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By: Cierra, Graduate Intern During my time as an intern at Cornerstone, I have learned a lot about OCD. Recently, in our intermediate Outpatient Program (iOP) the amygdala came up, and I noticed how often it comes up and how important I feel it is to discuss the amygdala when it comes to Exposure Response Prevention. When we are feeling our distress level rise, and we start to feel anxiety or panic, something in our brain tells us we are in danger, and we need to stop what we are doing. This is the amygdala, once we start to feel the need to start rituals/compulsions, this is OCD.
The amygdala is a part of the brain’s limbic system. The limbic system is deep inside the brain near the cerebral cortex above the brainstem. This is where the brain figures out our behavioral and emotional responses. However, the amygdala is key to how we process strong emotions, and form memories, usually related to fear. The role of the amygdala is to keep us safe by alerting us when danger is near. The amygdala is there to protect us. However, it is easy for our amygdala to get confused. When our anxiety level raises and we approach level five and above we tend to get frightened, even though it doesn’t feel like it. During these events, our amygdala stores them for later as a fearful memory, when we are approached with the same situation, or one like it, our amygdala puts out a red alert. The issue here is the amygdala cannot tell the difference between real dangers out in the world versus our internal fears. This is why self-awareness is so important!
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