The Limbic System Trauma Loop — What It Is And How To Get Out Of It
The limbic system is a complex part of your brain that gathers information about where you are and what is going on around you, and can identify if there is any threat to your safety or wellbeing. When such a threat exists, your limbic system triggers a response from your immune system, hormones, or nervous system to react to the specific issue in a way it deems appropriate. While that is a rather simplistic description of the limbic system, it is actually far more complex than that and processes information about your surroundings in fractions of seconds. As incredible as this is, there are times when your limbic system can become “stuck” in a negative cycle whereby it is effectively reacting to its own reactions and producing an overactive stress response. This can happen through conditioning based on past experiences. And when that happens, the stress response can remain elevated and disproportionate until a conscious intervention occurs to break the vicious cycle.
Limbic System Dysfunction & The Limbic Loop
Prolonged bouts of both physical and mental stress can, over time, have a negative impact on bodily functions. When this happens, the brain gets ‘stuck’ in survival mode and the results of this can be deleterious to health. The main symptom of limbic system dysfunction is feeling like your brain and body are overreacting to otherwise benign stimuli or circumstances. . You become hypersensitive to your surroundings and react to the stimuli that would normally not generate that type of response. Before too long, the limbic system starts to identify everything as a threat and you may begin feeling unsafe or uneasy even in normal day to day settings Does this sound familiar?
What Are The Stressors That Create Limbic System Dysfunction & Symptoms?
Once the limbic system loop has been set in motion, some otherwise beginning stimuli that now trigger the stress response can include things like
- Chemicals used in cleaning products, plastics, food, furniture, personal care products, and mattresses
- Electromagnetic field exposure
- Environmental toxins such as mold, mildew, and other harmful algal blooms
- Infections including bacterial, fungal, and viral
- Inflammatory diet high in sugar and containing foods you are sensitive to
- Life events or situations that cause stress
- Recalling past physical or emotional traumas
Limbic Retraining — Breaking The Negative Loop
Fortunately, neuroplasticity teaches us that the brain is highly malleable and is capable of rewiring itself, with a specific type of limbic system retraining. With neuroplasticity, the limbic retraining results in tuning down the stress response optimizing the nervous system much in the same way you would remove old programs from computer hard drive to make it run more smoothly and efficiently optimization improves brain performance and reduces the sensitivity it has to the stresses that created the limbic system dysfunction symptoms.
How To Retrain The Limbic System
While addressing certain lifestyle factors such as sleep and diet can certainly help, the most effective way to re-train the limbic system is through self-directed neuroplasticity training.
If you suffer from chronic anxiety, fatigue, depression, and PTSD, re-origin is what you need. re-origin provides you with an effective, simple, and easy-to-use program that enables you to rewire your own limbic system. The primary aim and outcome of this self-directed neuroplasticity program is to re-establish the balance required to maintain a healthy and homeostasis in the body and mind.
Although the primary aim is simply to reduce and re-regulate the stress response, such neuroplasticity training has been known to reduce systemic inflammation and that leads to ongoing symptoms of anxiety and illness.
