Fight, Flight or Calm?

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective

Often, as mental health experts attest, the fight or flight reaction is something that we experience in our brains, based on how we perceive specific situations we face. But why is this article titled “Fight, Flight or Calm?” when in reality, only the first two – fight or flight – are ever really discussed? Because there is another option and for Christians, that option has to do with our perceptions of what God wants and/or expects from us.

Several examples from Scripture serve to buttress this point. In Daniel 3, we learn of three men by name who faced a particular situation that would have easily meant their executions if God had not intervened. You’ll recall in that chapter, King Nebuchadnezzar had constructed a very tall image that he also decided would be used to call all people to worship. When people heard the music, they were to immediately stop what they were doing and worship the image that Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Most people had no problem with this. They simply obeyed since they were already polytheists, worshiping many different gods. What was one more “god” added to the mix?

However, we soon learn that three Jewish men, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego (friends of Daniel), would not bow the knee. Faced with the possibility of having to stand before Nebuchadnezzar and explain why they refused to worship the image he had set up, they were brought before him because of their refusal to worship the image.

The three men stood before the king and explained why they would not bow the knee to worship the image the king had set up. They also informed the king that their God was very capable of keeping them safe even if they were tossed into the fiery furnace as punishment for not obeying the king, but further indicated Yahweh might choose not to save them from the fiery furnace and they would perish. However, they wanted the king to understand that in either case they would be saved from the king and his wrath and would go into eternity with clear consciences were God was concerned.

So how did the three men stand up under the pressure to worship the image when they knew to do so would be wrong? They did not by fighting or fleeing but by embracing the situation and experienced calm. They prayed to God, submitted to Him and embraced what it He allowed to come their way instead of shrinking from it.

Another instance from Scripture is with Jesus on the night He was betrayed. As He prayed alone in the Garden of Gethsemane, it became clear what He was facing and it was gruesome in many ways; physically and spiritually. Jesus described it as “this cup” that He sought the Father to remove, but only if it was the Father’s will to do so (Luke 22:42). No one knows exactly what that “cup” was but it clearly included a great deal of suffering. Was it purely the physical pain and agony of what His body would go through that caused Him to reel? Was it the spiritual separation Jesus would experience as the Father poured out His wrath on God the Son? Was it both? We don’t know for certain because Scripture doesn’t tell us.

We can see the struggle Jesus went through in being tempted to want to flee away from what lay in front of Him. The temptation to flee the situation pushed Him to His limit, yet He did not sin by fleeing or fighting against the situation. He submitted Himself to the Father knowing that what was coming His way that evening and the next day was essentially the main reason He had agreed to be born into this world in human skin. How?

When we face situations that cause stress, our brain creates/converts chemicals to neurotransmitters, which is how we handle stress. Stress-inducing situations make it very hard to relax and gain calm. Mental health experts tell us that in our brains, neurotransmitters help us decide how to think. Two particular neurotransmitters (but not the only two), involved in this process are glutamate and GABA (short for gamma aminobutyric acid). These help us think and decide what to do in given stressful situations. However, if our bodies do not produce glutamate or GABA properly, things will be off in our brains and poor decisions may be the result.

Dr. Scott Sherr – director of integrative hyperbaric medicine and health optimization at Hyperbaric Medical Solutions – has spent years working with patients to help determine what works and what doesn’t work. He notes that GABA does wonders for our brains and can actually help our bodies physically detox when things are working correctly. Dr. Joseph Mercola notes that “GABA helps put you into parasympathetic mode, thereby promoting relaxation and stress reduction, indirectly.” [1]

Even though stressful situations cause our bodies and minds to react with either a fight or flight responses, proper amounts of GABA can reduce stress, allowing us to think more clearly and reasonably, better able to make an informed decision. The problem though is that this ability to think clearly and reasonably is often overruled by a lack of GABA.

Glutamate is the primary excitatory neurotransmitter and GABA the main inhibitory neuro-transmitter. These two are always working in conjunction with each other to maintain a balance. Glutamate converts into GABA in your brain. If you have trouble converting glutamate into GABA, you’ll have excitatory-like symptoms, as the glutamate over-accumulates. [2]

The more glutamate a person has working in their brains, the more overworked your brain will be. Things like impatience, restlessness, anxiety, worry, irritability, lack of focus, and anxiousness will rule your brain. GABA, on the other hand, supports relaxation, good mood, sleep, and calm without impairing cognition.

