Written by Lee Stevenson, sorry I have not edited this but I will try to make corrections later. It took me many days and hours to research this. When it comes to the human brain and how it functions it can be very difficult to determine which research is valid and which is not. So it can be very mentally taxing to learn about it. I will say this study has taught me a lot about others and myself and how we can all make better decisions. Keep in mind this is not medical advice I am writing this for educational purposes . If you are not well seek the aid of a qualified professional with proven experience and success. Learning these things can better help use make wiser decisions and even better understand if we were seeking therapy because we could better understand if the person we chose is going to help us heal or is going to only try and tell us what we want to hear to avoid hurting our feelings or causing conflict which will not help a person to heal.
I am going to discuss the temporal junction and how all of us are effected by it’s dysfunction at one time in our life. This can cause a dramatic change in our behavior and thinking. This can lead to decisions that can dramatically effect our lives and others negatively and it can last a life time. Hypoactivity of the temporal junction can be caused by our own thinking or by external stimulus and people. When we have hypoactivation we tend to be easier to manipulate, we have an exaggerated view of our abilities and importance , we can become manipulative and deceptive. We become goal driven so will pretty much cross many moral boundaries and dangers and ignore the consequences. The end results can cause TJ fatiuge which causes a total loss of self identity and total loss of being able to identify when something is immoral or in appropriate.
By being aware of how the TJ is effected we can learn to be aware of when it has been effected and make better decisions and learn to avoid it’s dysfunction as much as possible. When the temporal junction is dysfunctional a person will be more inclined to make decision for themselves and not want any outside input or ideas. They will prefer to work alone. They lose the ability to cooperate with others and will usually not cooperate. They start to believe only they and their knowledge can solve their problems or help them achieve their goals. Notice these things are involved in narcissistic behavior. So you can see how a very kind, humble and caring person can suddenly become narcissistic.
There are ways to avoid this and improve it’s function. Most experience dysfunction of the temporal junction many times in their lives. Chronic illness can also cause this to occur. The temporal junction is how we feel about emotions, it communicates with all other areas that help us identify who we are and makes us aware of ourselves , of what makes us happy and what does not. What we like and what we do not. It makes us aware of who we are as a person and helps us to set goals based on that knowledge. So hyperactivation of temporal junction or losing function of it through TJ fatigue can cause us to lose our identity. Temporal junction dysfunction can effect many of our senses including our hearing, eye sight , smell and taste. It is involved in joy we feel when we eat a meal or smell a flower. So loss of it’s function can take a lot of joy from our lives.
I have not had a chance to research how it effects things on a physical level except that it’s hyperactivation causes us to over respond to environmental stimulus such as sound and visual information and temporal junction fatigue can make our eyes more sensitive to light cause blurred vision, cause loss of hearing and ringing or buzzing in the ears. Many who have Lyme experience this. By being aware of temporal junction hyperactivation and temporal junction fatigue it can make us aware we are prone to making bad decisions and we can do our best to take steps to prevent it , if we are aware of the mental state we are in. We can be aware of when it is being hyperactivated and takes step to prevent it so we do not eventually suffer from TJ fatigue which really can destroy our lives from the behavior changes that occur. When the TJ is hyperactivated we tend to make uninhibited decisions which can cause us to cross moral boundries we should not. When it has become fatigued we lose all sense of morality. So it is very important we protect TJ function as much as possible and when not possible it is important to recognize we are in a position of vulnerability to make a bad decision and avoid situations that my cause us to.
A sign the FJ is hyperactivated is obsessive and compulsive thoughts. We will over think everything. Another sign the FJ is hyperactivated we start becoming more controlling and manipulative towards others. Other symptoms are we become restless and have difficulty sleeping , relaxing , we become hyper, we become wired but tired. We may be sleepy but we cannot stop our thinking so we can sleep. We lose our ability to be empathetic and sympathetic. We all have experienced this at one time or another and have acted on it. By learning to be aware of it we can make better decisions when it occurs. When the TJ becomes hyperactivated we become too driven to accomplish something and become to motivated causing a person to make many bad decisions and even immoral ones. When the TJ becomes hyperactivated or becomes fatigued, we lose self identity, and all moral values, we lose empathy, and sympathy for others. It even effects how we feel about ourselves. So it robs us of the ability to feel happy, content and satisfied. We start making decisions with no consideration of how it effects others and we lose the sense of how our decision effect others.
Other symptoms of dysfunctional TJ is we will avoid social interaction unless it would benefit ourselves. We also stop listening to the suggestions and ideas of others unless it supports what we want to believe. We no longer like working with others and prefer to work by ourselves or do a task by ourselves. Another symptom of TJ hyperactivation is we start overthinking what peoples facial expressions, body language and the things they say and we start looking for hidden motives and intentions. I have noticed myself, included if I have guilt I have not dealt with then I will start to do this. Guilt can really cause the TJ to become hyperactivated. So it is best to avoid guilt as much as possible. We all have experienced psychotic episodes. This is caused by temporal hyperactivation. Psychotics seem to get stuck in a state of TJ hyperactivation. One good thing about TJ hyperactivation or fatigue we can retrain the mind and correct it’s dysfunction and because the TJ is connected to many other parts of the brain it can also help correct other mental issues we may be having. But the insula is connected to many areas of the brain and requires therapy in order to heal it and correct it’s function. Hyperactivation of the TJ also causes borderline personality disorder. We all experience this at one time or another so it is inappropriate to go around labeling people as psychotic or as having a borderline personality disorder. It is when the symptoms persist for extended periods of time that it may indicate damage to those areas of the brain. Hyperactivation of the TJ and TJ fatigue dramatically effects our physical health and mental health. Usually when there is hyperactivation of the TJ it causes hyperactivation of the HPA, once the TJ is fatigued usually the HPA has become fatigued. This causes a total loss of motivation and desire to live. Hyperactivation and TJ fatigue causes us to lose our ability to inhibit things and to prevent us doing immoral things. If our TJ is over activated we become more prone to angry outburst, acting on sexual urges inappropriately, doing acts of violence, and many other immoral or inappropriate things.
