Of Two Minds

  Over Powering the Amygdala The Amygdala is known as the part of the brain that drives the fight of flight response. It also plays a role in memory. One of the ways we calm the amygdala is through conscious breathing or 4 square breathing. The nucleus is most strongly effected by dopamine, nor-epinephrine and serotonin. A MRI scan appears to show that after an eight week course in mindfulness the amygdala appears to shrink. As an adolescent the amygdala is enlarged and the brain is still developing. This is an especially dangerous period for addiction to set in. At this point we are primed for physical, psychological dependency. I believe that this point in time during our lives, empowers a sort of hard wiring or neurons from the pre-frontal cortex to the Amygdala. This pathway leads to more impulsive behaviors and pleasure seeking habits. Society reinforces this behavior through social media and instant, get what you want now, ideologies. Our drug of choice gets on a certain dopa...

 The joy of addiction as an escape from self. I have suffered most of my life from addictive behaviors used as an escape from who I really was. Diagnosed with bipolar type one at the age of 42. I had my first psychotic break, induced by Ativan. I was then committed to a mental hospital for close to 9 days with a case of full blown mania. Through out my life, I have battled addictive behaviors to include, running, skydiving, swimming and addictive substances to include alcohol, food, tobacco and marijuana. Self- medication positively and negatively reinforced habit which changed my brain. Self-medicating was an escape from depressed moods or an attempt to control mood swings. Now I take aripiprazole, generic for abilify, it curtails the manic episodes by blocking certain dopamine receptor sites. I can tell you full-blown mania is scary after you have experienced, psychosis, blackouts and sleepless nights. It also feels good, beyond joy, happiness and passion. Soon I would learn how ...