The Small Event that Triggers a Major Crisis

It was a typical day in Ms. Turner's second through fifth grade Special Day Class.

Despite it being a class that serviced students diagnosed with severe behavior challenges, the classroom was filled with joyful sounds of learning as the students eagerly engaged in and completed their daily language arts warm-up.

Andrew was a kind and quiet second grader who loved school. He stood out as one of the brightest students in the class even though he was the youngest.

Unlike some of his classmates, Andrew excelled academically; frequently catching on to new concepts very quickly.

Despite his deep love for learning, Andrew's near perfect attendance record masked a very significant social struggle: he often came to school smelling unclean.

In fact, Andrew's odor was frequently so pungent that it would fill the room. Some days, he smelled so bad that the other students didn't want to play with him and often teased him during recess.

Ms. Turner attempted multiple times to address the issue by contacting Andrew's family, but to no avail.

Taking matters into her own hands, Ms. Turner enlisted the help of the school nurse, who taught Andrew basic hygiene skills. The school even began providing Andrew with care packages filled with basic hygiene products and allowed him daily access to the nurse’s bathroom to clean himself up.

Among Andrew's classmates was Robert, a fifth grader with a definite cruel streak who often displayed signs of having schizophrenia.

Manipulative and unkind, Robert took unusual pleasure in teasing his peers - with Andrew as his favorite target. Not only because Andrew had issues with his hygiene, but also because he was the smallest student in the classroom.

As with most lessons, while teaching the day's lesson Ms. Turner had to occasionally turn her back to the class to write on the board.

This was usually not a problem because Ms. Turner’s three teacher’s assistants would manage the room.

But on this day, two of Ms. Turner's assistants were absent, leaving only one adult to manage the entire class when her back was turned.

Despite this, the lesson progressed without incident…until halfway through.

This time, when Ms. Turner turned to write on the board, her lone assistant was busy helping another student.

With both adults occupied, Robert took this opportunity to target Andrew who was sitting directly in front of him.

“You stink.” Robert whispered.

Fortunately, Andrew was so focused on what Ms. Turner was writing on the board that he was able to ignore Robert’s insult.

He was also quite confident that either Ms. Turner or her assistant would quickly step in and protect him as they had done many times before.

But because there were only two adults in the room that day; and both were occupied, neither one noticed the unfolding conflict.

This left Robert with a rare second opportunity to continue to taunt Andrew.

“You smell like sh*t!” Robert teased, proudly wearing a malevolent smirk on his face.

Still no response from the adults.

Intent on capitalizing on this exceedingly scarce opportunity at a third chance to get a rise out of Andrew, Robert continued his torment, having made up his mind that he was going to keep going until either Andrew reacted or the adults stepped in.

Though the entire incident lasted just a few minutes, without intervention from an adult, Andrew snapped.

He pushed back from his desk. Bolted to his feet. Then turned angrily towards Robert.

The joyous sounds of learning were suddenly shattered by the loud piercing sound of Andrew's chair being forcefully dragged along the classroom floor. The noise instantly caught the attention of everyone in the room.

Ms. Turner and her classroom assistant both turned toward Andrew just in time to witness him grabbing his chair, lifting it high above his head, and positioning his body to strike Robert.

“Stop talking to me!” Andrew screamed.

Completely unfazed, Robert stared unflinchingly at Andrew; still wearing the sinister smile that now showed the twisted pride in his accomplishment.

Uncovering the Force behind Extreme Behavior

The story of Andrew and Robert is a true story.

Their names have been changed, of course; but this story is the retelling of an event that happened in my classroom when I first began teaching students with Severe Emotional Disturbance at the elementary school level.

Before starting this assignment, I had extensive experience at the middle school level; and while the middle school students did exhibit extreme behavioral issues, having an incident as sudden and violent as this one was not the norm.

It was this incident inspired me to research and discover what internal force is so strong that it is capable of turning a calm, happy second grade student into a fierce fighter in mere seconds?

The answer I discovered is the subject of this article.

In the first article in this series, we overviewed The Crisis Cycle, and briefly discussed and defined each of the phases.

Now, let's dig deeper into each of the phases of The Crisis Cycle; starting with the spark that sets the whole crisis in motion: The Triggering Event.

