The War Brain By Eileen Bona


Registered Psychologist


From soldier to “disordered.” From warrior to “outpatient.” From hero to “dischargee.” Too many of our military folks, our upstand- ing Canadian citizens and role models of patriotism and sacrifice are returning to us from overseas different in a way that is earn- ing them labels like “mentally ill” or “men- tally disordered.” They are referred to psy- chotherapists to talk about their depression, anxiety, and their PTSD. They are taking medications and desperately hoping they can ascend from the depths of their memo- ries, shut out the fury of their recent horrify- ing experiences, and descend into a peaceful sleep routine sometime in the near future.


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Most military personnel in Canada didn’t ask to go overseas to fight someone else’s war and none of them planned to come back with the haunting memory of it negatively affecting their lives. Are they “disordered, clinical, diagnosable?” Much research sup- ports the fact that the human brain, like the horse’s brain and every other animal brain, has a universal response to life-threatening circumstances. The “different” way that veterans have come back may be “normal” considering where they have been.


At the time of a threat, the human brain reacts similarly to that of a “prey animal.” Neuroscientist Mobbs conducted a fear- based experiment at the Medical Research Center in Cambridge, England. Mobbs had subjects play a video game in which they were being hunted by a predator while they were lying in an fMRI scanner. Mobbs found that people experienced a “freeze” response when they first perceived a threat and at this time, the frontal lobes of their brains showed the most activity. Forebrain activity prepares our bodies to act and to think and strategize ways to avoid being harmed. The forebrain activity also keeps our midbrains inactive which keeps us from moving so we can stay still and think. In the experiment, when the predator came closer, the forebrain functions were shut down and the midbrain


VOL. 46 NO. 1 | WINTER 2014


functions were activated. The midbrain activates our “flight or fight” responses. Our fight/flight response is also controlled by the Sympathetic Nervous System which trig- gers over 1400 different physiological and biochemical changes in the brain when we perceive a threat, whether real or imagined. Psychological changes include feeling more aggressive, angry, and fearful. A long term fight/flight response keeps us in a height- ened state of fear and anxiety.


In the brain of a horse, we see the same brain patterns at play. Horses are prey ani- mals and have had to survive in the wild. Whenever a horse experiences anything that it perceives as threatening, it triggers into a “freeze” response. A threat can be anything from a piece of flying plastic to a bicycle on the road. Their ancient brain circuitry results in them being easily startled and when they are, their heads go high into the air which triggers a chemical rush into their brains. The horses freeze and their synapses stop firing. They react by running away or kick- ing, biting, or stomping the object. They fight or flight. They are keenly “survival skilled” and this served their species well in the last several hundred thousand years.


Hyper-alert veteran and instinct-driven horses are both actively engaged in their primitive survival minds. They are on high alert and share a common understanding for the need for safety. Horses are great mirrors for human emotions. A sensitive horse will feedback feelings of fear, anxiety, sadness, or anger in their body posture, movements, position of their heads, breathing, licking, and chewing and much more. If people are hiding their true emotions or are incapable of understanding them, horses will react to what is really happening and with the right informed and sensitive human helper, people can be assisted to address and deal with what is really going on inside their bodies. The process is not easy, foolproof, or immediate but through working with horses, people in “war brain” mode can learn to understand that their condition is a nor- mal response that requires understanding, awareness, and a return to peace time.


Since 2007, the United States Department of Veterans Affairs has provided grants for qualified professionals to run equine as- sisted programs with returning troops from Afghanistan and Iraq. Preliminary results are


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