The Myth of the Amygdala Hijack and the Real Role of the Habenula

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Hey, my friend.

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Welcome back to ADHD,

powerful possibilities.

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It's Katherine here.

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And this week we are going to

be doing a bit of myth busting.

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I know that in the past, I have

used the term amygdala hijack

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when I'm talking to kids.

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Clients, even myself.

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And it's a really popular phrase that

lots of people discuss in psychology.

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It's become quite common to think about

this amygdala taking over your brain.

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But what if I told you that's not the real

story about how our brains and our bodies.

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Process emotion and stress.

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In today's episode, we're going to

have a look at why this idea of an

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amygdala hijack is not really right.

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And introduce you to another less famous

part of the brain called the habenula

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When we understand the real players

and our brain, when it comes to

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emotional regulation and stress.

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We then have the information

that allows us to decide how we

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manage ADHD more effectively.

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And it means we're better able to

resist those old unhelpful stories.

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We tell ourselves about not being very

effective, not being very well organized.

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All these old stories

that we carry with us.

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Are easier to reject when we understand

what's happening in our brain.

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So, if you're ready to reframe

how you think about your brain.

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Your emotions.

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And you want to learn something new.

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Stick with me.

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The idea of the amygdala hijack

was popularized by Goldman and his

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incredible book, emotional intelligence.

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I have so much time for that book.

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And it really is important that we

understand how our emotions are.

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the root of all the problems

we have in ADHD really.

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The amygdala hijack was a great

way to explain a concept that made

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sense to so many of us, a bit like

rejection, sensitivity, dysphoria.

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It gave us a reason why we just lost

it and our emotions seem to take over.

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And it helped us to respond more

kindly to young people when they

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were going through the same thing.

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The idea is that in moments of perceived

stress, when we think, we see a bear

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or the boss that we've been avoiding,

or the person we had an argument with.

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The amygdala.

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Which is the part of our brain.

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We were told as responsible for the

fight or flight response takes over.

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And it literally flips your brain so

that the prefrontal cortex or the logical

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planning organizing part of your brain is.

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No longer in charge and you can

run away or you can fight back

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or you can hide and freeze.

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It's a really compelling metaphor.

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Right.

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But it's also over simplified so much.

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That we're missing

something really important.

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There's a whole network of areas

of the brain that are involved when

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we perceive stress and deal with

something that triggers our emotions.

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One of the key players is a

really tiny part of your brain.

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Just underneath the limbic system.

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Called the Habenula

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and it plays a huge role in how we process

information and respond emotionally.

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It's really connected

to dopamine production.

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And a study in 2014 by Proux

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the habenula is particularly involved

when it comes to aversive stimuli.

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That means when we anticipate

something being hard or painful

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or difficult, we will avoid it.

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And it influences whether we

withdraw or stay in a situation.

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. And our habenula, the lateral part of it.

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Is also involved in reward processing.

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So we already know from Dr.

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Nora Volkow studies that our dopamine

processing is differentour reward,

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anticipation, the value of things.

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It's very different with ADHD.

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But now we're seeing that the habenula

is also strongly connected to this.

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And this is true, whether we are

feeling AOK or whether we are

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actually clinically depressed.

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and remember

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People with ADHD are at three times the

risk of serious clinical depression.

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and, one of the reasons why I wanted to

change the narrative about the amygdala

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hijack is when I first heard about it.

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To begin with.

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I thought, oh, this is great.

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This explains so much.

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And then I felt like there was a bit

of my brain that was out of control.

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That I was being taken over

that I had no autonomy.

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And I don't know about you,

but I have a fair bit of demand

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avoidance, and I really like to be

in charge of my own brain and body.

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And I was not comfortable

with this idea that I had no

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way to control that response.

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It's again, a bit like rejection,

sensitivity, dysphoria.

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Yes, it exists, but I don't want

to feel like I'm a victim of this

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in the same way as I don't want

to be a victim of my amygdala.

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And I imagine it like.

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That wild puppet in the Muppets

who would bang the drums.

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When we understand the role of the

habenula, and what's actually happening

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to the amygdala in that moment and how

it's all part of our executive functions.

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And it's a hot circuit, but it's not

cutting off any other parts of our brain.