The Triggering Event: A Closer Examination

The Triggering Event is any event that causes a student to emotionally dysregulate. This means that the student has lost control of their behaviors and/or emotions to such a degree that they cannot learn, the other students cannot learn, or both.

Most often, triggering events are negative events; however, positive experiences can serve as triggering events as well.

While we would expect that a harsh reprimand from an adult or social rejection by peers may trigger a student to dysregulate; what is less well known is that positive events, such as the excited anticipation of an upcoming field trip or unexpectedly acing an important exam may set a student off as well.

This is because, in both cases, the level of emotions flowing through a student is so high that the student can easily be pushed beyond their ability to control them; especially if the student has a low tolerance for frustration or lacks sufficient anger management skills.

From the student’s perspective, the build up to an emotional crisis may be slow and gradual.

However, from the teacher's perspective, the triggering event often occurs quite suddenly and unexpectedly.

The story of Andrew is a real-life example of how, from our vantage point, a triggering event can unfold in the classroom quite unexpectedly while for the student it occurs much more gradually.

Moreover, like Ms. Turner, it is unlikely that we will know exactly what event set the student off until after we are well into the crisis (if you ever know it at all).

Luckily, we do not need to know the exact event that triggered the student in order to respond effectively to the crisis.

This is because knowing the neurological and neurobiological processes that are driving the student’s behavior can serve as a clear roadmap, guiding us to respond effectively.

Amygdala Hijack: The Neuroscience

As we learned earlier, when a triggering event occurs, a student will begin to experience such intense emotions that they will begin to dysregulate, or act out.

This intense emotional response is known as an amygdala hijack.

As with many other functions of the body, an amygdala hijack involves several structures of the brain and systems of the body.

But to keep from complicating things too much by diving too deep into the science, we will only talk about two structures of the brain - the prefrontal cortex and the amygdala - and two systems of the body - the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.

The Prefrontal Cortex

The prefrontal cortex is situated in the frontal lobe which is the section of the brain that sits just behind the forehead.

It’s the part of our brain that engages in higher-order thinking and the seat of our rational thoughts.

One of the main jobs of the prefrontal cortex is to carry out executive functions such as helping us plan, reason, solve problems, control our emotions, manage our behavior, learn new concepts, and make smart decisions.

The prefrontal cortex is connected to many parts of the brain, including the amygdala; and is the part of the brain that makes us uniquely human.

The Amygdala

The amygdala is a small, almond-shaped structure located in our brain’s temporal lobe. It is a part of our limbic system and is the main processing center for our emotions.

One of the main roles of the amygdala is to serve as our brain's alarm system. In fact, the amygdala deals mainly with the emotions of anger and fear and it is always on the lookout for danger.

Under normal circumstances, the amygdala is under the inhibitory control of the prefrontal cortex. This means that when the amygdala spots a threat, it sends the information to the prefrontal cortex and 'requests permission' to act.

The prefrontal cortex will then examine the situation and decide whether or not action is appropriate.

As the seat of rational thought, if the prefrontal cortex deems that the action the amygdala wants to take is not appropriate, it will decline the amygdala's request and then get to work developing a more appropriate way to respond.

It is important to note that the amygdala does not look for just any type of danger. The amygdala's main job is to look for the types of danger that it perceives may pose a threat to our existence.

So if the amygdala does get the go-ahead to act, its actions are life-saving actions. Namely, they are large, intense and often out of proportion to the circumstances.

The Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nervous System

The sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are the two branches of the autonomic nervous system.

The autonomic nervous system is the system of the body that oversees all the various automatic and unconscious bodily functions that we need to survive, such as our heart rate, blood pressure, and breathing.

The sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems are complementary systems of the body; that is they work together in the same way our biceps and triceps work together to bend and unbend our arms.

Once the amygdala receives permission from the prefrontal cortex to act, it instantly begins communicating with the sympathetic nervous system whose job it is to activate the ‘fight or flight’ response in the body.

We've all been startled by someone while turning a corner or walking into a room. Remember that bolt of energy you felt go through your body when you suddenly encountered the other person?

That feeling is our sympathetic nervous system activating our fight or flight response.

Once the fight or flight response is activated, changes immediately begin happening in our bodies in order to prepare us for intense, physical, life-saving activity.

These changes include:

• stopping energy draining activities like digestion;

• dilating our pupils so that we can take in more information;

• triggering our liver to send energy in the form of glucose (sugar) to our muscles; and

• triggering our adrenal glands to release adrenaline and cortisol into our bloodstream.

