Debbie Reynolds — who rose to stardom in “Singin’ in the Rain” and quickly became a staple among Hollywood royalty — died Wednesday as a result of a stroke, TMZ has learned … just one day after her daughter Carrie Fisher passed away … this according to her son Todd. Debbie was rushed to a hospital shortly after 1 PM when someone at the Beverly Hills home of her son, Todd, called 911 to report a possible stroke. We’re told Debbie and Todd were making funeral plans for Carrie, who died Tuesday of cardiac arrest.
It is possible that the emotional trauma somehow altered physiology, and produced an embolism, which triggered the stroke. Or changes in blood pressure brought about a hemorrhage. But I suspect more likely is that the cascading rise in brain activity produced by sitting down to handle funeral arrangements, the forced recognition of the event’s reality, and the inability to deny it, triggered the amygdala and overloaded her brain with a nuclear amygdala hijack.
There is a perception that strokes come from either embolisms or hemorrhages. I believe, based on experience, that there is a third means, and that is the overloading of a brain’s biological operating parameters. As the stimuli trigger ever higher levels of neurological activity, the nerves require ever higher levels of oxygen, glucose, and ATP. If the vascular structures are not capable of supplying those materials, the net effect is similar to the effect of an embolism reducing blood flow below minimum operating requirements. Nerve membranes are fighting to repolarize, their ion pumps are sucking up all available ATP, their mitochondria consuming every last molecule of oxygen and glucose, and still the cell is coming up short.
This can be exacerbated as the brain’s function begins to deteriorate and physical symptoms manifest, triggering fear of a stroke. This triggers an adrenaline release, and a death-fearing brain stimulus that triggers a call for even higher neurological activity, in a brain that is already redlining.
If the imbalance in activity and nutrient delivery becomes high enough, apoptosis can be triggered in the hypoxic tissue, and the effect of the stroke will not be just an amygdala hijack, but actual brain tissue death. In sufficient quantity, in theory, the result could even be death. Although I have never tried it, I suspect a fuller understanding of the amygdala hijack could produce the ability to actually kill predisposed amygdala-weakened people with ideas.
In this case, if Debbie had known the truth, that Carrie probably woke up to the most wondrous experience humans could ever know, and eventually, with time, they would meet again, she might still be with us. She obviously didn’t realize that, and that likely hastened her leaving this mortal coil.
Always have faith – the world is wondrous, and it doesn’t end here. NO matter what happens, you do live in a wonderous world, ruled by a God who loves you – and is good.
[…] Debbie Reynolds Dead At 84 […]
Or she realized that Carrie might not be there, and it was all her fault as her mother.
Inspiring finish to the post.
N.E.R.D. (Nobody Ever Really Dies)
Internalizing that is a constant wellspring of optimism.
Wondrous strange, indeed!
Lest anyone consider doing this, realize that this would be a literal torture situation with restraints, because people will do anything to alleviate amygdala angst, including murdering the person speaking these ideas. If you try this on someone who could kill you, and you start to succeed, they will. (And I think that it would morally be self-defense to boot.)
I have a theory that is not as charitable to Mrs Reynolds.
My wife’s mother was a full blown Narcissist (by that I mean full blown NPD, not simply being a “self-centered bitch”).
When a mother is a narcissist it creates some very specific (and repeatable) dynamics in the family (including raking of children from “golden child” to “scapegoat” by the mother and then eventually by the entire family). Based on Carrie Fisher’s descriptions of her mother she sounds like my mother-in-law and Carrie sounds like my wife (who was her mother’s scapegoat).
Sadly Debbie Reynolds may very well have died because that’s what a narcissist mother would do to prevent “that little bitch” from upstaging her.
Keep in mind I don’t personally know any of these people other than what I’ve gleaned from their public personas so I could be completely wrong (I hate to speak ill of the dead … unless I knew for sure).
We first discovered your book on Narcissists about 6-8 months after her mother’s passing along with a blog on “daughters of narcissistic mothers” and while she wasn’t able to employ what she learned while her mother was alive, both have been a big help in moving her past the whole mess.
Interesting. It would put a different spin on Eddie Fischer getting away from her.
I’m glad you guys got freedom. Once it is truly behind you, you need only look at the people still mired hip deep in it with no hope, to see how you are the luckiest people imaginable. This site routinely gets search traffic from people asking if their narcissist could kill them, how can they survive living with them, and on and on. There is a lot of misery out there.
Stefan Molyneux covered some of Carrie’s life and shared his thoughts: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zOcHS3l6MtY
I think another major stressor to Debbie’s system would have been the unconscious realization that her choices pretty much set Carrie on a course to an untimely death. There’s a sentiment that you shouldn’t have to bury your children… and when it does happen, and you’re responsible, and it remains unexpressed in your unconscious, it’s going to wreak havoc.
That is true. The unconscious mind does apply strange pressures people would never believe. I am increasingly convinced a lot of workaholics are trying to escape something in their life they don’t want to face.
“Always have faith – the world is wondrous, and it doesn’t end here. NO matter what happens, you do live in a wonderous world, ruled by a God who loves you – and is good.”
This is a good reminder. As someone who feels woefully unprepared to weather a major Apocalypse – these are great words that one can cling to.
I would add that God is not only good, also He is just. So, please don’t think you will just fly into heaven upon your death because God is good. If you have not believed, or have lived a life of sin and never truly repented, you’re going to hell for eternity.
Far better to aim for heaven for eternity, and your life on Earth will be enriched as well.
This comment may hijack some the amygdala of many readers.
God bless.
Matthew 7:21-23