When Past Trauma Triggers Fight-or-Flight: How to Manage Amygdala Hijacks

How Trauma Shapes the Brain

Trauma doesn’t just affect the mind; it physically reshapes the brain. We’re going to cover the Neuroscience then go into the psychology with my personal story of intense emotion – to jump past the science-y stuff, click here

What is the amygdala?

The amygdala is an almond-shaped collection of brain cells on each side of the brain that are part of the limbic system, a group of brain structures that regulate emotional and behavioral responses.

The amygdala plays a crucial role in various functions such as: detecting threats, triggering body responses, fear conditioning, processing positive emotions, and encoding emotional memories. It is also key in activating the fight-or-flight response.

What is an amygdala hijack?

The term “amygdala hijack” was coined by psychologist Daniel Goleman in his 1995 book “Emotional Intelligence”. It refers to an intense emotional reaction that is doesn’t fit the situation – an overreaction.

The rational, thinking brain is bypassed, and signals are sent directly to the emotional brain.

During an amygdala hijack, strong emotions such as anger, fear, anxiety, or even extreme excitement impair the prefrontal cortex the part of the brain that regulates rational thought and makes good decisions. The amygdala takes over, making the frontal lobes that manage higher level executive decisions, shut down and go offline.

This can lead to acting in ways where we don’t know what came over us, behaviour that we regret later, when the thinking brain comes back on line.

Examples of Amygdala Hijack

• When road rage takes over and you go out of your way to follow the guy for miles (or kilometers)
• Quitting a job in the heat of the moment – yikes, try to recover from that one
• Throwing a tennis racket because you’re frustrated and your opponent feels like the devil

Other instances include becoming so distressed upon hearing about a loved one in the emergency room that you don’t hear the details that you just get in your car and drive but you forgot to ask where they are…

Emotional Reaction to Threat

The amygdala activates the fight-or-flight response when it senses danger, either real or even if threat is only perceived.

This response is triggered by emotions such as stress, fear, anxiety, aggression, and anger.

The amygdala sends signals to pump stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline, preparing the body to either fight for survival or flee to safety.

Fight or Flight

The fight-or-flight response is an automatic reaction to danger that allows people to react quickly without needing to think.

The amygdala activates this response without conscious input, preparing the body to fight or flee.

This was vital for early humans who faced real physical threats. Today, the response is more likely triggered by psychological threats such as stress and relationship issues.

What happens in the brain?

Whatever you just perceived as a threat is sent as a signal to your rational brain to see what you should do, logically, in response to what just happened, but the message gets hijacked on it’s way to that part of the brain that makes sound executive decisions.

The signal gets diverted straight to the amygdala that allows for a quick reaction to danger before rational processing. Like when you’re staring face-to-face with a sabertooth tiger, there’s no time to think, you just gotta react.

So the brain diverts blood and oxygen flow to the amygdala rather than the prefrontal cortex, impairing the ability to think and solve problems, so you can just react to the emotion you’re feeling.

Research suggests an inverse relationship between the amygdala and the prefrontal cortex: when the amygdala is activated, the prefrontal cortex is less activated.

But wait, people don’t encounter too many sabertooth tigers any more.

But when someone takes the parking spot you’ve been waiting for a loooong time, in the Costco parking lot, it feels the same to your brain.

Rational reactions to threats

The frontal lobes are located at the front of the brain, they regulate important executive functions like, reasoning, thinking, decision-making, and planning.

This part of the brain enables you to evaluate your emotions and use experiences and judgment to respond appropriately.

When the frontal lobes are doing their job, they process threatening information, determine if the danger is real, and decide how to respond rationally in mild to moderate threats, and override the amygdala.

Symptoms of Amygdala Hijack

The symptoms of an amygdala hijack are caused by the body’s chemical response to stress, including the release of stress hormones (cortisol and adrenaline). So you feel:

• Increased heartbeat
• Fast, shallow breathing
• Sweaty palms
• Clammy skin
• Goosebumps
• Shaking
• Tense muscles
• Nausea

An amygdala hijack may also lead to inappropriate or irrational behavior, followed by feelings of embarrassment and regret.

Can amygdala hijack be stopped?

Yes, though it requires a great amount conscious effort to deactivate the amygdala and activate the frontal lobes, especially if you’ve experienced trauma and there’s been a pattern of reactivity.

