You know the feeling. Your heart pounds. Your breath shortens. Your thoughts spiral but never land. Maybe your boss drops an impossible deadline on your desk, or your toddler has a meltdown in the middle of the grocery store.
In that moment, your calm, logical self seems to vanish. You might snap, freeze, or rush into a decision you later regret.
Contrary to how it feels, you’re not “losing it.” What’s happening is a rapid neurological handoff of power from your brain’s executive center to its emergency response system.
Why Stress Changes Everything
Think of your brain as a team with three key players:
- The Brainstem (The Reptilian Brain): Oversees survival basics—breathing, heart rate, sleep cycles. Motto: Stay alive.
- The Limbic System (The Emotional Brain): Home of the amygdala and hippocampus, it processes fear, threat, and memory. Motto: Is this safe?
- The Prefrontal Cortex (The Executive Brain): Right behind your forehead, it handles rational thought, planning, and emotional regulation. Motto: Let’s think this through.
When we’re calm, these regions collaborate beautifully. But under high stress, the balance tips.
The Amygdala Hijack: Pulling the Fire Alarm
Psychologist Daniel Goleman coined the term “amygdala hijack” to describe what happens when the brain’s threat detector takes over, bypassing rational thought (Goleman, 1996).
When the amygdala senses danger—whether it’s a car swerving into your lane or an angry email—it activates the fight-or-flight response. Adrenaline and cortisol flood your system, sharpening reflexes but dulling reflection.
Your body reacts as if a tiger were chasing you, even if the “threat” is just a difficult conversation.
When the Prefrontal Cortex Goes Offline
Here’s the catch: stress hormones supercharge the body but dampen the prefrontal cortex (PFC). Neuroimaging studies confirm that under acute stress, PFC activity decreases, impairing decision-making, impulse control, and emotional regulation (Arnsten, 2009).
This is why we:
- Lose perspective.
- Make rash decisions.
- Feel overwhelmed by emotion.
- Struggle to recall details clearly.
Meanwhile, the hippocampus, crucial for memory, also falters under cortisol overload, leaving stressful moments fragmented or fuzzy (McEwen, 2007).
Rewiring Calm: How to Bring the Brain Back Online
The brain is plastic, meaning it can be trained for resilience. A few evidence-based strategies include:
- Name It to Tame It: Labeling your feelings activates the PFC, lowering amygdala arousal (Lieberman et al., 2007).
- Deep Breathing: Diaphragmatic breathing stimulates the vagus nerve, signaling safety to the nervous system.
- Grounding Techniques: Use sensory cues—sight, touch, sound, smell, taste—to anchor yourself in the present.
- Mindfulness Practice: Research shows mindfulness strengthens the PFC-limbic connection, making stress responses more manageable (Tang, Hölzel, & Posner, 2015).
How Dr. Ralu Maxim Can Help
At Daisy Clinic in Bellevue and across Washington state, Dr. Ralu Maxim, a neuroscientist and neuropsychotherapist, helps clients understand and regulate these very processes. Drawing on her background in both clinical psychology and neuroscience, Dr. Maxim integrates:
- Psychoeducation about the brain’s stress response—helping clients see their reactions not as flaws, but as biology.
- Neuropsychotherapy techniques to rewire stress circuits and strengthen the prefrontal cortex.
- Mind-body practices that combine cognitive strategies with somatic regulation to calm the nervous system.
Her approach empowers clients to move from survival mode into growth mode—building resilience, clarity, and self-compassion.
As Dr. Maxim often says: “Your brain is not betraying you, it’s protecting you. The key is learning how to guide it back to safety.”
References
- Arnsten, A. F. T. (2009). Stress signalling pathways that impair prefrontal cortex structure and function. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 10(6), 410–422.
- Goleman, D. (1996). Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ. Bantam Books.
- Lieberman, M. D., et al. (2007). Putting feelings into words: affect labeling disrupts amygdala activity. Psychological Science, 18(5), 421–428.
- McEwen, B. S. (2007). Physiology and neurobiology of stress and adaptation: central role of the brain. Physiological Reviews, 87(3), 873–904.
- Tang, Y. Y., Hölzel, B. K., & Posner, M. I. (2015). The neuroscience of mindfulness meditation. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 16(4), 213–225.