Where the wild things are
Last night my wife and I went to a lecture by Joseph LeDoux, the author of The Emotional Brain and the Synaptic Self. His research has primarily focused on understanding the emotions of fear and anxiety through animal models, and how these emotions impact memory. 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. There were many take home gems from his talk, but the ones that have stayed with me the most are:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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 someting 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.
- 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 does’nt exist.
- The work of psychotherapy is about our neocortex learning to exercise control over the evolutionary old emotional systems – over the amygdala.
So, translation 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.