Stop Smoking therapy

The primitive mind trio - Amygdala, Hippocampus & Hypothalamus In the last post I described how the brain has two minds: the original primitive emotional mind, and our evolved intellectual mind. In this post I’m going to introduce the Amygdala, Hippocampus and the Hypothalamus which make up part of our brains known as the Limbic System, bang in the centre of our primitive emotional minds The central figure of the Limbic is the Amygdala, well actually we have two – they’re either side of the brain, about an inch (2.5cm) in from our temples and about the size of a small walnut. The Amygdala is described as the ‘fight or flight’ or sometimes ‘fight, flight or freeze’ part of the brain. I like to think of the Amygdala as the lookout, or security guard of our brains – as that is what it’s constantly doing. It’s there for our self-protection and works 24/7. Let’s imagine a wild polar bear walks in! The Amygdala screams “Bear, Bear!!” and instantly checks with its neighbour – the Hippocampus. The Hippocampus is like a library for all our stored behaviour patterns and experiences, which pattern matches the present event with past events and give us guidance for how to deal with it. However due to past distortions the instruction can sometimes be inappropriate. In the instance of the Polar bear above; the Amygdala will shout to the Hippocampus, who will immediately start looking up all past references to 'Bear', in order to get a pattern match of what to do in that situation. In a blink of an eye it will have found all available answers within the Hippocampus’s library, namely “Get out of there quickly” and in order to do this as quickly as possible the Hippocampus will call to the Hypothalamus for help to do this: The Hypothalamus has heard all the commotion going on nearby in the brain, and on hearing the last request prepares and applies an instant dose of adrenaline & cortisol to help …. The adrenaline makes the heart beat faster and pump nice fresh blood to the muscles so they can work harderand faster, the cortisol increases the body’s awareness and vigilance - making sure that every move that that the polar bear makes is monitored and reported back to the Amygdala -so the Amygdala can, if necessary, escalate the crisis – even more!! So, there we have the trio of primitive brain parts, doing what they’ve always done – acting for our self-preservation, the security guard, the librarian & the pharmacist. Most of the time they work happily together doing their bit for the smooth running of our brain and body. The ‘trouble’ starts when we bypass other parts of the brain and try to get, or allow, these three bits to run the show, without using the skills and resources we have in the intellectual part of the mind. In the next blog I’ll talk about what we do to create the anxiety that causes the shift that can leave the primitive mind in control. Thanks for reading, If you would like any more information or arrange an initial consultation either telephone 01208 628204, or fill out the enquiry form on our contacts page.