“When it comes to trauma, anxiety and PTSD, and the treatment of trauma, anxiety, and PTSD, it’s not just the state that you are in or that you go into. It’s how you got there and whether or not you had anything to do with it.”
Dr. David Spiegel, MD psychiatrist and PhD.
Huberman Lab Podcast #49
In this episode, Professor Huberman discusses fear and trauma, including the neural circuits involved in the “threat reflex” and how specific experiences and memories come to activate that system. He also discuss how our body is involved in trauma and fear. First, he describes the logic of fear mechanisms and how “top-down” processing– meaning connections from the parts of the brain that assign meaning to our feelings, are involved in fear and erasing fears and traumas. Then he discusses what successful fear and trauma treatment must include and consider various treatments for whether they meet that standard, such as EMDR, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Ketamine and other drug-assisted therapies and more. He also reviews new data on how 5 minutes per day of deliberate, self-imposed stress can erase fear and depression. And he reviews the role that social connection plays in erasing or maintaining fears by activating specific molecular pathways in the brain and body. Finally, he reviews supplementation with over-the-counter compounds for their effects on anxiety and fear and when to take them, if at all.