The Role of the Amygdala in Your Child’s Anxiety and Panic Attacks

It can be difficult for a parent to cope with seeing their children suffering with anxiety or panic attacks. Understanding what causes the attacks, why they happen, and what your child is going through may help you to be able to support them better and to understand that it may not be something that they can fully control without treatment.

There are a wide range of symptoms and feelings associated with child anxiety and panic attacks, and although there may be other factors affecting it as well, many symptoms can be traced back the amygdala-it is frequently here that all anxiety and panic disorders begin. This is a complicated structure in the brain that is found in the temporal lobe, at the bottom of the brain and understanding what it does can help make sense of the panic attacks that seem so mysterious.

The amygdala is actually part of a pair, one each side of the brain, and is part of a more complex system in the brain called the limbic system. The limbic system is a collection of several parts of the brain, and includes the amygdala, the hippocampus, the thalmic nuclei, and limbic cortex. This system functions by influencing both the endocrine (hormone) system and the autonomic (that which cannot be controlled) nervous system. Overall it has a profound effect on your child’s anxiety, emotion and behavior, their long term memory and sense of smell.

The function of the amygdala is complex, but primarily it is involved in the processing of emotional events and the formation or storing of memory associated with those events. It also has a role in emotional learning-that is, when a person is exposed to the same event multiple times, the other things that are associated with the event can end up triggering the same reaction when experienced alone.

This is what happens in fear conditioning. A person experiences fear at the same time as an innocent, companion event repeatedly. They try to protect themselves from what causes the fear and the amygdala is responsible for coordinating the protection response. Future exposures to the companion event on its own can cause the protective response because the amygdala so strongly associates the two that it automatically starts the response.

It is important to remember that the amygdala takes its input from many regions and senses-basically from all sensory input from the outside, such as the things that we see, hear, touch and feel-including pain, as well as our hormones. It also takes input from our sense of smell-and since the limbic system is closely linked with the sense of smell it makes sense that certain smells can trigger memories and can also trigger panic and anxiety in children.

The output from the amygdala is equally diverse, outputting to many different systems including the endocrine (hormone) system, the sympathetic nervous system, even causing the release of certain chemicals in the brain (neuromodulators) that affect and enhance the way that memories are processed. This means that when a memory is stored that involves a particularly strong emotional aspect, it is stored with added significance-the brain views is as being bigger, or more dangerous than it necessarily was.

Another output from the amygdala calls on another area of the brain-the hippocampus to kick start the sympathetic nervous system which in turn causes a stress reaction in the body such as what is experienced in children with anxiety. This reaction is known as the fight or flight reaction, and is a caused by a combination of changes, including hormone release, increased blood sugars, increased heart and respiration rates and changes in brain chemicals. The reaction in the body, includes increased heart and respiration rate, sweating and a number of other symptoms which may be uncomfortable. At a future time, even remembering the emotion can trigger the same physical child anxiety reaction, despite there being no danger.

There are times when the amygdala may malfunction. It may be that it is activated-set to a higher level of anxiety so often that it forgets how to switch itself back off and go back to a normal level. This may happen because of ongoing exposure to stress at home, or school, because of bullying or a feeling of needing to succeed so as not to disappoint, as well as many other reasons. It is also possible that for some people, children included, the amygdala simply gets it wrong for no reason, and becomes hyperactive.

When it does happen, the result is abnormal fear, anxiety or feelings of panic because of the way that the amygdala triggers the stress response. These feelings build, causing physical reactions too that may scare the child, and so cause further feelings of fear. This becomes an inappropriate negative feedback loop, with the anxiety causing scary sensations that then cause further fear, which reinforce and make worse the physical feelings, until they escalate so much that the child cannot control them. This is a panic attack and can be a terrifying experience for anyone, but especially a child.

Children with ongoing but less severe anxiety have equally little control, and ordinary or situational anxiety in children will affect your child in similar ways, but will be of shorter duration.

It is possible to help the amygdala to reset itself, and return to a normal baseline instead of being at a heightened baseline. There are several ways to accomplish this including drug therapies and effective self-help programs such as The Anxiety-Free Child Program.

Overcoming your child’s anxiety and panic attacks will take time and effort and in the meantime you will continue to have to help them cope, but by eliciting the help of an effective treatment, your child can learn to eliminate their excessive anxiety, panic, and fear and you can become an essential support to them as they grow.

If you suspect your child may be suffering from anxiety, click below to learn more about what you can do to help:

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