Ladies & Gentleman, please be upstanding for the primitive responses to fear, the Amygdala. 

The amygdala, an almond-shaped structure served the prehistoric caveman well as an “an alarm system” when out hunting for their dinner. Without this ancient part of the brain responsible for autonomic responses, the first hunting of our prehistoric ancestors would most probably have been also the last one. 

In the modern world, correct me if I am wrong, we’re not facing life-threating dangers when out for dinner. But the amount of stress we live in on a daily basis definitely makes us hyper-vigilant which makes the amygdala overactive. 

The problem with Amygdala, if I may say so, is that it cannot tell the difference between a memory, a thought, a real event, daydreaming, an emotional threat or some real event that has happened in the past.

Which means that when we get stimulated by thought, an emotion or flashback, Amygdala immediately sends an emergency signal to the hypothalamus that triggers a physiological reaction called “the fight, flight or freeze response”. This neurological Crisis Response Center we all have in our brain serves us when we are in real danger but when someone suffers from Anxiety or Panic Disorder it can be deceiving. That’s why it is so important to learn some strategies to manage an overactive amygdala to reduce chronic anxiety and prevent panic attacks. The first step to do calm down your overactive amygdala is to identify your emotional triggers. Next thing to do is to apply one or more calming strategies when you feel like having a panic attack. So let’s do it!