Why Emotions Aren’t Logical

The Three Brain Model

There is a model of how your brain functions called the Three Brain Model, or the Triune Brain Model, which states that the brain is divided into three sections; the Lizard Brain, the Mammalian Brain, and the Executive Brain.

Usually, they work pretty well together - each responsible for their own tasks, but working together like a well-oiled team.

However, sometimes one part of the brain will take over, shutting out the other parts for the time being. This tends to happen when we are feeling threatened, anxious, or generally triggered. When this happens, the lizard brain takes over and shuts out the executive brain.

Let me explain…

The Lizard Brain

The Lizard Brain is the oldest and most primitive part of the brain. If you imagine your closed fist, it is about that size and sits right in the middle of your brain (with the mammalian and executive brain areas built around it.

It is the most primitive part of the brain in that every living creature has the lizard brain.

Your lizard brain is the home of your survival instincts. It is online and working from the moment you are born. It is what makes babies cry when they’re hungry, smile when they’re happy, and bawl when they’re tired.

It is also the home of your fight or flight instinct (along with freeze, fawn, and all the other Fs of our survival mechanisms).

Think of a lizard and how quickly they move when they feel under threat. They don’t think about why they are moving that quickly, they just get out of the way. This is what our lizard brain does for us. It is the instinct that makes us slam on the breaks if we see a child run into the road, the instinct that makes us recoil when someone pulls their fist back, and the instinct that makes us run when we think we’re being chased.

The lizard brain is non-verbal - so we don’t necessarily realise that we are doing these things (running, flinching, etc) until we’ve already done them. And often, we can’t explain why we reacted in the way that we did - it’s just instinct.

The Mammalian Brain

The mammalian brain is the next area to develop, and comes online when we are toddlers. This is the area of the brain that stores our implicit memories (our habits, our procedural memories such as how to ride a bike or tie our shoelaces, and all other non-verbal memories).

Our mammalian brains are the homes of our emotional reactions and our somatic experiences (i.e. feeling butterflies in our stomach or feeling choked up when we see something sad, etc).

It is called the mammalian brain as it can pretty much be found in all humans and mammals.

The mammalian brain comprises a small brain area called the amygdala, which is the home of our internal alarm system. This is the part of the brain that recognises danger signals and possible danger signals.

The Executive Brain

The executive brain is pretty much exclusive to humans. This is the part of the brain responsible for being able to plan ahead, think logically, be rational, analyse situations, and so on.

This is the area of the brain that allowed humans to move so far forward as a species (in comparison to where our caveman ancestors were) because it enabled us to work as communities, plan farming around seasons, create new ideas, and build machines, etc.

This part of the brain is brilliant at rationalising our behaviour and our reactions. However, when our amygdala (our internal alarm system) senses danger, it shuts down our executive brain and relies solely on our lizard brain to get us out of danger.

The reason for this is that our executive brain would slow us down too much. If someone we don’t know is coming towards us at a fast pace, we don’t want to stop and consider whether they are coming to attack us or hug us - we just want to get out of there (or prepare to fight them). Our executive brain could cause the few seconds or minutes of delay that would stop us from finding safety.

Once the danger has passed, our executive brain comes back online, and we can then process what has just happened.

This is why we don’t always respond logically to emotional or threatening situations, and why we can’t always (or rarely ever) logic our way out of emotional situations.

Chronic Trauma and Anxiety

The problem is that some people experience chronic trauma (e.g. abusive relationships) or chronic anxiety and stress, and their executive brain starts to take a back seat more often. They are then controlled by their emotions and by their survival instincts, not quite understanding why they are reacting the way that they are.

Oftentimes, the behaviours and reactions that we go to therapy (or other services) to get rid of, are the very behaviours and reactions that kept us safe in some way in previous times. For example, ending a relationship before the other person can, drinking excessively to avoid feelings, restricting food to regain a semblance of control and so on, are actually behaviours that kept you somewhat safe, sane, and able to keep going at some point in your life. They are behaviours the come out of our Lizard and Mammalian brains (collectively known as our Survival Brain), rather than our executive brain.

The good thing is that through therapy (and other services) we can work to bring the executive brain back online and start to understand why the Lizard and Mammalian brains are taking over so much.

If you’re interested in starting counselling, please see our Therapist Profile page to learn more about our therapists.