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The Myth of the Amygdala Hijack and the Real Role of the Habenula
Episode 3 • 28th October 2024 • ADHD Powerful Possibilities: New and Late Diagnosis & Beyond • ADHD Coach Katherine Sanders
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ADHD Coach Katherine Sanders

Ever wondered if the classic 'amygdala hijack' story really explains your emotional responses? In this groundbreaking episode of ADHD Powerful Possibilities, Katherine dives into the less well-known habenula, offering fresh insights into how we process stress, avoid tasks, and regulate emotions.

Discover why the habenula matters for ADHD, how it impacts dopamine levels and decision-making, and ways to gently reshape your brain’s response to stress with practical, actionable tools. If you’re ready to rethink your relationship with your mind, this episode is your invitation to dive deeper.

Episode Highlights:

  • [00:00] Welcome and Introduction to Rethinking Brain Myths
  • [03:02] Habenula’s Role in Emotional Regulation and Dopamine Production
  • [05:15] Impact of Habenula Sensitivity on ADHD Related Avoidance
  • [10:00] Reframing Techniques & Cognitive Strategies
  • [11:19] Positive Reinforcement for Breaking Negative Cycles
  • [12:58] The Power of Mindfulness & Neuroplasticity in Managing ADHD
  • [13:28] Safe Exposure Techniques for Building Emotional Resilience
  • [15:24] Embracing Self-Compassion and Practical Next Steps

Common Questions Explored:

  • What role does the habenula play in ADHD, and why is it important?
  • How can we use neuroplasticity to reshape our emotional responses?
  • What are some realistic, ADHD-friendly strategies for managing stress and emotional overload?

Key Takeaways:

  1. Learn how a small brain region, the habenula, influences dopamine and task avoidance.
  2. Discover how cognitive reframing and positive reinforcement can reduce emotional spirals.
  3. Embrace practical mindfulness techniques to calm your mind and enhance focus.
  4. Unlock why self-compassion is essential in your ADHD journey.

Join Us Next Time as we explore why traditional 'productivity hacks' and advice often fail ADHD brains!

Connect with Katherine here:


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📘 The CLEAR ADHD Procrastination Cure Ebook – For more on ADHD-friendly strategies.

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💡 Schedule a Coaching Session with Katherine - a one-hour meeting to help you untangle your noodles and make progress on what matters.

📈 Discover your ADHD Growth Archetype Quiz - personal growth looks different when we have ADHD. Discover your best plan forward with my free quiz.

Proulx, C. D., Hikosaka, O., & Malinow, R. (2014). Reward processing by the lateral habenula in normal and depressive behaviors. Nature Neuroscience, 17(9), 1146-1152. DOI: 10.1038/nn.3779 (https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3779)

Veehof, M. M., Trompetter, H. R., Bohlmeijer, E. T., & Schreurs, K. M. (2016). Acceptance- and mindfulness-based interventions for the treatment of chronic pain: a meta-analytic review. Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, 45(1), 5-31. DOI: 10.1080/16506073.2015.1098724 (https://doi.org/10.1080/16506073.2015.1098724)

Transcripts

Speaker:

Hey, my friend.

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Welcome back to ADHD,

powerful possibilities.

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It's Katherine here.

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And this week we are going to

be doing a bit of myth busting.

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I know that in the past, I have

used the term amygdala hijack

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when I'm talking to kids.

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Clients, even myself.

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And it's a really popular phrase that

lots of people discuss in psychology.

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It's become quite common to think about

this amygdala taking over your brain.

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But what if I told you that's not the real

story about how our brains and our bodies.

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Process emotion and stress.

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In today's episode, we're going to

have a look at why this idea of an

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amygdala hijack is not really right.

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And introduce you to another less famous

part of the brain called the habenula

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When we understand the real players

and our brain, when it comes to

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emotional regulation and stress.

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We then have the information

that allows us to decide how we

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manage ADHD more effectively.

