Have you ever wondered why your body seems to panic before your mind has time to catch up? That sudden jolt of fear, the racing heart, or even the freeze response is all thanks to the amygdala. In this episode of Mind Tricks Radio, I sit down with Dr. Catherine Pittman, psychologist, professor, and author of Taming Your Amygdala, to explore how this small almond-shaped part of the brain plays a huge role in anxiety, stress, and emotional reactions.
Dr. Pittman has been called the “amygdala whisperer,” and she brings that same clarity to our conversation. She explains how the amygdala controls our fight, flight, and freeze responses, which were essential for survival in the past but often show up today as panic attacks, social anxiety, or everyday stress. The best part is that while the amygdala reacts instinctively, it can also learn and adapt. That means we have the power to retrain it and build resilience.
We dive into real-life examples, such as how babies differ in reactivity, why public speaking is such a common fear, and how past experiences teach the amygdala what to avoid. Touching a hot stove once is enough for your amygdala to sound the alarm the next time, but the hopeful message is that the same learning process works in reverse. With practice, exposure, and positive experiences, the brain can relearn safety. This is the foundation of effective anxiety treatment and one of the most exciting areas of modern brain science.
Another fascinating insight Dr. Pittman shares is that the amygdala reacts before the conscious brain does. That is why you may slam on the brakes or jump at a loud sound before you even know what happened. The amygdala is lightning fast, and while it can hijack your thinking, it has also saved countless lives. Understanding this ancient brain system helps us see why anxiety feels so automatic, and why learning to calm the amygdala can bring real freedom.
If you are curious about the science of anxiety or want practical tools to manage fear and stress, this mental health podcast episode is a must-listen. Dr. Pittman shows that getting to know your amygdala is not just for psychologists and neuroscientists. It is for anyone who wants to live with more calm, confidence, and compassion for themselves.
Abridged Transcript: Dr. Aaron Kaplan with Dr. Catherine Pittman
Kaplan: Catherine, before we get into the amygdala, I’d like to start by getting to know you a little better. Can you tell us about your personal background and how you became interested in psychology?
Pittman: I’m the oldest of ten kids, so I grew up watching a lot of different personalities develop. That gave me a great opportunity to see how unique people can be. I became fascinated with human behavior and loved studying people. Psychology just came naturally to me. In college, those were the courses that felt most fun and meaningful.
Kaplan: I imagine a large family also gave you a front-row seat to all kinds of family dynamics. How did you get interested specifically in fear and the amygdala?
Pittman: That came about through what felt like an accident. When I was accepted into the clinical psychology program at Northern Illinois University, I was assigned to work as a research assistant with a professor who did rat research. I wanted to be a clinician, so I was devastated. I even cried about it. I didn’t see the connection between therapy and rats. It wasn’t that I disliked animals—I had hamsters, I was comfortable with rats—but I didn’t see why it mattered.
Eventually I wrote a letter to my professor and asked for reading material so I could understand the work better. He was studying fear conditioning in rats, and that gave me a foundation very few clinicians had. Later, when Joseph LeDoux wrote The Emotional Brain based on rat research, I understood it immediately. Because I had studied rat fear responses and conditioning, I could translate that into human fear. At the time, most clinicians had no background in that kind of research.
What I thought was a terrible assignment actually gave me a huge advantage. It even let me finish my master’s thesis first in my program because setting up rat research was faster than human research. My dissertation was with humans, but still focused on fear and anxiety, and that connection started with the rats.
Kaplan: So those early experiences gave you a deep grounding in the physiology of fear. Let’s turn to the amygdala itself. For listeners who might not know, what is the amygdala, and why is it important?
Pittman: First of all, we don’t have just one amygdala—we have two, one on the left and one on the right. Each is about the size and shape of an almond, and in fact the word amygdala comes from the Greek word for almond. When anatomists first saw it, they had no idea what it did.
The amygdala is part of the limbic system, one of the oldest parts of the brain. Its primary job is producing the fight, flight, or freeze response. When it senses danger, it can instantly release adrenaline, tense muscles, change heart rate, and prepare the body to act. This all happens in fractions of a second, before you’re consciously aware of what’s going on. And this is true across many animals—rats, dogs, horses, and humans all have amygdalas that operate in the same way.
Kaplan: So this is an ancient brain structure.
Pittman: Exactly. It hasn’t been upgraded. There’s no “Amygdala 2.0.” It works the same way it did when survival meant running from predators, fighting, or freezing to avoid being seen. That’s why it’s so powerful today. When we feel fear, anxiety, or even panic, it’s the amygdala at work.
Kaplan: You mentioned “freeze” along with fight or flight. People may be less familiar with that. How do you describe the freeze response?
Pittman: It’s just what it sounds like. Think of a deer in the headlights—suddenly still. For prey animals, that stillness can mean survival. Rabbits freeze and blend into the background; predators often miss them unless they move.
Humans freeze too. I see it in my classes. If I ask a question and look for volunteers, students sometimes avert their eyes and sit completely still—“don’t call on me, don’t call on me.” That’s a freeze response.