Once the adrenaline and cortisol are released into our bloodstream, this then increases our heart rate, our breathing rate, and our blood pressure.

Within just a few seconds, our bodies are now fully primed and ready to fight off or flee from the threat.

Once we have successfully escaped from or neutralized the threat, it is the job of the

parasympathetic nervous system to restore the body back to homeostasis.

Activating the Parasympathetic Nervous System

As we have just learned, fight or flight reactions are intense, extreme, life-saving actions; as such they can only be maintained for short periods of time.

Very quickly, the intense act of fighting off or fleeing from the threat uses up the extra glucose, adrenaline, and cortisol in our muscles and bloodstream. Once these elements are depleted, this signals the parasympathetic nervous system to engage.

The parasympathetic nervous system then stimulates our vagus nerve. This disengages the sympathetic nervous system and triggers the internal process necessary to restore the body back to a relaxed and resting state.

This phase is often called ‘rest and digest’ because the parasympathetic nervous system restores digestion through the release of the acetylcholine which also decreases the heart rate, breathing rate, and blood pressure; and constricts the pupils.

Depending on the intensity and duration of the action taken, once the parasympathetic nervous system activates, we may often become lethargic and/or sleepy.

Amygdala Hijack and its Relationship to Extreme Behavior

Now that we know the neurobiology behind an amygdala hijack let's discuss how it relates to students and their behavior.

When an event happens that is significant enough to cause a student to lose control of their behavior and emotions, you can surely bet that the student is experiencing an amygdala hijack.

Under normal circumstances, the amygdala consults the prefrontal cortex before acting; however, during an amygdala hijack this two-way communication is non-existent.

Instead, the amygdala blocks communication with the prefrontal cortex and talks directly to the sympathetic nervous system.

Why?

Asking the prefrontal cortex for permission to act takes time; time the amygdala feels it does not have to spare.

So when Robert launched his first insult at Andrew, Andrew did not react. Most likely because he was very involved in and enjoying the language arts lesson; so his prefrontal cortex was fully engaged and in control of his behavior and emotions.

Also, Andrew believed that the adults would step in on his behalf. So while Robert’s initial insult was unpleasant, it did not rise to the level of a triggering event.

However, when the adults did not step in to protect Andrew, this meant that Robert was able to continue hurling insults at him; and because Andrew lacked sufficient anger management skills (remember it was a class for students diagnosed with severe behavior challenges), and was much smaller than Robert, Andrew's prefrontal cortex was only able to regulate his behavior and emotions for a short period of time.

By the third round of insults, Andrew was triggered; and once triggered, Andrew's amygdala ‘hijacked’ his brain, cut off communication with his prefrontal cortex, and sent his body into fight or flight mode.

With the prefrontal cortex offline, Andrew's Amygdala was free to initiate life-saving measures by directly activating the sympathetic nervous system.

Remember, the actions that are taken during an amygdala hijack are usually large, intense, and out of proportion to the circumstance - which is a perfect way to describe Andrew's reaction. Wouldn't you agree?

Additionally, because Andrew’s prefrontal cortex was offline, Ms. Turner would find it extremely difficult to use reason and logic as an effective de-escalation strategy.

Final Thoughts

Understanding the neurological processes behind an amygdala hijack can go a long way in helping us better respond to students in crisis.

Why did Andrew’s amygdala feel Robert’s teasing was an existential threat? Most likely because Andrew had an hyper-reactive amygdala.

We know that fatigue, stress, hunger, and prolonged exposure to unstable, unpredictable, or traumatic environments can all lead to a student developing an hyper-reactive amygdala.

When the Amygdala becomes hyper-reactive, it loses its capacity to distinguish between genuine threats and harmless stimuli.

Perhaps it was Robert's larger stature that triggered the crisis in Andrew. Perhaps it was Andrew’s seemingly neglectful home environment, the repeated rejection from his peers, or the temporarily unsafe classroom environment that resulted from only two adults being present in the room.

Or maybe it was a combination of all the above.

As with most things about the human experience, we can never really know all of the contributing factors that lead to an amygdala hijack.

What we can do is develop and strengthen the abilities of our students’ prefrontal cortices and parasympathetic nervous systems to remain active and in control during times of high stress and anxiety.

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Be safe and Be well!