One way that the temporal junction can become hyperactivated is if we start comparing ourselves to others. It can give us a false sense of pride and importance. For example if we view ourselves as better looking then others, or we view others as having lower morals or are not as good at decision making , or we may perceive they have a rougher life then you because they are not as wise. This can result in hyperactivation of the TJ. Studies have shown those who are over confident or overly proud are easier to manipulate and easier to deceive and make many more errors in their decision making . They have shown those who lack confidence make fewer errors. Those who become over confident start putting more confidence in themselves then in things they may have learned that guide them morally. They are more vulnerable to manipulations by others when they are in this heightened state of TJ activity. Because they already have a heightened sense of value and importance, someone starts to woo them and complement them they can easily get them to do their will. Whether it be selling them something, taking advantage of them sexually or in whatever other way a person will take advantage of others. This can destroy their relationships with others. It can also dramatically effect their lives because they are more prone to making bad decisions and it could effect them for the rest of their lives. By being aware of when we are getting too prideful or having a heightened view of our own self worth we could learn to avoid this type of thinking and learn to be balanced on our view of ourselves. If we have a heightened view of ourselves we start looking down on others and viewing their flaws while becoming blind to our own. This to can be taken advantage of by others. We should never compare ourselves to others. This causes us to devalue others and not see their worth. That will destroy our relationships with others. And effect how we interact with others. They may see us as being confident at first but once they get to know someone who has a heightened sense of pride and self worth they will start distancing themselves from them because they make bad decisions that either hurt them, cause them stress or are morally wrong which can smear their reputation just from association. They can push family away because they view themselves as being wiser and more capable then others. This can eventually lead to TJ fatigue which really really causes the person to go down the wrong roads. Now I will discuss what the temporal junction does then I will discuss other things that can cause the TJ to become hypoactivated. Then I will discuss how we can protect ourselves from these things occurring.
The temporal junction is what gives us our awareness of self. It gives us awareness of who we are and where we fit in , in the world. When the temporal junction is not functioning properly we cannot use our knowledge of who we are and we can develop psychopathy. The temporal junction communicates with the insula which helps us interact with others and be more aware of how they feel and how our actions effect others emotionally. It is involved in the feeling of pride, empathy,sympathy, our perspective on things, guilt, shame, embarrassment, gratitude, social cognition (being able to pick up cues from our social interactions to respond appropriately), perceiving others intentions such as whether they are being deceptive or not, making moral judgments based on our beliefs, moral values and our autobiography memories. (memories that shaped who we are). Temporal junction fatigue can cause anxiety, loss of the ability to access autobiographical information , loss of the ability to produce short term memories. In other words TJ fatigue can make us lose our self identity and awareness of where we fit into the world.
Loss of function can dramatically effect our thinking and decision making causing us making some very bad decisions. It regulates our feeling of fear or of a threat. TJ also regulates our desire to explore and learn. It is also involved in motivation. Deceptive people get the TJ to hyperactivate to motivate us to do or respond how they would like us to. TJ is also involved in our ability to perceive time such as when something happened or when we need to do certain things. So the TJ is involved in self consciousness and how we feel emotions. It is also involved in our ability to read faces and body language.The TJ is where we feel love, joy, happiness, desires, sense of justice, sense of loss, of being offended, hatred, goal setting, feeling of satisfaction, mercy and it guides our ability to forgive others. The TJ regulates our ability to determine which beliefs are false and which are true, it helps us determine what is deceptive behavior, what is a lie and what is not.
now it is important to discuss some things that can cause it’s dysfunction and things we can do to help prevent it. The temporal junction also helps us to control compulsive behavior such as lust, anger, or violent reactions. It’s dysfunction can cause us to become aggressive and even become violent. I am also going to discuss how to heal the TJ when we have been put in situations that could not be avoided that cause it’s dysfunction. TJ is also involved in our perspective taking. The TJ helps us to determine what things are highest in priority and which ones are not. It also is involved in setting goals. The importance of protecting the TJ is it helps us identify who we are and who we want to be. Sadly those who experienced trauma especially childhood trauma or have PTSD will have damage insula which is needed to understand our emotions and be aware of others so they will need to repair the insula also in order to fully understand who we are and who we want to be. It is involved in all things we feel even disgust, surprise, it is even involved in how we feel pain emotionally or physically and how we perceive others pain emotionally or physically.
