and crying. Again, the amygdala gave you the hormones, energy, and strength to do this.

The downside of the amygdala is that it’s also the part of the brain that causes you to experience anxiety, panic attacks, and physical symptoms of worry. When your brain makes up stories (worries) the Amygdala believes them to be true and floods your system with adrenalin and cortisol so that you are ready for the worst to happen. But those stories may or may not come true and you might have created the perfect scenario for the amygdala, at a detriment to you, to do its job.

The criteria for a diagnosis of anxiety are intense, excessive, and persistent worry and fear about everyday situations. Anxiety disorders involve repeated episodes of sudden feelings of intense anxiety and fear which interfere with daily activities and are difficult to control and can reach a peak within minutes (panic attacks). Anxiety is one of the most prevalent self-diagnoses that I hear from people coming in for counseling.

So how can you hack your amygdala and stop the pumping of stress hormones? The amygdala can be rewired. When you worry and ask negative questions like what if this happens? What if that happens? Ask yourself, what if it doesn’t happen? Keep asking this. Make your brain shut down the amygdala and allow your frontal cortex to light up and think about how to solve the question. The question what if it doesn’t happen triggers the brain to think differently, to solve the question positively. Another way to hack the brain is to desensitize yourself from the stimuli which trigger the amygdala. If your fear is of dogs, you can work with a pet therapist to slowly allow yourself to be exposed to gentle dogs for short periods until you are comfortable being around dogs. This is a simplified example that can take weeks or months, but you get the message.

A favorite quote of mine is, “Fear is not real. The only place that fear can exist is in our thoughts of the future. It is a product of our imagination, causing us to fear things that do not at present and may not ever exist. That is near insanity. Do not misunderstand me, danger is very real, but fear is a choice.” ~ Will Smith, “After Earth.”

You can make the choice to rewire your brain and turn off, or calm, your amygdala by working with a therapist. Why is it my favorite part of the brain? Because it allows us to physically express emotions.

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