a note on… sensing threat

notes on freedom

A weekly email series containing easily digestible morsels of info on relational trauma and how to find freedom from it.

THIS WEEK IT’S A NOTE ON…sensing threat

Our amygdala are small pea-sized structures in our brain. Their primary purpose is to detect and respond to threat.

Relational childhood trauma affects how our amygdala develop. Because as children we lived with people who didn’t feel completely safe to us our amygdala were constantly activated (because they were always sensing potential threats).

Over time our amygdala become hyper-sensitive – they trip at the smallest detection of threat. And when they detect threat they set-off our fight-flight-freeze response.

The more threats our amygdala senses, the more we hypervigilantly search for other possible threats. And, of course, the more we search for threats the more threats we see. We become trapped in a painful cycle.

The way we’re relating to the world – hypervigilant and onguard – makes us feel unsafe.

We’re also relating to our body in a way that compounds this feeling. Because we’re constantly looking outwards for threats we’re less and less connected to our body. This disconnection leaves us feeling untethered, ungrounded and unsafe.

But what was learned can be unlearned.

Your amygdala can become less sensitive. The volume of your threat-detection can be turned down. Your nervous system can unlearn old pathways and create new ones.

Freedom from the painful threat cycle is found as we begin to understand that the threats we pick-up on are rarely real. As Byron Katie asks us to consider: is it true?

In the moment, as our amygdala sound the alarm, it’s very hard to allow space for this question. The threat feels too close and too real. But could you take some time now to consider the many times over the past month that you’ve been certain disaster was imminent only to see that there was no emergency?

Looking back now can you ask yourself – was it true?