November/December 2023 Alchemical Voice

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Alchemical Voice - L2M - Issue 23 THE AMYGDALA - AND ‘IED’ Martin Lewis Understanding ‘intermittent explosive disorder’. Everyone gets frustrated, upset, and angry. It's even normal to yell, curse, throw things, or beat up a cushion now and then. But for some people it can get out of control. Judging from news reports and social media, the number of angry people in the world seems to be increasing. Maybe society is getting angrier, or perhaps we're less inhibited about acting it out. It turns out these angry outbursts may be caused by a little-known psychological condition called ‘intermittent explosive disorder’, or ‘IED’. Michael McCloskey, PhD, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Temple University and a leading IED researcher states: “When people with IED get angry, they act out aggressively, yelling and screaming, breaking things, and getting into physical altercations”. If the reaction is disproportionate to what has triggered it, then it could be IED. For instance, if someone tries to punch you and you punch them back, that's not IED. But if someone says they don't like what you're wearing and you punch them, that could be IED in action. In effect the appropriate expression of anger is a normal functional expression that is part of our ‘innate defence mechanisms’. In psychoanalytic theory these are defined as ‘reality distorting strategies adopted to protect the ego from anxiety’. 30
Alchemical Voice - L2M - Issue 23 The mind is incredibly creative when it comes to finding ways of reducing anxiety. The Amygdala, an almond shaped gland in each cerebral hemisphere of the brain, is the part of our basal or ‘reptilian’ brain that responds (often disproportionately) to emotional stressors, apparently based on memories of how we reacted in the past to a similar incident. However when we become overwhelmed we lose our sense of proportion, and act on the Amygdala’s ‘instruction’, which can be as simple as “we are being threatened - ATTACK”! In effect they are not in control of their emotions, a past trauma is! "Overly aggressive people tend to have lower levels of serotonin function," Coccaro said. This naturally occurring chemical messenger, among other jobs, works to ease aggression. "Think of serotonin as your braking system," he said. “If your brake fluid is low, you won't be able to stop”. In general these people are more depressive and miserable, more driven to succeed, and their anger is easily aroused. Emil Coccaro, MD, the vice chair of research in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioural Health at Ohio State University states: "We don't have any data on whether it [the inappropriate expression of anger] is increasing or not," he said. "But clearly life is faster paced, people feel more stressed, more miserable, and that could be promoting it." Coccaro also points out that aggression is an evolutionary necessity. We need defence mechanisms to protect ourselves from threats, and as stated earlier we are incredibly creative in coming up with novel ways to achieve this. However, when an unresolved traumatic event is triggered the Amygdala takes over, and so when a threat is perceived, it kicks in to trigger either a fight or flight response. Coccaro explained. "in people with IED, the amygdala reacts more quickly and strongly. Their fuse is shorter.” People with IED don't appear to plan to have their outbursts. They just happen. (If they are planned that would be classified as antisocial or psychopathic behaviour.) Rather they simply misperceive threats and then can't control their reaction to those threats. They literally ‘snap’. IED tends to be a bit more common in men. Males are typically more physically aggressive, while women with IED are more verbally so. According to statistics IED is most common among those in their teens, 20s, and 30s, after which it gradually eases with age, although the threat of an outburst always remains. Research hasn't determined if any specific job or socioeconomic conditions make people more likely to have IED, but genes certainly can be influential. "The more severe the manifestation of aggression, the more genetic influence underlies that aggression," said Coccaro. 31
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November/December 2023 Alchemical Voice

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