Brain State 5

Over the past decade neuroscience has shown that what's important is the perceived threat, not the objective threat. Stress can be psychological, metabolic or physical and it is still stress; the downstream chemical effects are the same. Meaning that there is no difference between the chemical cascade that is triggered by being chased by a lion and by a rejecting lover.

They both can send you to Brain State 5.

Let's focus on this brain state. Brain State 5 is what is a full blown stress response, that feeling that your life is on the line, so you are confused, overwhelmed and will do whatever it takes to . . . .survive.   The emotional brain and the neocortical brain tend to "split", that is, the reptilian brain is dominant, and the neocortical brain is less necessary. It doesn't help us to reason or talk to the lion chasing us. By the time we put together a well-constructed rationale for why he shouldn't eat us -- we'd already have become lunch.

One way of thinking about the brain is that it reflects evolution. The reptilian brain is the most primitive and that is considered the lower part of the brain and its core. As mammals evolved, they required a longer period of gestation and the capacity to live communally, and the limbic system or next layer of the human brain developed. That limbic brain is the seat of emotions, relationships, spirituality and reward. Instead one type of brain replacing the other, they actually just add new layers.  So instead of a mammal having a different brain than a reptile, the mammal has the reptile's brain with another layer on top of it.  Like wise, humans have both the reptilian brain and the mammalian brain but grew a new section called the neocortical brain, the seat of consciousness, planning and decision-making.

Each of these brain areas has different strengths and it is how the whole brain works together -- neural integration -- that supports our survival. The neocortex enables us to think magnificent thoughts, the limbic system to love and the reptilian brain responds to stressors with amazing speed, adjusting bodily processes to offer the best changes of survival from the hungry lion -- and all its metabolic and psychological substitute.

When the brain perceives a survival level threat, it shifts the flow of energy toward the more primitive areas, so that we can marshall the quickest response and fulfill our first purpose which is to survive. Brain State 5 and the Reptilian portion of our brain takes over.  This is because our minds think that our survival is in danger and decides to shut of our ability to be creative or sense others emotions and instead just focus on making very quick instinctive decisions.  When this happens our ability to process emotions and our ability to rationally think stops because we are not using that part of our brains. It triggers an "allostatic circuit", a wire that activates memories formed during another period of stress, and since the brain tends to generalize, we are triggered. That lover her leaves a morning note, saying we are not quite enough, is a stressor that activates a circuit that lands us in Brain State 5. That's the initial stress. Memories or wires are "state specific", that is, we are more likely to arouse other memories that were stored in that state, even though they don't "match" the current situation. The secondary stress, the arousal of wires that amplify the stress experienced, is not experienced as a memory. There is no "source attribution" or feeling of remembering something. However, the wiring from being rejected by other loves, the school yard bully, a critical teacher, and, of course, mom, dad and siblings is aroused. Again, we don't sense that we are remembering, but nonetheless, the wires cause us to overreact. We didn't like the lover that much anyway, but you'd never know it. We plummet to Brain State 5, and it feels as if our life is on the line.

In Brain State 5, it is perfectly normal and universal either to be hyper-aroused or blank out. Thinking is irrational. We are confused. Emotions are extreme or strangely absent. Intimacy is impossible to find. Our use of other people is for our own survival, not the sweet flow of empathy and compassion. In 5 we do not share, unless we give to get. We tend to merge or distance, and spiritually we are lost, as if there is no coherence of awesome force on the planet, or we use religion in unspiritual ways. Our behaviors are extreme, and whatever we attach to -- as we can't attach to our inherent goodness -- tends to be addictive. We can easily become attached to that negative mood state, finding comfort in the familiar of being hostile, depressed, panicked or ashamed. We can't get pleasure from natural sources so we have unstoppable drives and cravings for artificial rewards.

What do we need in that state? We need to calm down that circuit because once triggered, often we can feel that rumbling inside for hours or days or weeks. The tool we developed for this state is The Damage Control Tool. To learn more about that tool, look for a future posting on "Understanding The Damage Control Tool."

In the meanwhile, one of the most powerful things you can do when in Brain State 5 is to understand that it is just a brain state. It was triggered by a faulty wire. It is not you!