Since my brain injury I’m not the calm, logical individual I used to be. But it’s not my fault. There is an enemy within my injured brain who keeps taking over. A little sneaky little thing called the Amygdala. This is the Amygdala hijacking.

Amygdala hijack is the term used to describe compelling emotional responses. These are immediate and overwhelming. This is an overreaction to the actual stimulus because it has triggered a powerful emotional threat.

The Amygdala is the emotional centre for the brain and the Cortex is the thinking area.  When there is a stressful situation the Amygdala overrides the Cortex. It does this because it is engaging the “fight or flight” response.

In dangerous situations this helps us to instinctively respond to the threat without having to over think it. But it is difficult to use intelligent reasoning when this happens. Adrenaline is released into the body, and remains in your system for approximately 18 minutes. In English, this means the Amygdala has hijacked the cortex before your rational mind has an opportunity to come up with a rational response.

The Amygdala decides when it is needed by comparing information from our senses, to what it thinks are comparable memories.  Once it thinks it has a match, we go into a Fight or Flight Response. Our nervous system recognises  the stress, and Adrenaline is released to give our body. This gives us the needed emergency energy to stand and fight, or take to our feet and get out of there.