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We can feel more in control

and we can use strategies

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scaffolding from my favorite word.

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To help manage this.

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So, what is the Habana?

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And why should you care about it?

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It's so tiny.

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It's really, really

small, even for the brain.

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It's job is to process negative outcomes.

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And regulate how we respond to them.

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It's think of it, like kind of

valuator it's constantly checking.

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Whether something is rewarding

or if it's too punishing.

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And then it guides our future behavior.

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Accordingly.

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There are several studies showing that.

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Overactive or hyperactive is linked to

this negative and avoidance sensitivity.

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And there are studies that show

a, hypersensitive, habenula.

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, which is what many people with ADHD.

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I have is linked.

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To a heightened sensitivity

to negative experiences.

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Everybody would have the same

experience, but if you have ADHD or

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you have a hypersensitive, habenula.

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You are much more likely

to avoid that in future.

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And I know lots of us have

children or work with young people.

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You will recognize is that.

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Incredible determination not to

do something that was negative.

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And so it's strongly connected with the

avoidance behavior that we see in ADHD.

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Aand, I would suspect an autism.

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I have not studied.

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The research in the autistic,

habenula connection.

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In 2010 Hikosaka pointed out how essential

there habenula is for stress response.

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And in value based decision-making.

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Can you see how this is really

important information for those

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of us who somehow feel that we're

broken, that we are not quite right.

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That actually, it's just

a part of our brain.

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For people with ADHD, what does this mean?

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It means we are more likely to interpret a

negative experience in an exaggerated way.

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other people might say,

ah, that was half bad.

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We're like, no, that

was at least a hundred.

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We see everyday stress as a significant

threat, and then we avoid it.

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Even when it's only remotely negative,

we will delay, we will procrastinate.

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We will do all of this.

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And it's an emotional reaction.

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Determined by your habenula will.

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which is a bit on the sensitive side.

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And that's why things like a

single email feels like a threat.

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Logically, we know there is no danger from

this email or this report or this person.

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But our brain doesn't.

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So in ADHD the habenula can play a really

important role in that negative spiral,

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we sometimes find ourselves going into.

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If you're struggling to

break out of a bad mood.

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It could be that the habenula

is still on high alert.

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It's why small mistakes feels so big.

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and important..

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It's literally biology.

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Rather than you as a

person and who you are.

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Let's think about that in practical terms.

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imagine you've been putting off a task.

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It's quite difficult.

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the habenula is involved in deciding

when we do the task, how we feel about

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the task and how difficult or dangerous

that task is, how negative it is.

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It keeps sending a signal.

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This task is negative.

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It's hard.

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And that is why over time.

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These things become an

automatic negative response.

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It's not that you're having to do

this from first principles every

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time, but your brain loves habits.

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Your brain loves predictability.

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Yes, we love a bit of novelty.

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But for the habenula

no, we did this before.

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I remember six months ago.

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This was really hard.

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I'm not doing it again.

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And then it's not just that one

task you're avoiding anything that

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is similar enough for your brain

to put it in the same bucket.

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You're going to avoid that too.

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For example.

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I.

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Really strongly dislike making phone

calls almost to a ridiculous degree.

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And I will put it off

for weeks and months.

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And I owe so many people, a callback.

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It's not that I don't want to, but

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in the past, the discomfort

felt like it was just way out of

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proportion to what the task was.

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And then when I began to

understand my brain, my ADHD.

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I recognized this was an emotional

reaction and it was the habenula

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just trying to keep me safe.

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And when I understood that I was

able to begin changing my behavior.

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And changing how I thought and talked

about it, which I want to come back to.

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For example.

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now we understand what the habenula.

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Is doing.

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One of the most powerful things

we can do is how we reframe.

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That information.

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No CBT has a very bad rap

among the ADHD community.

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And there are some people who

should not be doing ADHD, CBT.

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However it does have good

evidence when it is done well.

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And when it's designed with

enough autonomy and support

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and with the ADHD, lens.

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For example.

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And this has kind of CBT, but it's

not really, cause I don't do CBT.

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But when my brain immediately

says I can't do that, it's hard.

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A CBT type of technique

of reframing would be.

