I am Bonez's Amygdala.

I am Bonez's Amygdala.

Most folks have no clue that they have an Amygdala, let alone what one does. I do lots of things, but my favorite duty is that I am the fight-or-flight center. I control fear, anxiety, panic - all the "roller coaster" emotions.

I have a secret for you - Bonez HATES roller coasters. She isn't exactly a wimp, but if she could live her whole life never ever getting on a "thrill" ride, she would be thrilled! But I, her Amygdala, would be bored out of my gourd.

So where do I get my fun? I have fun while Bonez is dreaming. I don't decide WHAT the dream is about, my influence is how Bonez FEELS while she's dreaming. And since the emotions I specialize in are not the warm-fuzzy variety, the feelings aren't typically happy-happy-joy-joy.

And now that Bonez has to take lots of medication, I the Amygdala get to take lots of medication. And the more medication I get, the more latitude I have with the feelings I evoke. Things that might seem silly otherwise become morbid and frightening under my influence.

Like last night during the dream in which a friend suffers a debilitating brain injury and has to live with unending agony - I made sure Bonez felt extreme sadness and despair, to the point that even after she woke up she cried with the memory of the pain on her friend's face even though she knew it was just a dream.

Or a few nights ago in the one where Bonez and her Mom went to get tattooed at a bar on the strip and Bonez just wanted a simple small silver chain on her upper arm and ended up with a metallic powder blue swirling monstrosity that crawled up her arm, over her shoulder, up her neck, and around her face including across her eye and I gave Bonez a feeling of panic and shock and anxiety that while the tattoo was going up her face she was powerless to prevent it.

Or the one a couple weeks ago with the haunted house with the glowing red gopher hole and the gopher that lives there can make a child's heart explode or rip off body parts with one fatal glance and I made her feel horror and terror and panic and fear and disgust at the sight of her childhood friends being so grotesquely killed.

Or (this is her husband's favorite) the one where there were mice in the bed and she could hear their feet creeping along just against her back and she couldn't wake up or move and the mice were taking over and she was paralyzed with fear.

I may look like a sweet little Amygdala, but I have a heart and a sense of humor as black as coal. BOO!