How a Maladapted Stress Response May be Playing Havoc with Your Brain and Health

The limbic system is a complex set of structures in the mid brain that includes the hypothalamus, hippocampus, amygdala and cingulate cortex.It has been described as the “feeling and reacting brain”. It is responsible for the formation of memories and is constantly determining our level of safety. The Limbic System assigns emotional significance to everything we smell, see, hear, feel, and taste. It is known as the seat of social and emotional intelligence and is the brain’s anxiety “switch”. It is closely integrated with the immune system, the endocrine system and the autonomic nervous system.

When not functioning properly due to injury or impairment, the limbic system becomes hypersensitive and begins to react to stimuli that it would usually disregard as not representing a danger to the body. This results in inappropriate activation of the immune, endocrine and autonomic nervous systems that can lead to varied and seemingly unconnected symptoms.

My guest is Annie Hopper who is the founder of the Dynamic Neural Retraining System and author of the book Wired for Healing. The focus of the program is to effectively teach participants how to self-direct neuroplastic changes in the limbic system that normalize threat mechanisms in the brain.  This allows the brain and body to move out of a state of survival and into a state of growth and repair, where healing can take place.