Adjusting Amygdala

This case was highlighted in the comments:

Meredith Lane Hight, 27, filed for divorce from her husband, Spencer James Hight, on July 17, according to Collin County court records obtained by Heavy. The case was still pending in the 470th District Court. Hight hired an attorney, Logan Odeneal, while her husband was representing himself, according to court records. Odeneal could not immediately be reached for comment and documents related to the case were not available.

According to the Dallas Morning News, Meredith Hight cited “discord or conflict of personalities” in her divorce filing. They did not have any children together.

Her mother told WFAA-TV that the Sunday party where the shooting occurred was a way for her daughter to move on from her ex.

“It was officially out with the old and in with the new,” Debbie Lane told WFAA-TV. “It was her reclaiming her life and she was thrilled to be doing that. It was the happiest she’d been in years. Years.”

Debbie Lane told the news station that Spencer Hight had moved out of the house months earlier, but had only recently collected the last of his belongings. Debbie said she was there with her daughter when he came.

“I think he saw our comfort, ease and happiness and her embracing new life and resented it to the maximum and responded the way he did,” Lane told WFAA.

Lane’s mother told the news station that her daughter didn’t share many details of her marriage, but did tell them, “he was an alcoholic and that she worked for two years to try and help him.”

Her father, Gene Lane, said when they separated, the family told her, “‘alright we’re behind you 100-percent.’”

“He was a very talented and artistic person but he just didn’t have coping skills,” Gene Lane told the news station.

“I don’t think he was crazy, I think we make choices consciously,” Debbie Lane told WFAA. “He was not stupid. I think he chose evil.”

So sad.

Lots of lessons in how the brain works, both in the insane/evil, and the normal. He was very talented, but didn’t have “coping skills.” That is one way of saying his amygdala could not endure adversity. I think nature has a way of balancing adversity and tolerance at a set level. If you have incredible tolerance for adversity, you will probably end up enjoying life, eventually enduring less adversity overall. That will take the load off your amygdala eventually, which will rebalance your tolerance to a more normal level.

If you have no tolerance for adversity, like this guy, your life will usually turn to shit, you will have more adversity than you could dream of, and your brain should adapt to that. The choice of evil usually seems to be a refusal, or an inability, to adapt to that adversity. When that happens, you get a character like this who finds his amygdala so loaded he eventually just gives in and begins hurting others.

On her side, notice how happy she was to be rid of him and free. The lesson there applies whether you are attacker or defender. Extraneous amygdala status affects other functions, especially threat perception. She was more vulnerable once she got him out and removed the high level of amygdala-stimulation she had adapted to. In her bliss, she failed to intellectually process that the threat she was under had actually exploded. That was when she should have been most paranoid.

This would also point to the best time to catch an adversary unaware would be right as they are in maximal bliss, be it from victory, happiness, pleasure, or just release of the stress. When the Trojans saw the Greeks had withdrawn, the joy they felt would have been a large part of why they would be so stupid as to draw a giant horse statue into their city’s walls. Their amygdala turned off in one regard, and that affected the strength of signal the organ produced in other areas.

If you are a defender, there will be no time to be more paranoid than right as you get everything you want. If you face a skilled attacker, that is exactly when you will get hit because they are skilled.

It almost makes me wonder if the Narcissist’s prone-ness to act out and attack those who are happy could be some evolved timing urge, designed to trigger their attack right as their victim is least likely to perceive the threat and effectively repel them.

Tell others about r/K Theory, because all narcissists need to die