Trauma Informed Schools

4. Automated Behaviors

Trauma Informed Practice also promotes the understanding that sometimes challenging behavior might be an automated response. This automated behavioral response is sometimes referred to as amygdala hijacking. The amygdala is an almond shaped part of the brain, that takes over for the purpose of survival, activating the body’s survival mechanism. When the survival system is activated, the prefrontal cortex is not accessible.   For survival, a response without thought is needed.  If we have to think about what our response, this might not end well and could result in indecision.

The limbic system which includes the amygdala is your emotional response system that triggers your fight, flight, or freeze responses. Research has shown that the limbic system also stores and activates repetitive patterns of behavior from past situations where safety was indicated and successfully obtained. From the trauma informed perspective, it is important to replace socially inappropriate stored patterns of behaviors with more socially appropriate patterns of behavior that meet the same need of promoting physical and emotional safety. It takes more repetitions than normal to get the limbic system to store these new patterns. The new patterns are only stored if they result in feelings of physical and emotional safety.