It can be adaptive. If your boss is yelling at you, part of you might want to fight, part of you might want to flee, but the best choice might be to freeze—to stay still and quiet. That’s often safer than the other options.
Kaplan: That makes sense. Are there differences in how reactive people’s amygdalas are?
Pittman: Yes, definitely. Some amygdalas are more reactive than others, and you can see that even in infants. Some babies are easily startled and cry when tossed in the air. Others barely react. These traits often run in families—you could say some families are “more anxious.”
It’s the same in animals. Breed dogs selectively and you see it. Some are naturally more reactive. So all amygdalas aren’t the same. Some of us are born with more reactive ones, but the amygdala also learns. It adapts based on experiences. That’s why some fears are learned, and also why we can unlearn them.
Kaplan: One of the fascinating things you’ve said is that the amygdala sometimes reacts before the conscious brain does. Can you explain that?
Pittman: Yes. To understand it, you need to know that we don’t actually see with our eyes or hear with our ears. The eyes and ears collect information, but the brain processes it. Vision, for example, happens in the occipital lobe at the back of the brain.
When sensory information comes in, it goes to the thalamus, a walnut-shaped structure deep in the brain. The thalamus decides where to send it for processing—vision to the occipital lobe, hearing to the temporal lobe, and so on.
But here’s the key: the thalamus also sends that information to the amygdala. And because the amygdala is closer, it gets the signal faster than the cortex does. That means the amygdala can “see” or “hear” danger before you consciously process it.
That’s why you might jump at a loud sound or slam on the brakes before realizing a car has stopped in front of you. The amygdala got the quick, low-resolution version of the information and reacted instantly, while the cortex took longer to confirm the details.
Kaplan: So it’s like a low-resolution snapshot—good enough to trigger a reaction, even if it’s wrong.
Pittman: Exactly. The amygdala errs on the side of caution. If it sees a curvy shape, it will make you jump back. It might be a snake, but it might just be a stick. The cost of a false alarm is low compared to missing a real threat.
Kaplan: How does this relate to anxiety disorders, phobias, and trauma?
Pittman: The amygdala learns from experiences, and sometimes it overgeneralizes. A child frightened by a clown might become fearful of all clowns. Someone bitten by a dog might fear all dogs. A person traumatized by a loud, angry parent might later panic around loud, drinking coworkers.
The amygdala doesn’t respond to logic. It responds to experience. That’s why someone can say, “I know this doesn’t make sense, but I’m still terrified.” Their cortex understands there’s no real danger, but their amygdala hasn’t learned that yet.
Kaplan: So therapy has to help the amygdala learn.
Pittman: Right. That’s why exposure therapy is so powerful. The amygdala doesn’t learn from words like “calm down.” It learns by experiencing safety. Gradual exposure gives it proof that the feared situation isn’t dangerous. Over time, the amygdala rewires.
Kaplan: In your book Taming Your Amygdala, you outline a number of strategies. Can you walk us through some of the ways people can calm their amygdala?
Pittman: One of the simplest is diaphragmatic breathing—slow, deep breathing. Functional MRI studies show that when people do this, amygdala activity decreases. Progressive muscle relaxation and guided imagery also send calming signals.
In the long term, regular aerobic exercise and yoga reduce baseline amygdala reactivity. Sleep is critical too. The amygdala needs REM sleep, which mostly occurs in the seventh and eighth hours of sleep. People who cut themselves short on sleep miss out on that calming effect and end up with jumpier amygdalas.
Kaplan: So practicing these habits can actually reset the amygdala’s baseline.
Pittman: Exactly. People underestimate how powerful sleep and exercise are. I’ve had clients say those practices worked better for them than any medication.
Kaplan: What about cognitive strategies—ways the cortex can influence the amygdala?
Pittman: The amygdala “watches cortex television.” It reacts to what you think about, even imagined scenarios. If you visualize your child in a car accident because they’re late, your amygdala reacts as if it’s happening. That’s why worrying can make anxiety worse.
But worry has a purpose when used correctly. If it helps you make a plan, it’s adaptive. I like to tell the story of a prehistoric woman who built her hut by a stream. When the water rose, she imagined it flooding her hut. That worry led her to move the hut to higher ground, which saved her family.
So worry is useful if it leads to action. But cycling endlessly through “what-ifs” just keeps activating the amygdala. Once you have a plan, move on.
Kaplan: That’s a really helpful distinction. Before we close, what’s the key takeaway about the amygdala for listeners?
Pittman: The amygdala is part of all of us. It will always be fast, instinctive, and sometimes wrong. It creates false alarms, and it drives fear, anxiety, and panic. But once you understand it, you realize you have tools—breathing, exercise, sleep, exposure, and thought management—that can calm and retrain it. You can’t control it with words, but you can influence it with experience and habits. Knowing your amygdala can stop fear and anxiety from blocking you in life.
Kaplan: Catherine, thank you. This has been a fascinating and incredibly useful conversation.
Pittman: Thank you, Aaron. I’ve really enjoyed it.