With hyperactivation our emotions feelings and how we perceive them become exaggerated. For example a lot of times when people are trying to deceive you they will be excessively kind, constantly complement you and constantly point out your value. This can cause the TJ to become hyperactivated causing overconfidence, and get you to believe you have more value , and others as having less value, and it makes it easier to deceive you into doing their will, or get you to make a bad decision. Con men will use the TJ hyperactivation by either causing a lot of commotion to get a person over stimulated causing TJ hyperactivation , or they will try to make a person feel like they will be missing out and they need to make a decision quickly. Another way people will take advantage of TJ hyperactivation they will try to force people into making a decision and giving them very little time to do so. This causes the persons TJ to become hyperactivated. At a very young age I got tired of people getting me to make bad decisions by saying I had to make the decision now and not giving me time to fully understand how the decision effected me or others, that I started telling them then I will not decide and I will have no part of what you are asking me to do. If I do not fully understand what I am getting into then I will just walk away from the decision no matter how critical it may seen. Most of the time I have found the people pressuring me, changed their mind and sometimes even realize they were making a mistake and were being selfish and would apologize after I told them, I would not decide and wanted no part of it. Sometimes they stopped being my friend completely and it turned out they were up to no good and I would have been involved in it, or it was revealed they had selfish motives. But they did not give me all the details so their motives seemed honorable. So be very careful if someone is pressuring you to make a decision by constantly asking or by trying to make you decide quickly.
Peer pressure works the same way. The TJ is involved in hyper activation but peers may pressure someone to do something dangerous or immoral. They will keep the pressure on which cause the TJ to become hyperactivated until the person give in and performs the dangerous or immoral act. The trauma caused by either experience can cause emotional things can lead to TJ fatigue to occurring which dramatically changes our thinking in a negative way and our ability to make moral decisions. This is taking advantage of the motivational part of our TJ.
Excess visual stimulation, audio , emotional stimulation especially negative emotions, stress or trauma can cause hyperactivation of the TJ. Loud and constant notice has been found to be one of the most severe causes of hyperactivation of the TJ. Constant pressure to make decisions or being ask to make a sudden decision and not being given a reasonable amount of information or time can cause TJ hyperactivation. When this occurs we become disassociated with our identity of self , of what makes us who we are and of our moral values and the things that make us unique. When this occurs we no longer have the feelings that guide us in making the right decisions. This is when we have to let our knowing mentally what is right and wrong guide us and not doubt them for example we know that having immoral sexual relations is wrong. When there is hyperactivation of the TJ it can cause us to cross the line and have immoral relations. If it involve being deceptive and possibly conning someone to make money we could easily be tricked into participating. This could result in the destruction of our lives and others, and of pushing people away from us including family. Sometimes the damage we caused is so severe it effects many lives for the rest of their lives. So if we have hyperactivation of the TJ we need to be aware and when the occurs we need to not let feelings guide us but let what we know is right and wrong guide us so we do not make such errors.
Spreading ourselves thin by making too many promises , by trying to accomplish too much, trying to help too many people, or by having too much stress or trauma in our lives can cause hyperactiavtion. It is best to have a few good friends and get to know them well then to have many friends and not have the time to know them well and to spread ourselves too thin. I have learned the hard way to not make promises but to tell the people if I am able to do something I will let you know but I cannot make any promises. Often times things come up that are beyond our control and we cannot help them we feel remorse and guilt which can cause overactivation of the TJ. Or we may make too many promises and get ourselves spread so thin that our brains become overwhelmed and this can induce hyperactivation of the TJ.
Even our good qualities can cause hyperactivation of the temporal junction. I am just now learning to balance my empathy and sympathy for others. I see others suffering , and in bad situations. My TJ becomes hyperactivated causing me to get grouchy, get mean , and to make it difficult to prioritize things and organize my thoughts. I will also respond inappropriately to a situation. This is of no benefit to anyone because it only slows me down and makes it more difficult to make good decisions. So even our good qualities can cause us to have hyperactivation of the TJ and cause us to become overconfident , devalue others , and make bad decisions because when it is hyperativated all our our emotion become hyperactivated even our sense of pride and self worth. We need to learn to give ourselves much more time so when something unforeseen occurs we can deal with it much more easily. If we keep making plans for our days to be filled every day and leave no time for other things then when something unforeseen does happen it makes us less able to deal with it in a balanced and wise way because our TJ will be in a constant state of hyperactivation which can eventually lead to TJ fatigue.
Loss of function in the temporal junction causes a loss of our self identity and who we are, a loss of fear, hypersexuality in some it can actually cause hyposexuality, loss of interest in being social, loss in the ability to pick up and respond to social cues appropriately, can cause neglect for family, loss of morality, risk taking especially sexually, loss of morality will cross moral boundaries, increased rude behavior, will constantly try to take over and control conversations, our ability to take our perspective and compare it to others also becomes inhibited with TJ dysfunction. When this occurs our perspective can become bias because we will only look at things from our perspective. When the TJ is disfunctional we are less able to respond emotionally our emotions become blunted, emotions with increased expression are anger, frustration, depression, anxiety, will start developing many new interest by not fully following through with them, loss of TJ is involved in remembering our interactions with others. Los of function means we will remember their names and faces but we will not remember our interactions with them this includes family. So we can experience a loss of memories of how certain ones made us feel and how we interacted with them socially. Because TJ is involved in how we feel about emotions and connects to areas of the brain that help us determine what we think, TJ disruption can cause us to react inappropriately to the emotions of others. Usually when someone with TJ dysfunction is faced with a situation that requires empathy or sympathy they will react with anger or resentment towards the person. When the TJ is dysfunctional we lose our ability to see a threat or to feel fear. Loss of TJ makes us lose our ability to determine if our actions are moral and if they are not. TJ also helps us determine what is true or what is not.
