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NEW ON THE BEING WELL PODCAST:
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Understanding the Flight Response: Anxiety, Avoidance, and Feeling Safe
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"Flight responses are adaptive, they are an attempt to solve a problem, and that's really useful to appreciate, because sometimes we can feel embarrassed about our withdrawal or other forms of flight behavior as if it's a personal failing, and it's really helpful to appreciate, as a way into the topic, that this is normal, this is understandable, this is the body trying to do the best it can for you, and to give yourself a break."
– Dr. Rick Hanson
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Dr. Rick and Forrest discuss understanding the flight response to stress, which includes feelings of anxiety and fear, avoidant behavior, and an underlying sense of insecurity. They explore the emotions and behaviors associated with the flight response, and how we can build up a stronger, more secure sense of who we are. Rick shares some practical tools that will help you change your self-concept, safely apply principles from graduated exposure, and feel safer from the inside-out.
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Watch/Listen to the Full Episode
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FREE SPECIAL 4-HOUR CONFERENCE
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from the Men and Boys
Compassion Initiative
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Join the Men and Boys Compassion Initiative (MBCI) as we co-create an international movement to help men and boys cultivate their compassionate selves. This also requires the cultivation of courage and wisdom to heal the male crisis of disconnection.
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Check it out FREE!
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ALSO NEW ON THE BEING WELL PODCAST:
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The Psychology of Manifesting: How to Create the Life You Want
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Forrest and Dr. Rick explore “manifesting:” the idea that our thoughts impact the world around us, and by changing those thoughts we can change our lives. Talking about manifesting is complicated, because on the one hand our thoughts really do matter. On the other, manifesting is closely tied to a small mountain of problematic pseudoscience. They discuss and debate some of the issues with manifesting and the law of attraction before focusing on how to apply key psychological principles to create the life you want.
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Watch/Listen to the Full Episode
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ASK RICK:
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Where does the “fight or flight” response come from? Does it have to do with the primitive/reptile brain or the emotional brain?
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These distinctions about the brain – fight or flight response, primitive/reptile brain, emotional brain – are used a lot these days, but they’re inherently fuzzy.
The amygdala does initiate the fight or flight response through inputs into the hypothalamus (triggering the hormonal part of that response) and to brainstem control centers of the sympathetic nervous system (triggering the neural parts of that response). Some aspects of this response are emotional but some are not; and, complicating the distinctions further (among the fight or flight response, primitive/reptile brain, and emotional brain), some emotional shadings the amygdala is involved in don’t activate the fight or flight response. For example, the amygdala is involved in positive emotion processing. Some parts of our emotional life don’t involve the amygdala at all. See the complexities, here, in terms of the categories?
Plus, reptiles have a functioning basal ganglia, which is part of the subcortex on top of the brainstem and very involved in motivation, and to some extent, emotion. In the brainstem, there are nodes that can produce rage and fear, as well as nodes with oxytocin receptors (social system). The brainstem participates in emotion, and the so-called reptile brain is more than the brainstem: so, more complications. Also, the cortex is very involved in emotion, it’s not just the subcortex and brainstem: complications cubed!
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"“Amygdala hijack” just means that the thalamus inputs into the amygdala with sensory information (like positive “carrots” and negative “sticks”) arrives before those inputs get to the prefrontal cortex."
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So the amygdala gets a second or two head-start over the cooler reasoning processes coming down from the prefrontal cortex. Also, more generally, the brain as a whole participates in “emotional hijack” that goes beyond the amygdala alone. The amygdala part of the emotional hijack is often overstated: it’s just a small head start. Still, in cases of prior sensitization of the brain due to trauma, that head start could make a big difference.
Overall, I think there is a natural and fine flow in the culture in which there is an initial enthusiasm for a subject and overstatement and blurring of distinctions, and then a second wave comes through to clarify things. That’s what’s happening with these fields now.
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RICK'S PICKS:
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Pioneering Cherokee Nation Medical School
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In a momentous milestone, the inaugural class of 46 students,
including 15 from various tribes, has just graduated from the nation's first Native American medical school aimed at increasing Native physician representation.
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MindFull of Good is a free newsletter that highlights new and free content from Dr. Rick Hanson and the Being Well Podcast as well as other free offerings to fill yourself up with good.
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