Posted: March 22, 2020

Most of the folks I work with get “the talk” about what I refer to as Emotional Flooding. Emotional flooding, aka Amygdala Hiack, aka FREAKING THE F*** OUT (you know exactly how that feels) , is more than feeling uneasy or a little upset. It’s when we feel so overwhelmed by our feelings that we go into fight-or-flight. We can’t think like we want to think, we can’t say what we want to say.

For those who like the science - Emotional Flooding is a biological response. In a lot of ways, it’s done pretty well for us. In our cave-people days it was the response we felt when a saber-tooth tiger wandered into camp….

Fight it. Run from it. Freeze and hope it has T-rex vision that’s based on movement. The danger would (hopefully!) be over quickly and we’d go back to our normal.

But these days, the sabertooth tiger looks a lot different. It’s the fears we hear in the news media, it’s the worry for our family, it’s not knowing if we’ll get what we need when we’ll need it. So, the danger never leaves quickly, it takes up residence in our minds, kicks its feet up, and growls.

When this happens, our heart rate starts to climb. For most folks, when our heart rate exceeds 100 BPM (beats per minute) or about 25 BPM above your normal rate without physical activity, the biological response begins. The first thing that will happen is that your cerebral cortex, the advanced part of our brains that is responsible for rational thought, problem-solving, reasoning, and decision-making, will go “offline”. This part of our brian allows us to think about our emotions, and when we face anxiety that is pretty mild - such as going to our mailbox (for most people. most days) - our prefrontal cortex will override our amygdala and we will process and think about our worries, environment, and potential risk. Then we’ll make a choice. Takes a second or two of processing time.

However, when we are faced with a significant threat, the amygdala takes over. It is the part of our brain that acts on instinct. It is emotionally focused and quick to react. We react quickly and immediately. We may feel intense anger, fear, panic, despair, or hopelessness. It often results in a sudden, illogical over-reaction to the situation. We may say things we don’t want to say, get upset in front of people we don’t to or don’t feel safe to get upset in front of, we may even escalate to emotional or physical aggression. Often, when we act without thinking we regret our choices later.

When our heart rate rises, it signals to our brain that we’re in danger and the amygdala begins to take over. Hormones called cortisol (stress hormone) and adrenaline (fight-or-flight hormone) “flood” our brains and body. Psychologist Daniel Goleman called this “Amygdala Hijack”; psychologists John and Julie Gottman refer to this as “Emotional Flooding.”

So now that we know what emotional flooding is, and we know why it’s there, what do we do about it!

In simple terms, we need to try to get our heart rates down. Once we can get our heart rates consistently below the flooding threshold (average 100BPM), the adrenaline will clear out of our system, and cortisol levels will go down. With practice, many people may be able to do it very quickly. However, it can take up to 20 minutes of heart-rate decrease for our prefrontal cortex to come back “online” and we can think again.

If we’re in a chronic state of emergency, such as we are now, we may be in constant vigilance. A perpetual state of flooding. We may not be able to think clearly, become angry or tearful, and feel overwhelmed without any end in sight.

I plan to offer daily self-help resources that you can use at home. I will try to post one each day Monday through Friday. I will also offer live learning sessions where I will do a walk-through of each exercise and answer any questions on modifications that you can make. The exercises I will share can be used for both adults and children.

In the wake of a pandemic, this is how I know how to serve - being there for others. I know it’s a very small service in the challenges of a pandemic, but I hope it helps all of the same.

Keep well,

-Tara