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And it means we're better able to

resist those old unhelpful stories.

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We tell ourselves about not being very

effective, not being very well organized.

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All these old stories

that we carry with us.

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Are easier to reject when we understand

what's happening in our brain.

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So, if you're ready to reframe

how you think about your brain.

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Your emotions.

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And you want to learn something new.

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Stick with me.

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The idea of the amygdala hijack

was popularized by Goldman and his

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incredible book, emotional intelligence.

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I have so much time for that book.

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And it really is important that we

understand how our emotions are.

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the root of all the problems

we have in ADHD really.

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The amygdala hijack was a great

way to explain a concept that made

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sense to so many of us, a bit like

rejection, sensitivity, dysphoria.

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It gave us a reason why we just lost

it and our emotions seem to take over.

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And it helped us to respond more

kindly to young people when they

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were going through the same thing.

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The idea is that in moments of perceived

stress, when we think, we see a bear

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or the boss that we've been avoiding,

or the person we had an argument with.

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The amygdala.

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Which is the part of our brain.

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We were told as responsible for the

fight or flight response takes over.

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And it literally flips your brain so

that the prefrontal cortex or the logical

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planning organizing part of your brain is.

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No longer in charge and you can

run away or you can fight back

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or you can hide and freeze.

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It's a really compelling metaphor.

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Right.

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But it's also over simplified so much.

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That we're missing

something really important.

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There's a whole network of areas

of the brain that are involved when

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we perceive stress and deal with

something that triggers our emotions.

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One of the key players is a

really tiny part of your brain.

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Just underneath the limbic system.

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Called the Habenula

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and it plays a huge role in how we process

information and respond emotionally.

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It's really connected

to dopamine production.

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And a study in 2014 by Proux

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the habenula is particularly involved

when it comes to aversive stimuli.

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That means when we anticipate

something being hard or painful

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or difficult, we will avoid it.

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And it influences whether we

withdraw or stay in a situation.

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. And our habenula, the lateral part of it.

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Is also involved in reward processing.

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So we already know from Dr.

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Nora Volkow studies that our dopamine

processing is differentour reward,

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anticipation, the value of things.

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It's very different with ADHD.

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But now we're seeing that the habenula

is also strongly connected to this.

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And this is true, whether we are

feeling AOK or whether we are

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actually clinically depressed.

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and remember

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People with ADHD are at three times the

risk of serious clinical depression.

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and, one of the reasons why I wanted to

change the narrative about the amygdala

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hijack is when I first heard about it.

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To begin with.

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I thought, oh, this is great.

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This explains so much.

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And then I felt like there was a bit

of my brain that was out of control.

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That I was being taken over

that I had no autonomy.

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And I don't know about you,

but I have a fair bit of demand

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avoidance, and I really like to be

in charge of my own brain and body.

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And I was not comfortable

with this idea that I had no

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way to control that response.

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It's again, a bit like rejection,

sensitivity, dysphoria.

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Yes, it exists, but I don't want

to feel like I'm a victim of this

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in the same way as I don't want

to be a victim of my amygdala.

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And I imagine it like.

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That wild puppet in the Muppets

who would bang the drums.

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When we understand the role of the

habenula, and what's actually happening

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to the amygdala in that moment and how

it's all part of our executive functions.

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And it's a hot circuit, but it's not

cutting off any other parts of our brain.

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We can feel more in control

and we can use strategies

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scaffolding from my favorite word.

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To help manage this.

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So, what is the Habana?

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And why should you care about it?

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It's so tiny.

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It's really, really

small, even for the brain.

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It's job is to process negative outcomes.

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And regulate how we respond to them.

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It's think of it, like kind of

valuator it's constantly checking.

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Whether something is rewarding

or if it's too punishing.

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And then it guides our future behavior.

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Accordingly.

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There are several studies showing that.

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Overactive or hyperactive is linked to

this negative and avoidance sensitivity.

