I had a lot of trauma as a child, and it left me with an enlarged and overly-connected amygdala. If I was living 10,000 years ago, this wouldn’t be so bad. It w

I had a lot of trauma as a child, and it left me with an enlarged and overly-connected amygdala. If I was living 10,000 years ago, this wouldn’t be so bad. It would just result in an over-active fight/flight response. However, in the modern day, it results in an ‘always-on’ stress response which saturates my body with stress hormones. And, the stress hormones cause lots of other health issues, and it becomes a cycle of chronic conditions. Unfortunately, as far as I know, one can’t decrease the size or connectivity of the amygdala. So, one thing to do is to strengthen the executive controlling function of the prefrontal cortex. Some people recommend meditation training and mindfulness for this. And, it’s helpful sometimes. Another theory is to participate in activites that cause other hormones to counteract cortisol, etc. Unfortunately, those types of experiences (e.g. having a solid and broad community of support) are even more difficult in the modern world. So, the only long-term solution that I know of is to remove oneself from stress completely - which is also practically impossible.