Those who dwell to much on peer pressure are more prone to give into it and make bad decisions because it negatively effects the TJ. When the TJ is dysfunctional we lose memories of our emotional and physical pain which causes us to be unaware of others emotional and physical pain. Associating with others who’s values are not what ours are , or who have less consideration of others can reshape our TJ making us more like them it is called behavior mimicry. This also causes us to lose our knowledge of who we are and what our goals are. It also helps us reshape our goals if our situation has changed and adapt emotionally and goal wise. So if we leave peer pressure or stress or other things that effect the TJ we lose the ability to adapt and adjust to changes. We start living in the now and for ourselves.
So you can see the importance of maintaining TJ health and restoring it’s health if we see the sign’s it is starting to be impaired. If we lose TJ function then we become unable to control compulsive behavior such as lust anger and violence and we can commit acts of violence, immoral sexual acts. When you lose control of TJ function it clearly effects you in a way that you could easily put yourself in vulnerable position making it easier for others to have power or control over you. It could even eventually lead to being imprisoned or effect others negatively resulting in them , hurting you in some way. We all can and many do experience this at one time in their life. From excess stress or trauma and sometimes both. This is when it is very important to let what we have learned about morality and what the right decision is guide us and not what we feel the right decision is.
Things that can cause it’s dysfunction is spreading ourselves to thin, sudden chronic stress being thrust upon us, trauma, excess environmental stimulation especially loud noise, lack of sleep, having to rapidly change focus excessively for example multitasking too much, or being in an environment were we have to make many decisions rapidly, being in a new environment where we have to learn too many new things which can overwhelm the temporal lobe. For example sometimes starting a new job requires learning so many new things it can activate and eventually overwhelm the temporal lobe. This can eventually lead to temporal junction fatigue. I will discuss below things that help prevent and overcome temporal junction fatigue.
Frontal cortex is involved in cooperating with others. Those who have experienced trauma, chronic stress or childhood abuse can experience a dysfunction in the signaling between the temporal junction and frontal cortex. This can cause them to be non cooperative with others and to believe only they can solve their problems and be non receptive to suggestions or ideas from others. For those ones they need to heal the frontal cortex and work on improving temporal junction health. This requires help from a therapist who has experience at correcting those issues. It communicates with the Temporal Junction which is involved in being aware of stimulation in our environment, including communicating with others, reading their faces and body language. This gives our minds the ability to prioritize and focus on certain stimulus. It is also involved in our ability to empathize with others. It is involved in setting goals , and motivation to fulfill those goals to direct our attention to those goals based on the priority of the goals.
TJ over activation can cause manic, bipolar and narcissistic behavior. This occurs in most people at one time or another in their life. Certain learned behavior can effect it’s function in a negative way and it has been shown that behavior can be unlearned. In some forms of autism this ability is inhibited. It is over activated in manic behavior. When it is over activated a person will become extremely focused on one goal while neglecting other responsibilities that do not involve achieving their chosen goal. This is why those who are manic or bipolar often times will become focused on one goal and forget responsibilities such as paying the bills or they may neglect family and family responsibilities. The goal can be something as simple as cleaning and organizing a room.
TJ hyperactivation can someone to become overconfident in their skills and abilities. This is caused by hyperactivation of the TJ. For example if someone is stressed or spread themselves too thin it can effect their temporal junction. This impairs their ability to think clearly and they may have grandiose thoughts. For example if they owned a business and they have been stressed or experienced trauma at the time. This could cause them to take on more clients then they can handle having no regard whether they have the ability to handle them. This causes a loss of the inhibitory mechanisms in the brain. This can cause them to make many bad decisions. This can include not just their business decisions but even decisions in life, for example they could start making decisions that negatively effect their family , and studies have shown it even increases the risk of a person getting involved in immoral sexual relations. This shows the importance of making decisions that will not add more stress on ourselves. This also shows the importance of not putting ourselves in positions to make sudden decisions when possible because the stress can effect the temporal junction causing us to make the wrong decision. This can cause temporal junction burn out from the stress of having to deal with the consequences which can be very long term.
The symptoms involved with temporal junction burnout are inability to perform and complete regular task, becoming very irritable, loss of empathy and compassion for others. Aggressive and even violent behavior, less sensitive to important social cues, becoming easily distracted, forgetfulness, extremely cranky, low tolerance for increased stress, dominating conversations, acting needy or desperate, asking inappropriate questions or saying inappropriate things, low self esteem and confidence, which is effected by others. A person with temporal junction burn out will lose their self identity and base their self esteem on cues from their interactions with others and how they perceive the views them.