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Okay.

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This feels hard.

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It's not really.

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So what other, way can

be used to view this.

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This is new.

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This is something I haven't done before.

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This was something that was

challenging in the past.

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But I did it before.

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And I can do it again.

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It's not a quick fix by any means, but

we can start to do that for ourselves.

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That reframe, that changes viewpoint.

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Is really powerful when we practice

it, because over time, your habenula

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is going to get used to not reacting

in this enormously exaggerated way.

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Another thing we can try is to, if

you like switch off the negative

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part of the habenula by creating

lots of positive reinforcement.

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No.

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I'm not a fan of the word positive,

but in this case, yes, we want

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to go for positive reinforcement.

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It doesn't need to be food-based I'm

obviously thinking about treating my dogs.

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But it does help because it starts to

change what you associate that task with

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instead of the email being connected with

shame and guilt and that negative emotion.

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If you have a thing set up where you

can send an email and then you have an

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automatic confetti button that goes,

and I do have that on my computer.

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You think, oh, I got some confetti

or I know there are programs

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for an animal darts across the

screen, when you tick off a task.

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Those are silly, but my goodness.

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they work.

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Other times you might want to say,

I'm going to do is a laundry putting

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away, and then I'm going to have.

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10 minutes in the garden, or I'm

going to have a really lovely cup

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of tea, whatever floats your boat.

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It needs to be something.

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You perceive as enjoyable and you

need to connect it immediately to

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the task that you see as a negative.

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If there's any delay.

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It's going to be really challenging

for you to make that connection.

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And it's going to take the longer.

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So immediate small rewards connected

to perceived negative tasks.

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Is going to change that

response over time.

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Remember your brain always

changes is neuroplastic forever.

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Just maybe not quite so.

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Amazingly as when we were young.

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My old favorite

mindfulness and meditation.

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Of course it affects your habenula

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and 2016 that meta analysis by V Hoff

showed that meditation and mindfulness

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significantly affect ADHD brain function.

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Specifically the areas

associated with stress.

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These present moment.

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Practices.

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Allow you to step out

of those negative loops.

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Those negative spirals and reconnect

with what's actually happening right now.

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Finally, some people have tried

exposure or desensitization practices.

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I'm not a psychologist.

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And I feel like that's a

psychology type of practice.

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What I would offer though, is that if

you want to try any kind of exposure.

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Or desensitization.

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The person doing it must be in charge

of how much, how long and how far

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they are exposed, because otherwise

all you're doing is reinforcing this.

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Something really negative is

associated with this stimulus.

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So if you are somebody who

is very scared of traveling.

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And this is a tricky one, but there

are special courses at airports.

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No.

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You don't.

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I get over that by going on a plane.

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It's not advisable.

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But going and looking

at the airport is fine.

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If you feel absolutely fine.

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Go home and then come back again.

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And maybe go into the Concourse

and see people with their bags and

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taking it step by step at your pace.

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When you are in charge.

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That to me is a particularly

important way to think about.

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Turning down that negative stress response

from the amygdala and the habenula..

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Sowhile the

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amygdala hijack makes a really

compelling visual story.

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And.

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Some of you may have

seen my three-part brain.

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Amygdala pop off video a long time ago.

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The real picture is really complex.

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Of course.

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It's your brain.

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But I think when we understand what the

habenula's doing and what its role is.

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We can be much more compassionate

to ourselves and to our brains.

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All of the strategies

that I discussed here.

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with the exception of CBT.

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The exposure.

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Or ones that you can practice yourself.

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And we can begin straight

away so that we start to free.

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Our brain.

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And ourselves from these

constrictive fixed ways of thinking.

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If you've enjoyed today's episode

and you would like to know more about

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things like executive functions.

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You can join my executive

function junction course.

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Thank you so much for joining

me today while we explored the

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wacky world of the habenula

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remember when we understand our brain.

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It's a first step to be able to accept it.

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And work with it in a really

constructive, accepting kind of way.

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If this was helpful, I would be so

grateful for a review, or if you

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want to share it with somebody.

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Subscribe please so that you

don't miss any future episodes.

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And until next time.

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Stay curious.

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stay powerful.

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And take care of yourself.