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And there are studies that show

a, hypersensitive, habenula.

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, which is what many people with ADHD.

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I have is linked.

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To a heightened sensitivity

to negative experiences.

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Everybody would have the same

experience, but if you have ADHD or

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you have a hypersensitive, habenula.

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You are much more likely

to avoid that in future.

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And I know lots of us have

children or work with young people.

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You will recognize is that.

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Incredible determination not to

do something that was negative.

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And so it's strongly connected with the

avoidance behavior that we see in ADHD.

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Aand, I would suspect an autism.

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I have not studied.

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The research in the autistic,

habenula connection.

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In 2010 Hikosaka pointed out how essential

there habenula is for stress response.

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And in value based decision-making.

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Can you see how this is really

important information for those

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of us who somehow feel that we're

broken, that we are not quite right.

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That actually, it's just

a part of our brain.

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For people with ADHD, what does this mean?

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It means we are more likely to interpret a

negative experience in an exaggerated way.

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other people might say,

ah, that was half bad.

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We're like, no, that

was at least a hundred.

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We see everyday stress as a significant

threat, and then we avoid it.

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Even when it's only remotely negative,

we will delay, we will procrastinate.

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We will do all of this.

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And it's an emotional reaction.

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Determined by your habenula will.

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which is a bit on the sensitive side.

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And that's why things like a

single email feels like a threat.

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Logically, we know there is no danger from

this email or this report or this person.

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But our brain doesn't.

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So in ADHD the habenula can play a really

important role in that negative spiral,

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we sometimes find ourselves going into.

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If you're struggling to

break out of a bad mood.

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It could be that the habenula

is still on high alert.

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It's why small mistakes feels so big.

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and important..

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It's literally biology.

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Rather than you as a

person and who you are.

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Let's think about that in practical terms.

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imagine you've been putting off a task.

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It's quite difficult.

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the habenula is involved in deciding

when we do the task, how we feel about

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the task and how difficult or dangerous

that task is, how negative it is.

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It keeps sending a signal.

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This task is negative.

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It's hard.

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And that is why over time.

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These things become an

automatic negative response.

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It's not that you're having to do

this from first principles every

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time, but your brain loves habits.

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Your brain loves predictability.

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Yes, we love a bit of novelty.

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But for the habenula

no, we did this before.

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I remember six months ago.

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This was really hard.

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I'm not doing it again.

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And then it's not just that one

task you're avoiding anything that

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is similar enough for your brain

to put it in the same bucket.

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You're going to avoid that too.

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For example.

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I.

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Really strongly dislike making phone

calls almost to a ridiculous degree.

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And I will put it off

for weeks and months.

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And I owe so many people, a callback.

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It's not that I don't want to, but

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in the past, the discomfort

felt like it was just way out of

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proportion to what the task was.

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And then when I began to

understand my brain, my ADHD.

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I recognized this was an emotional

reaction and it was the habenula

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just trying to keep me safe.

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And when I understood that I was

able to begin changing my behavior.

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And changing how I thought and talked

about it, which I want to come back to.

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For example.

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now we understand what the habenula.

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Is doing.

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One of the most powerful things

we can do is how we reframe.

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That information.

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No CBT has a very bad rap

among the ADHD community.

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And there are some people who

should not be doing ADHD, CBT.

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However it does have good

evidence when it is done well.

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And when it's designed with

enough autonomy and support

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and with the ADHD, lens.

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For example.

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And this has kind of CBT, but it's

not really, cause I don't do CBT.

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But when my brain immediately

says I can't do that, it's hard.

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A CBT type of technique

of reframing would be.

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Okay.

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This feels hard.

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It's not really.

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So what other, way can

be used to view this.

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This is new.

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This is something I haven't done before.

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This was something that was

challenging in the past.

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But I did it before.

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And I can do it again.

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It's not a quick fix by any means, but

we can start to do that for ourselves.

