Welcome back. If you are just now hoping in to this I suggest going back to the first post, “Let’s Talk: Panic Attacks and the Lizard Brain,” and work your way forward from there. Last week we talked about the frontal cortex, aka the “Human Brain”, and how it gets shut down when the brain signals that it is in danger. This week we are going to learn more about the various things that happen inside of the body when it feels like the world is closing in on us.

The part of the nervous system we will be talking to this week is the autonomic nervous system. This is the part of the nervous system that is responsible for all the automatic processes in your body. For example, most people don’t go through life telling themselves to inhale and then exhale. Well that is besides individuals who work with Chris Hemsworth and Prodigy fans. Normally, us breathing happens without any thought at all. Other aspects of our body act the same way. We do not tell our body to push out more blood or to digest our food and move it along on its merry journey. This is all the autonomic nervous system at work. Now there are two setting on this machine that we will be talking about today. The sympathetic system and the parasympathetic system. Now for fun, we are going to pretend that our body is like a spaceship and the nervous system is the comms system inside this spaceship.

Let’s talk about the parasympathetic system first. This is the state that we spend most of our day to day in, with some notable exceptions. Some people call this the “Breed and Feed” cycle. When we are on this setting everything is working as is intended. We are digesting food, our blood is moving through our body at a sustainable rate. Our breathing is slow and relaxed. The crew of our ship is not stressed, just performing normal day-to-day operations. Our friends the Human Brain, the Monkey Brain, and the Lizard Brain are all having a nice cup of Yorkshire Gold tea. Things are good.

Then something happens. The Lizard Brain see’s something out of the corner of his eye on one of the external monitors. He begins to freak out. Without warning he jumps up and slams the danger button, spilling tea all down the Human Brains britches. The Monkey Brain jumps up from the table. Spilling tea all over the Human brains shirt. As the Human brain is about to protest, both the Lizard and the Monkey Brain look at it and put a finger over their lips. It is not Human Brains time to speak. He will only slow down their reaction.

Now when the Lizard Brain slams that danger button like a contestant on Jeopardy the nervous system switches from the parasympathetic to the sympathetic system. A few things now happen in the body. The veins around the body begin to constrict, so that it will be easier to clot in case the body is cut. But the muscles still need blood and more of it. The lungs begin to work faster. Inhaling and exhaling at a higher rate, so as to get as much oxygen as possible to the muscles that need it. The Heart, knowing that the roads to the muscles have narrowed must now push harder and more forceful to get the blood and oxygen to the muscles. All of this costs energy, so all nonessential for immediate survival systems begin to have power diverted from them. The digestive system is slowed almost to a halt. Our body sends a signal to immediately void all waste before shutting down, in the hope of shedding a little bit of weight. Our eye sight begins to narrow, almost creating a tunnel like filter on top of everything we see. This signifies that the Monkey brain has found itself at the helm of this ship, and it is ready to do one of three things.

Fight! Flight! Or Flee!

The body is now completely in survival mode. There is no reasoning while the Monkey Brain is at the helm. The good news is there are ways to signal the brain that it is no longer in danger, allowing the Monkey Brain to sit down and the Human Brian to take the helm again. This is what we will talk about next week. Thank you again for joining me on this journey. I hope you’ve learned a lot and Let me know if you have any questions. Have a great one!