The insula and amygdala can trigger an overactive fight-or-flight response that drives chronic symptoms. The amygdala detects threats and activates the sympathetic nervous system, while the insula integrates bodily sensations and processes pain, both linking to immune responses.
The insula and the amygdala are two parts of the brain which may be involved in over triggering this hyper defense response which then goes on to cause all of the symptoms. Now of course the whole brain is involved in triggering the defence system, but it could be that the core conditioning that core learning the brain has done may have occurred inside these two structures. We have two amygdalas which are located in the limbic system part of the brain. And this is just behind the eyes. And we have an insula which is located between the limbic system and the cortex.
What's the role of the amygdala? Well, it's partly responsible for protecting us from dangers by triggering the fight or flight response, also called the sympathetic nervous system. And it's also involved in immune responses together with other brain structures. What's the role of the insula? The insula is responsible for taking in all incoming sensory data from the body and processing that information and then triggering the right response in the nervous system and the immune system. And the insula is also involved in managing pain signals.
There are various other parts of the brain which are involved in this condition, such as the prefrontal cortex, the anterior cingulate that is involved in attention, the thalamus, which brings together all our senses, the hippocampus which is involved in short term memory, and the hypothalamus that regulates the autonomic nervous system. And for more detailed information, you can read my medical papers on our website.
Like a light switch, our defence systems are designed to be triggered to the on position, deal with the danger and then triggered back off so that we don't waste energy. However, perhaps when we first got the condition, these defensive systems got over triggered because the things that happened potentially threatened survival. So the switch can stay in the on position, so the fight or flight system stays switched on and the parasympathetic nervous system doesn't get a chance to heal and repair our body. And of course this uses up all our energy and leads to exhaustion. The whole brain becomes hypersensitive and hyper reactive. The brain easily gets triggered using up all our defence responses. This gives us a clue as to how the condition starts.