Because their thinking is impaired they can perceive things incorrectly and make bad choices. When this occurs it is more difficult for someone to know when they are being manipulated or deceived. They tend to over think their social interactions. This also causes them to say things in a way it does not come across as intended and what they meant to say is not what they say. They will experience feelings of restlessness, loss of the ability of ones own cognitive processes and and understand how to regulate them and use them. In other words they lose the ability to determine what thoughts are important and which ones are not and deciding which thought to give more priority to. This also causes them to lose understanding of their own abilities. Notice all things involved in self identity.
Those with temporal junction fatigue are less prone to think things through and act out on impulse, which can result in bad relationship decisions, bad financial decisions, they may get involved in risky behavior, loss of self discipline, short tempers, feeling of unpleasantness (unable to relax). Temporal burn out occurs when someone is in a constant state of TJ hyperactivation, what adds to this is they may make bad decisions with many consequences that cause even more TJ activity causing the burn out of the TJ to happen much more rapidly. So it is best not to complicate our lives and not to have so many friends we rarely have time for ourselves or to be so helpful with others we barely have time to address our own responsibilities. This also leaves us time if something unforeseen happens. Imagine if we make a decision and our TJ is in a state of hyperactivation because the decision is important and hyperactivation of the TJ can help us become more focus on solving the problem when it is very important. Then something unexpected happens requiring more of our mental focus. This causes an increase in TJ activation making us more prone to making bad and wrong decisions because we start to lose our inhibition and moral guidance. I am guilty of causing this on myself but am now taking steps to prevent this from occurring as much as possible.
To prevent TJ hyperactiavtion we need to learn to not spread ourselves too thin. Not to make make promises unless we know we will have the time and they will not add more burden to us when we may already be burdened. We need to make sure we leave enough time in each day to deal with unforeseen things that may happen. We need to try and keep our lives as simple as we can. The more things we own the more things we have to take care of spreading ourselves thinner. Learning to be happy with the simple things in life can help us prevent complicating our lives more which would increase TJ activity. Learning not to compare our lives and happiness to others but keeping in touch with who we are and what makes us happy can help protect our thinking. Be aware when the TJ is hyperactive or fatigued we have the tendency to lose our identity and start mimicking others in an attempt to establish our identity which will farther push us away from knowing who we are and what makes us happy. It can cause us to lose our identity and we will constantly seek it by seeing things we my like in others and start emulating it. We lose contact with our autobiography memories when the TJ is hyperactivated or fatigued. Those are the memories that shaped who we are , what makes us unique, what brings us joy and makes us happy. It also shapes our self perception of our self worth. Ever see those people who try to excessively please others , who try to be excessively nice, who are much more sensitive to criticism, who will do inappropriate things or cross moral boundaries to please others. These are ones who are in a state of TJ hyperactivation or TJ fatigue. They lost their self identity so are trying to get others approval in an attempt to establish their identity.
If we no longer can recognize those things then we also become disassociated form our religious values, moral values, and ethical beliefs and can easily be influenced by others and many other things that made us who we are and we can easily be deceived. In doing so we may even attack those reaching out wanting to help us. I have found myself guilty of this at times. I am working very hard to make sure I am aware when this is happening and respond appropriately. Because we are more prone to lying when the TJ is hyperactivated or fatigue we can cause others to lose their trust in us. And rightfully so you would have proven you cannot be trusted because often times when in a state of hyperactivation of the TJ or TJ fatigue a person will not remember some of the immoral or inappropriate things they have done. So they will believe they have done no wrong. But the truth always gets revealed in one way or another. Just recently I was in a state of TJ hyperactivation. I stated an untruth and did not realize it. A friend pointed it out to me and I did not believe them because I work very hard to be truthful and not be deceptive. Once I calmed down I remembered I did lie. It was not deliberate, I thought I was saying the right thing at the time. The best thing to do when this occurs is to admit your error, take corrective actions, apologize to anyone harmed and work hard to try and not let your TJ get dysregulated. If we do not then we start to become immune to crossing moral boundaries. We also earn a reputation of not being able to be trusted or of being an immoral person. Also we need to learn if we made errors and do not take corrective action it will keep our TJ in a state of hyperactivation making us more prone to bad decisions moral and goal wise.
To help prevent TJ dysfunction learning to meditate on positive things, learn mindful meditation, learn to meditate on which things have priority and by achieving them will have the most positive and long term effects on your life. Studies have shown those who meditate on the past memories that brought a person joy not only improves temporal junction health but health of the brain overall. Studies have shown just looking at pictures of nature improves temporal junction health.
Learn to identify and eliminate unnecessary stress such as gossip, getting involved in the affairs of others and their disputes if they do not concern you, avoid watching the news excessively it has been shown to have a negative impact on the function of the temporal junction, be cautious of taking on more responsibilities if we are already stressed or spread thin. Even if we appear to have the time or mental resources we also have to keep in mind time and unforeseen circumstance befall us all and by not spreading ourselves too thin we can be prepared if something does occur. Meditating on prioritizing decisions, deciding which goals or decisions will have the best long term positive effects on our lives improves our ability to prioritize and learn which goals or task should have the most priority. Studies have shown with practice this improves our ability to make quicker decisions with less errors. Meditate on our goals and which ones will have the most and long term positive effects on our lives and which task and goals deserve the most attention. If we have a difficult time meditating on such things we could write them down, think about the task and goals and number them from one on up in order of priority with number one being the top in priority.
