Amygdala Hijack

today, I'd like to talk to you about your amygdala

and your amygdala is part of your brain.

Now, sometimes it can hijack your brain and take over

and that's when your emotions take over.

So let's learn a little bit more about your amygdala.

Your your amygdala is located near the base of your

brain and it works with the frontal lobe.

So what's the purpose of the middle?

Um Well it defines and regulates our emotions.

It labels how we feel and helps us to alter

those emotions change those emotions when necessary.

Our model is also responsible for how we respond emotionally

and behaviorally to someone else or to a situation.

Are Magdala also activates our fight flight or freeze mode

when we have danger in front of us, even if

it's perceived danger or emotional danger, we have three months

that we can go into.

We can fight back flight where we run away or

re freeze and we don't know what to do.

And so I made a blood triggers that.

So what are some issues that we might have that

the amygdala could cause for us.

Well some issues would be that it's triggered automatically.

We don't get to choose whether or not.

We go into that mode.

We automatically and that's our survival instincts go into the

fight flight or freeze mode.

And because it happens automatically it can be very difficult

to override in many situations where we perceive danger.

There's not actual danger there.

So we don't need to go into fight flight or

freeze mode.

But once the Magdala has triggered, it's very difficult to

get out of that mode.

So when we do get into that mode, our body

pump stress hormones through our body.

We react quickly and with little judgment and these effects

can last for several hours after that perceived danger.

So you can imagine how if something happened the night

before or even the morning of that we can be

carrying that throughout our day and that influences how we

interact with others, how we perceive things and that once

we are on the edge, if something else happens that

pushes how long we are in this state.

So it can be a continuous process until we are

back into that safe mode again.

So for some people, they are constantly in the state.

And you can imagine how their emotions are overriding what

they do say, think and how can be very difficult

to be rational and understand what's going on.

So now that we understand the Magdala, we know that

it works with the frontal lobe.

So I want to talk to you a little bit

more about the frontal lobe and where that is and

what it does.

So our frontal lobe, as you may have guessed, is

located at the front of your brain and it actually

finishes developing at age 25.

So you can imagine how much further students have before

their brain is even fully developed and it makes sense

why adults are more often to make a more reasonable

or rational decision compared to Children because their brains are

more fully developed.

So what's the purpose of our frontal lobe?

Well, that's what regulates our reasoning, are thinking, the decision

making. So you can understand how important our frontal lobe

says that's what helps us to be rational to assess

the situation and move forward in a safe and rational

manner. Additionally, it evaluates our emotions.

How do we feel right now?

What do we need to do next?

And it uses our experiences and judgment to consciously respond.

Right, this is the thoughtful way of responding.

So what are some issues that could happen?

Well, like I stated earlier, once the amygdala is triggered,

it overrides our frontal lobe.

And so we are no longer able to approach a

situation rationally because the Magdala has overtaken the frontal lobe,

which is our reasonable rational side.

So when that happens and we can't engage our frontal

lobe, that means we are emotionally triggered and were very

quick to react.

We're going to be illogical and we make irrational decisions.

So you can see how that would be a huge

issue. So what are the symptoms of these?

How do we know that we are in a state

of and amygdala hijack wherein fight flight or freeze.

So there are internal symptoms and there are external symptoms.

So let's look at the internal ones.

So internally our brain is releasing stress hormones, cortisol and

adrenaline. Both of those amp up our body and allow

us to fight or run away.

These are very uncomfortable hormones to have in large doses

in our body, they make us not sleep well and

it keeps the Magdala triggered and that is what leaves

us in that kind of on edge state for hours

after that perceived danger.

Once those emotions and hormones are set off, we have

rapid heartbeat because we are, we feel like we are

in danger even if it is perceived and we're preparing

our body to be able to react to what's going

on. Additionally, we get increased blood flow to our muscles

and that helps for the flight.

They're running away portion and that's how we end up

responding. So we have all these internal aspects happening when

our amygdala is hijacked.

Additionally. Externally, what can we see from the outside.

So now we understand what if we are in a

state of that, what does that look like inside of

ourselves? But let's see, we're looking at someone else and

we're trying to figure out what's going on.

So externally, if you're trying to recognize if someone is

in fight flight or freeze mode, we could see some

of these symptoms depending on which path they go down

in the fight flight or freeze.

So we could see dilated pupils because we have a

heightened adrenaline, We have sweaty palms.

If we're in fight mode, maybe we're yelling or fighting

if we're in flight mode, maybe we're running away and

then freeze, we could be crying or not responding at

all. So all of these could be symptoms and help

us to understand that someone is in fight flight or

freeze mode, that the amygdala has been triggered and it

could be overriding someone's frontal lobe and is therefore unable

to make rational decisions from there because you're in a

state of high emotion.

So what's the solution for this?

These are some big topics.

What do we do when that happens?