Can it be stoppped? Yes, it’s like trying to stop an emotional avalance. Here’s where all the sage advice from the interweb comes in, you know stuff like:

• Acknowledging how your body is feeling in the moment
• Get present to your emotions and physical symptoms
• Remind yourself that this is an automatic response, but not the most logical one.
• Try to slow down your breath to calm the fight-or-flight response

The whole problem with the hijack is that it is a hijack so you’re just in reactivity mode.

And when I say you, I really mean, me.

All the training in Gottman Method Couples Therapy and my certification in Integrative Sex and Couples Therapy [1] cannot prevent me from going into a full-blown amygdala hijack when I feel threatened in my relationship. I’m the kind that will run from my partner who in that moment feels like a sabertoothed tiger attacking me, going right for my throat.

I explode emotionally then make a run for it.

Not good.

After a bit of time has passed and my logical brain has come back online, I can actually look at my response and what happened and bring some logic to it.

That’s when I apologize.

I’m really good at apologizing. I’m getting really good at repair, after I’ve fucked up.

Can amygdala hijack be prevented?

Here’s where all the articles on the interweb talk about how to calm yourself with meditation and mindfulness because research shows that long-term meditators have reduced amygdala activation when shown negative images [2], and how it increase connectivity between the amygdala (emotional part of brain) and the ventromedial prefrontal cortex (rational, thinking part) [3] – blah, blah, blah.

Don’t get me wrong. Mindfulness is amazing but in the heat of the moment or when something reminds you of trauma, the research does not apply.

Mindfulness is the past does not guarantee being centered when you’re triggered. In fact, you might become unhinged and that is why they call it a trigger in the first place.

Don’t stop practicing mindfulness and journaling but it’s often not enough to calm overwhelming emotions.

I practiced mindfulness every day, for 10 months, at least 3 times a day because I felt the anxiety of workplace trauma. It felt like I was attacked and mauled by a pack of sabretooth tigers.

There wasn’t even a trigger, it would just sneak up on me several times a day. It woke me up and was there when I wanted to just forget about everything and go to sleep.

All the mindfulness in the world didn’t help. In fact, I think it even helped put my anxiety that was a result of trauma at work onto a schedule, there was a morning shift, a late afternoon shift and a midnight shift of overwhelming emotion that I could not resolve with mindfulness.

But I tried and sat with my difficult emotions every day, wondering if the overwhelming feelings would ever go away.

The Emotional Weight of Talking About Trauma

For those who have experienced iatrogenic trauma, the unintentional trauma that is caused by talking about trauma or sitting for months with your trauma, the thought of talking about your pain can evoke intense fear, shame, or even numbness.

Survivors may feel a deep fear of not being believed or invalidated. Shame or guilt about their responses to trauma, like an amygdala hijack. A sense of hopelessness, as previous attempts to seek help may have left them feeling worse.

The Role of Subconscious Healing in Trauma Recovery

To address these challenges, modern approaches to trauma therapy are shifting away from traditional “talk therapy” toward methods that prioritize safety, subconscious healing, and emotional regulation.

Accelerated Hypnotherapy and our specialization in Trauma Hypnotherapy allows individuals to bypass the conscious mind and directly access the subconscious, where trauma often resides.

This can help untangle deep-seated emotional knots where you might find yourself stuck, gently and safely, without reactivating the trauma response.

Studies show that hypnosis can calm overactive amygdala responses, reduce stress, and promote a state of safety conducive to healing [4].

Building New Neural Pathways

The brain’s neuroplasticity—its ability to form new neural connections—plays a critical role in trauma recovery. By fostering positive associations and new coping mechanisms, therapeutic techniques can help rewire the brain’s response to triggers.

Healing Without Re-Traumatization

Healing from trauma requires a compassionate, non-invasive approach. Instead of forcing individuals to relive painful memories, effective hypnotherapy create a space of safety and clarity, allowing the superconscious to guide the healing process.

By incorporating methods backed by researched in neuroscience, we can help individuals who have experienced trauma can begin their journey to recovery, without the fear of retraumatization and a greater sense of hope.

It’s not about pushing through pain; it’s about creating a safe space for true transformation to emerge from superconscious resources that are already inside you.

Let’s connect.