We need to learn to adapt our thinking and be more flexible in our thinking. Things can change very quickly in our lives. If we struggle to restore them or refuse to let them go then we run on a figurative hamster wheel keeping us in a state of hyperactivation of the TJ. We need to learn things can change rapidly in our lives and often times we can do nothing about it. We need to learn to remain calm as possible when this happens, learn technique to control stress when we cannot avoid it. We need to learn to keep focused on the present and what we can do about our circumstances now and not dwell on the past that cannot be changed and often times would never fully be gotten back. I have done things in my youth that deeply hurt others I took corrective actions and repented but the scars left hurt them enough that even though they forgave me the relationship or friendship was never the same. I had to learn that my actions had put a wall between us and that I would have to move on and make new friends and be much more considerate of others and how my decisions effect others. Though it was not intentional I had made the decision at a time my TJ was hyperactivated. I didn’t know why I made a decision that was obviously stupid at the time but since studying how those things occur it has made me more aware of when I am more prone to making bad decision and not respond inappropriately when someone else is in a state of TJ hyperactivation or TJ fatigue. Our response when someone is experiencing this can make their situation worse or help them. We have to be very careful with them when they are in those states though they can be very deceptive and manipulative. If they cannot manipulate or deceive you they can become very angry at you and aggressive towards you, resent you and even get violent with you. So learn when it is best to leave such a situation.
Another thing that can cause TJ over activation is constantly dwelling on past mistakes . If we keep dwelling on them it can fatigue the TJ. Studies have found those who confess their mistakes are better able to learn from them and move forward. Those who will not admit their error start to suffer TJ dysfunction causing them to be unable to identify what is moral and what is not. It will even cause them to reshape their religious beliefs to support their behavior. Since our morals and religious beliefs are a part of who we are this can farther push them away from self identity. You ever see those people who mimic those they are around them and will try to please them excessively. They are trying to establish their identity because they have lost the perception of who they are, they have lost their identity so they are trying to establish it by imitating others. That only pushes them farther away from knowing who they are and what goals would make them happy. These ones become caught up in trying to show others their value, and importance. Their value in their minds become based on how others perceive them and on how they believe others perceive them. So if they perceive someone does not see their value or importance they may lose confidence, some react by striking out at those who do not appear to see their value or importance. So you can see why it is important to try and avoid things that cause us guilt. We are all imperfect and make mistakes. To protect our TJ if we error we need to admit the error, confess it and learn from it and take steps to prevent making the same errors. If we do not admit our error and take corrective action it can result in TJ dysfunction causing us to make many bad decisions that will carry more guilt then when it becomes dysfunctional we will lose the ability to know when we are making decisions that are not moral, thus losing our awareness of who we are. The guilt can involve minor mistakes we have made but the ones that have the most impact on our lives and our brain function is when we make decisions that compromise our morals. So protecting the TJ also protects our moral values. If we have done something that carries extreme guilt. We know eventually the truth will come out. So if we confess, and deal with the consequences we no longer have to dwell on it and we can move on. Ironically ever see those people who do immoral things and then do not remember doing them. The excess guilt causes TJ dysfunction inhibiting their ability to recall the immoral actions they had taken. I have not found studies to show if those memories come back or not once TJ function is restored but I would not doubt if they do. If that is the case they would most likely benefit from seeing a therapist to help them admit their error and also help to learn from them. Often times it involves more then one person having guilt. Some will push all the guilt onto others involved in the error. This can damage the TJ causing loss of function and they will become deceptive and manipulative. They also lose the ability to tell when they are being lied to or deceived. So if the guilt was shared it is best for a person to accept their part in it and confess it and take steps to move forward and to prevent making the same errors again to protect their TJ.
One of the toughest ones and something I had to learn to deal with is the sense of loss. Before I got ill I could by almost whatever I wanted. My property was paid off and I was starting to focus on improving it and also was saving money to buy a new truck and almost had enough saved up. Because of medicine only treating the symptoms of illness and not the cause I lost everything I had very quickly. I lost my job, my property, and all the money I had and become very deeply in debt. By the time I realize modern medicine only treats the symptoms and I turned to natural medicine and started healing I had already lost everything. I am now healed from natural methods. Modern medicine caused me to become broke in months, in order to make sure I had a home, I had to sign my house an property over to a family member so they would pay the taxes. So my life changed dramatically. But my TJ was protected because my Facebook friends got me to keep focused on what was important and that was healing. They got me to realize those things were not as valuable as my life. So they taught me not to dwell on the losses I suffered but to dwell on what I could do now in order to improve my life and what decisions I could make that would have a positive outcome on my life. Also an elder taught me to distinguish between what would make my life easier and what would make my life happier. It took a while for me to understand but after I did it made me remember a story this couple told me that made me realize fully what it meant. They fought a lot and it was clear they did not really love each other. I was about ten years old, and wondered why they married each other. Of course a ten year old does not know any better. So I ask them why they got married, they did not get offended but actually laughed. They said that it was out of convenience , they had agreed they did not love each other but he needed someone to help around the house and she needed someone to help her financially so they got married out of convenience. So their marriage was more based on an agreement (convenience). So decisions that make life convenient for us are not always the decisions that will bring us happiness.
