Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) When in a traumatic situation the brain doesn’t have time to respond in the way it usually processes information, because the situation may be life threatening or challenge fundamental beliefs about ourselves. What the brain does is release a chemical that shuts down communication to the thinking part of the brain, from the instinctive part that controls fight/flight. The part of the brain called the thalamus triggers this as it is like a gate keeper, watching out for threat, problems occur when threats are perceived where none are present. We want this to happen if we are in a life or death situation as we need to just react, not think about what we have to do to react, i.e put one foot in front of the other to run, we just want to do it, in order to save our lives. What that means is the events that happen just get ‘filed’ anywhere and not stored through the usual process of committing something to memory, for example, you can reme
WHAT IS FIGHT OR FLIGHT? Fight or flight physiology is the body’s natural alarm system that indicates that there may be a danger present. Unfortunately, evolution dictates, because is it better to respond to something that isn’t threatening than to not respond to something that is threatening, our brain is unable to differentiate between actual and perceived threats. When we go into the fight or flight state a chemical is released in the brain that shuts down communication with the frontal lobes, the ‘thinking’ part, because if it is a life or death situation we just want to be able to react, not stop and think about it (this is what can cause PTSD but I’ll explain that another time). In order for our bodies to react we need to get the energy to the extremities so our heart rate increases to pump the blood out to the arms and legs in preparation to run or fight. We don’t need to waste energy digesting food, so our bodies evacuate anything in the duodenum or oesophagus, fe