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That reframe, that changes viewpoint.

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Is really powerful when we practice

it, because over time, your habenula

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is going to get used to not reacting

in this enormously exaggerated way.

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Another thing we can try is to, if

you like switch off the negative

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part of the habenula by creating

lots of positive reinforcement.

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No.

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I'm not a fan of the word positive,

but in this case, yes, we want

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to go for positive reinforcement.

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It doesn't need to be food-based I'm

obviously thinking about treating my dogs.

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But it does help because it starts to

change what you associate that task with

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instead of the email being connected with

shame and guilt and that negative emotion.

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If you have a thing set up where you

can send an email and then you have an

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automatic confetti button that goes,

and I do have that on my computer.

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You think, oh, I got some confetti

or I know there are programs

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for an animal darts across the

screen, when you tick off a task.

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Those are silly, but my goodness.

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they work.

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Other times you might want to say,

I'm going to do is a laundry putting

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away, and then I'm going to have.

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10 minutes in the garden, or I'm

going to have a really lovely cup

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of tea, whatever floats your boat.

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It needs to be something.

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You perceive as enjoyable and you

need to connect it immediately to

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the task that you see as a negative.

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If there's any delay.

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It's going to be really challenging

for you to make that connection.

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And it's going to take the longer.

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So immediate small rewards connected

to perceived negative tasks.

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Is going to change that

response over time.

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Remember your brain always

changes is neuroplastic forever.

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Just maybe not quite so.

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Amazingly as when we were young.

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My old favorite

mindfulness and meditation.

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Of course it affects your habenula

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and 2016 that meta analysis by V Hoff

showed that meditation and mindfulness

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significantly affect ADHD brain function.

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Specifically the areas

associated with stress.

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These present moment.

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Practices.

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Allow you to step out

of those negative loops.

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Those negative spirals and reconnect

with what's actually happening right now.

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Finally, some people have tried

exposure or desensitization practices.

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I'm not a psychologist.

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And I feel like that's a

psychology type of practice.

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What I would offer though, is that if

you want to try any kind of exposure.

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Or desensitization.

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The person doing it must be in charge

of how much, how long and how far

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they are exposed, because otherwise

all you're doing is reinforcing this.

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Something really negative is

associated with this stimulus.

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So if you are somebody who

is very scared of traveling.

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And this is a tricky one, but there

are special courses at airports.

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No.

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You don't.

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I get over that by going on a plane.

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It's not advisable.

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But going and looking

at the airport is fine.

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If you feel absolutely fine.

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Go home and then come back again.

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And maybe go into the Concourse

and see people with their bags and

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taking it step by step at your pace.

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When you are in charge.

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That to me is a particularly

important way to think about.

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Turning down that negative stress response

from the amygdala and the habenula..

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Sowhile the

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amygdala hijack makes a really

compelling visual story.

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And.

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Some of you may have

seen my three-part brain.

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Amygdala pop off video a long time ago.

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The real picture is really complex.

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Of course.

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It's your brain.

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But I think when we understand what the

habenula's doing and what its role is.

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We can be much more compassionate

to ourselves and to our brains.

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All of the strategies

that I discussed here.

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with the exception of CBT.

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The exposure.

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Or ones that you can practice yourself.

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And we can begin straight

away so that we start to free.

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Our brain.

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And ourselves from these

constrictive fixed ways of thinking.

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If you've enjoyed today's episode

and you would like to know more about

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things like executive functions.

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You can join my executive

function junction course.

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Thank you so much for joining

me today while we explored the

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wacky world of the habenula

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remember when we understand our brain.

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It's a first step to be able to accept it.

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And work with it in a really

constructive, accepting kind of way.

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If this was helpful, I would be so

grateful for a review, or if you

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want to share it with somebody.

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Subscribe please so that you

don't miss any future episodes.

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And until next time.

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Stay curious.

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stay powerful.

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And take care of yourself.

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