As you can see if we do not protect the TJ then any of us could easily become a very bad person or make very bad decisions no matter how moral we are or how hard we try to stick to our religious values.
Makes you realize why Satan when he is attacking someone he unleashes an all out attack to overwhelm them. It would cause TJ dysfunction and if a person did not keep meditating on God’s word, or on good things it could damage the TJ getting them to break their moral values. When you are constantly attacked and being accused of things you would not do , or someone you care about continually wrongs you which are things Satan can drive people to do the TJ becomes hyperactivated and can eventually become fatigued. Often times we are in a position we cannot remove ourselves from it. When this occurs we need to keep in mind it is not our fault, they may not know any better, they may be stressed , they may be projecting their inner feelings or short comings onto you as a way to release them. Either way if we respond when this occurs our TJ is hyperactive and we will respond inappropriately. It is best to wait until we have calmed down and often times we realize the behavior was so crazy it isn’t even worth thinking about or even addressing.
What studies have shown is going in nature and even looking at nature has the most beneficial effect on the brain our mood and has been shown to be very healing to the brain. Day dreaming about things you like and the joy they bring improves overall brain function.
Studies have also found doing acts of charity and kindness improves overall brain function. Showing acts of empathy and sympathy have been shown to improve temporal TJ function. When we make decisions the brain can still identify the emotions but when the TJ is not functioning properly how we perceive those emotions becomes distorted and so does the way we react to them. Even little things like offering words of comfort to someone when they are dealing with hard times can improve TJ function.
Trauma and betrayal can dramatically effect the temporal junction. When this occurs we tend to over analyze things. This can cause us to lash out at the very ones who are trying to help and support us and guide us as we heal. I have found myself being guilty of that. This causes others to move away from you and to try and avoid you. It causes ones who have done this to push those away that would be a support for them and to hurt many people. When this occurs and someone finds they are unable to stop dwelling on and over thinking what may have happened it would be best if they got therapy. Many will seek therapist that tell them what they want to hear. It is best to find a therapist based on their success rate at helping people heal not one that will say what the patient wants to hear. In order to move on you have to accept
TJ also controls our sense of justice. If we feel someone was unjust to us or we feel an unjust act had occurred to someone else and it is something we can do nothing about we need to learn from it and dwell on how we can avoid putting ourselves in a situation for it to occur again. If we only dwell on the unjust act it can cause TJ fatigue and I discuss the horrible consequences of that. It could cause us to commit and act of violence or seek revenge on someone. A sense of justice is good to have but over thinking on it can skew our sense of justice and cause us to act out inappropriately on it.
Hatred damages the TJ . We are supposed to hate bad things. But if they occur to us we may have a difficult time letting go of the fact that it has happened and even forgiving the person or people. We have to keep in mind we all make mistakes. We all offend , hurt each other, and wrong each other. As we learn from our mistakes we learn to become better people. We have to think how good it feels when we have erred and repented and was forgiven. If the person does not repent, and continues their behavior it is best if we learn from it and dwell on how we can prevent putting ourselves in a situation for them to wrong us again when possible. If we cannot prevent them wronging us we have to learn not to dwell on it because it will damage our TJ and we could start making very bad decisions. The TJ helps us respond to things in a balanced and appropriate way.
Conflicts with others can also damage the TJ. Those who experienced trauma, chronic stress, or have PTSD will often times avoid conflict and try and find the neutral ground . Sometimes this involves them convincing themselves of things that are not true, or even tolerating things they should not in order to avoid conflict. The TJ helps us to balance that and know when the conflict is worth addressing and when it is worth avoiding and how to have a balanced reaction to conflict. It also helps us determine if the conflict would be resolved or if it would only make things worse. So it helps us determine if a conflict is worth having, when we should be neutral and when we should not be and how we can respond in an appropriate way. It is best to avoid conflict that does not concern us, avoid things such as gossip that can lead to excess conflict, avoid talking about things such as politics or things others can get offended by. We cannot avoid conflict but we can learn things that can help us avoid it and meditate on how we can respond if we do offend someone. Often times our believes may conflict with someone else. So they can become offended by ours. I have had this occur many times. Because I do not believe in getting vengeance many people have really gotten harsh with me because they have felt I should seek revenge towards someone. If I did that it could cause me to end up in a bad situation such as jail and makes me no better then the other person. So I have learned to respond to those who are offended by my beliefs or what I do. I love foraging in the wild for food. Many make fun of me and even belittle me for doing it. I have learned to feel sorry for them because they do not realize how wonderful the experience is and the variety of taste of the foods you can get from the wild and how much more nutrition it has. I no longer get offended or angry when they belittle or make fun of me. Developing strategies like this will help to protect the TJ.
I have a friend who taught me to look at things from a different perspective when I am wronged. They taught me to think they may not know any better and may need to learn. I have found that to be very true. They also taught me to let it go when the person is not going to change and I can do nothing about it. So when I am wronged my temporal junction recovers very quickly after the event has occurred. Another thing my friend taught me was to step back and try and see the whole picture. It help me learn a very valuable piece of information. Ever see those people who project their inner guilt or short comings onto others. Those ones have usually experienced trauma as a child , are experiencing chronic stress or PTSD so they to project their inner feeling, guilt or short comings onto others. Studies have shown reacting negatively and taking it personal and lashing out at the person only damages them more. Even though the things they say are not true about you but true about them, do not take it personal. Studies have shown when they do this to therapist and the therapist remains silent and does not react negatively it actually increases their chance of healing because it works as a release for them and they are better able to let go of negative emotions. So if someone is projecting onto us we need to step back and understand if it was because of trauma or stress , or if it was inappropriate projection. This way we can respond in the appropriate way. If we take it personal and respond immediately we usually will respond in an inappropriate way increasing the stress in what is already a stressful situation and damage their TJ and our own.