Well, the first thing you need to do is acknowledge

how your body feels and what it is doing.

Once you recognize what's going on, then you can start

to regain control once you recognize what's going on and

you're able to take action on it.

One of the best ways to do that is focus

on your breathing because you're breathing, calms your body and

your mind and that helps to re engage your frontal

lobe and allows you to start making rational, reasonable decisions

compared to the emotional side.

Once you are in a state of calm and you

have engaged that frontal lobe, you can start to consider

what triggered this amygdala response and how can I control

or avoid that trigger.

So I don't have to keep feeling this way.

Now I know I talked about breathing, but here's some

strategies to help you with that because it's more than

just breathing in and out.

So a lot of times when you're amygdala is triggered,

you start to, your breathing increases right, you get into

rapid breaths.

So the first thing to do is to become aware

of the speed of your breath and work to slow

it down.

That's taking deep breaths in on holding in deep breaths

out. Find a calm natural rhythm that will calm your

body and calm your mind.

This enables you to engage that frontal lobe and ways

to do that is focusing on how your body feels

as you inhale and exhale, become hyper aware through that

process. And that will help to calm down and help

you to be further grounded in the situation.

Okay, so how do we practice this?

What should we be doing?

So those these skills are wonderful to have in the

moment of crisis or perceived danger.

It's hard to pull that out of our toolbox if

we're not practicing it daily.

So even when we aren't emotionally triggered or in a

state of proceed danger, it's important for us to be

aware of our emotions and actively regulate that because when

we are in a state of fight flight or freeze,

it's easier for us to use that skill.

If we are practicing that regularly by understanding this, we're

increasing our emotional intelligence or understanding how our emotions work,

we are more aware of them and before we can

better regulate them and that sets us up for our

brain to be better equipped when the Magdala tries to

override our frontal lobe.

Were quicker to recognize and re engage our frontal lobe

instead of reacting in an emotional and irrational manner.

So big things to keep in mind throughout all of

this as like I stated earlier, the effects of the

Magdala being triggered can last for several hours when adrenaline

and cortisol are pumping through your body.

You will be on edge for a while.

So it's not just I perceived the danger.

Oh I'm okay and I can move on so we

have to be consciously aware So that we don't get

into another state of fight flight or freeze which is

very common when you're already on edge.

One trigger can easily lead into a 2nd, 3rd.

4th. It's also important to remember that when the Magdala

is triggered and we're in that sense of hijack state

that it disables are rational and reasoned responses.

So in order to get ourselves or someone else to

get back to thinking rationally and reasonably we have to

get their Magdala to not override your frontal lobe and

increasing our emotional intelligence can help us do that.

And that's by working on our breathing, being more aware

of our emotions and being able to regulate that.

So what are our next steps?

What do we do from here?

Right. And we've learned all this information.

But what does this mean for me now?

Well for yourself as a staff member, we hope that

this increases your your own understanding of emotional intelligence, not

only for you, but for others that you can understand

better, how your brain works and maybe why you or

others react a certain way.

And hopefully this heightens your own self awareness, that you

can understand that when you're a Magdala has triggered, that

it makes sense why you might act unreasonably or irrationally

because your frontal lobe is being hindered.

The Magdala has taken over.

This presentation also offers us a common terminology and understanding

so that we can talk to each other about what's

going on in our brains and why we react certain

ways. Additionally, we want to encourage you to engage in

self care, right?

All of these aspects are so important to keep in

mind and when our brain is processing so much information

as we do our jobs and we're trying to take

care of students, it's easy for our own self care

to get lost in the mix.

And if we aren't taking care of ourselves, we're not

able to do our job.

Well, we're not able to work well with students were

not able to engage that frontal lobe, right?

And and react rationally.

So please please please take care of yourself and the

Spartan counseling staff would love to help you with that

if you want to talk more about that.

And lastly, for the classroom, what does that look like?

So now that we understand that as a staff, hopefully

we can kind of spread and be a gateway of

that information to our students and when a student is

emotionally overreacting, we can discuss with that student how their

brain is working and how their amygdala or their emotions

are overriding their frontal lobe, their rational thinking there and

helping students understand what's going on in their brain increases

their understanding and once we understand we can regulate additionally,

we're promoting this emotional awareness not only in ourselves, but

also understanding our students and then helping students understand each

other. And then lastly, hopefully, you can walk through these

breathing techniques with a student who maybe is feeling overwhelmed

about how when a students in Magdala is engaged, that

you can help them recognize the pace of their breath,

the speed of that and to be able to lower

that and kind of ground themselves in that moment so

that they can re engage their frontal lobe and they

can have rational, reasonable discussions about what's going on and

how to fix what's going on.

Hopefully this helps you better understand how your brain works,

increase your emotional intelligence and helps us to better interact

with each other and our students.

If you have any questions stop by the counseling office

and we'd love to help

Amygdala Hijack

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