Unfortunately the friend I mentioned their temporal junction seems to have gotten damaged. They projected on me and I responded in an inappropriate way which made things even worse. They started treating me harsher and harsher until I eventually had to stop talking to them. Studying the temporal junction helped me a lot in understanding why they started treating me the way they did. I still get that warm feeling inside when you think of a friend , but I knew it was in my best interest to stop talking to them because their behavior towards me was becoming worse and worse and if I tolerated it I would only be reinforcing the behavior and they would have no reason or desire to change or and try to heal. Their harsh behavior towards me started to effect my TJ and I started responding inappropriately towards their actions towards me and saying things I should not have said. Unfortunately their insula is damaged also so they will not feel remorse or guilt for the things they said or did. Studies have shown that only therapist who know how to address insula damage can help them heal and the success rate is low because those with a damaged insula will seek out therapist that support their view of things. It is sad because this person was a wonderful person. When the insula is damaged a person becomes non receptive to outside information or suggestion form others. It is why the success rate for them healing is very very low. They will only respond to those who’s say things they want to hear and not what they need to. Sadly this makes the very open to deception and they can be taken advantage of. But they lack the ability to learn from past pain emotionally and physically and of learning form times they endangered themselves in the past. So they continually put themselves in dangerous decisions or even in situations to make bad moral decisions. The most difficult time of having to deal with this is when you realize you cannot help and it is best if you walk away to prevent emotional and even physical harm to yourself.
Embarrassment also activates the TJ and if over activated it can cause us to over respond to emotions causing us to over react or make a bad decision. If we dwell on the embarrassment or compromise moral norms we could constantly put ourselves in a position to be embarrassed or humiliated. This causes hyperactivation of the TJ. This leads to TJ fatigue. Then we lose the ability to feel embarrassed which when balanced it helps us to adjust our behavior so we can become better people and learn from our errors and make better decisions. If we lose our ability to feel embarrassed lose a key part of being guided morally. We will not even realize when we have done embarrassing or morally wrong things. Peer pressure and people giving into it is a result of hyper TJ activation. If we maintain awareness of who we are and protect our TJ it makes us less prone to peer pressure. We are all imperfect humans, the ones causing us to be embarrassed have done things that were embarrassing. Do not let others get you to focus on the embarrassment. Admit that the event happened, learn from it dwell on how you may be able to avoid it in the future or deal with when someone is trying to cause you to dwell on it. Do not let people constantly get you to dwell on it. This is something manipulative people do they will get you to dwell on something embarrassing you have done, or some error you made , or even exaggerate things. If we have learned from our experiences and used it to make ourselves a better person and make better decisions then we have no reason to dwell on thing we have done in the past. By learning to overcome things and becoming a better person and avoiding making those errors again it protects our TJ. If we have moved on and have grown and become wiser then we should not let people hold our past against us. If they get that power over us they can cause activation of the TJ and even eventually fatigue it which is worse. Either way it can cause us to react inappropriately to certain situations or decisions.
Meditation on a variety of things has been shown to improve overall brain health. Mindful meditation on our day without judging things and meditating on what we learned from it and how that knowledge can benefit future decisions. For example if we made a bad decision, instead of judging ourselves, or feeling embarrassed or shamed . We can think on how that occurred, how we could avoid putting ourselves in that situations again and how we can use that knowledge to make better decisions and become a better person. Also meditating on things that has made us happy in the past such as childhood memories that made us happy can improve overall brain function. Since spreading ourselves thin, chronic stress or trauma can damage the TJ. Meditating on one thing can help to repair the TJ . For example when mine TJ was damaged from Lyme my friends in the Facebook group taught me to focus on one things I really like and imagine doing it in my own mind. I had a 1978 ¾ Ford pickup truck I had just started to restore and it was laying in parts in my garage. I was just getting ready to put it back together and paint it when I got ill. My friends told me to imagine myself putting it back together and think about nothing else. I have to say from personal experience the results on healing my brain were dramatic. My brain function dramatically improve about the third day I started doing it. It was very difficult to visualize at first. But after three days it became easier and easier and my thinking became clearer and clearer. But you have to focus on thinking about nothing else. That part was very difficult and took me about a week to be able to do successfully.
I have discussed how to increase gray matter and BDNF in others post. Studies have shown those are decreased in temporal dysfunction so increasing those would improve TJ function. Gray matter loss if found to occur in most times of mental illness and mental dysfunction.
So you can see how easily our temporal junction can be effected, the importance of doing our best to protect it and to maintain it’s health the best we can. If it does get upregulated or fatigued it is very important to make sure the things that guide us morally is what we rely on to guide us and not what we feel is the right thing to do. If we do not do that then we can make decisions that not only add stress and trauma to our lives but it could actually endanger us or cost us our life.
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