Our brains are very complex. Evolution did not do that! God did that.

Today, more people are on some sort of SSRI medication (for depression, anxiety, etc.), than previous generations. This increases the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain and is often referred to as the “feel good” neurotransmitter. Research now indicates that this may not be accurate.

Serotonin is typically referred to as “the happiness hormone,” and deficiency is thought to be the source of depression. That’s why depression is routinely treated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) that raise serotonin levels in your brain. The problem is, serotonin is NOT responsible for depression, and raising your serotonin is the last thing you want to do. Elevated serotonin destroys empathy, love and wisdom, and impairs thyroid function, reduces metabolism, and contributes to reductive stress and insomnia.[3]

We need to ensure we have plenty of glutamate converting to GABA available in our brain. This is done first and foremost, by eating correctly. Most people do not eat correctly today. They instead rely on fast food or restaurant foods and snacks (junk foods), that are heavily processed and laden with chemical additives and preservatives that tend to weaken the body’s immune system as well as keep us from properly breaking down and digesting food in our bodies. The goal for most food producers today is on how it tastes, not how nutritious it actually is for a person.

It’s also clear scientifically that neurotransmitters are often (not always), created in our guts, not our brains. They are then transferred to our brains for use. However, if not adequately created in our guts, they won’t do the correct job in our brains and may do more harm than good. If people ate high quality foods instead of what is normally eaten today, that would be more than half the battle because proper vitamins and nutrition is naturally created in the food God made for us. We become what we eat for good or bad.

It turns out that it’s GABA, not serotonin, that fights depression and provides a sense of well-being. Dr. Scott Sherr says this about GABA and serotonin.

GABA deficiencies are…associated with anxiety, with fear, with depression, with a short temper, phobias, impulsiveness, disorganization, addictions. It’s even associated with schizophrenia and OCD [obsessive-compulsive disorder]. You can also have things like IBS and diarrhea, hypertension, tinnitus, chronic pain, migraines, allergies, frequent urination, flushing, sweating, salt cravings, muscle tension. These are all things that could be signs of GABA deficiency.[4]

The person who suffers from the those things regularly may have consistently low GABA levels in the brain. Sherr says that glutamine is converted into glutamate in our brains, an “excitatory neurotransmitter.” This creates overthinking and hyper-focusing and/or anxiousness and even feeling negatively overwhelmed by your thoughts (“gloom and doom”).

However, glutamate in a normally healthy person will convert to GABA, which will then reduce the excitatory neurotransmitters (balancing them out), into a more relaxed state in the brain, making it possible to better analyze situations and work through them. GABA is one of the transmitters that is actually created in our brains, after conversion from glutamate. So if you are a person who has trouble converting glutamate into GABA (look to your symptoms), you’ll be dealing with excitatory neurotransmitters on a more regular basis. This means glutamate is over-accumulating in the brain and causing a constant state of restlessness, over-thinking, worry, etc. You may even conclude that you’re a “worry wart,” depressed, or that something is seriously wrong with you because all you do is worry and you feel overwhelmed.

What things keep glutamate from converting to GABA? Medical experts tell us it’s often due to a lack of co-factors like B6 and magnesium. Another is a lack of enzyme glutamate decarboxylase. This converts glutamate into GABA so if not present, no conversion occurs, leaving glutamate as excitatory neurotransmitters.

Dr. Mercola notes two common problems that cause this lack: one is an acute or chronic infection and the second is chronic stress that causes elevated cortisol levels. With the rise of stress hormones like cortisol, GABA production is greatly reduced.

The article linked below (in PDF format), goes into great depth on this subject and is well worth the read especially for the times in which we live. Society is now at the point where stressful situations are coming at us non-stop and it takes its toll. I’ve linked to another article on how GABA works to reduce pain as well.[5]

During CV, most people who took the jab did so because they reacted with the fight or flight mode. They were told they’d die if they got CV and wanted to fight off or flee from death by CV. They were eventually told that getting the jab was the cure. It didn’t live up to its hype though and now many are wishing they hadn’t taken it because of the harm it caused them and continues to cause. But this is a perfect example of how excitatory neurotransmitters (causing fear/worry), can deceive us into making erroneous decisions.

I believe God expects us to approach situations in life like the three men in Daniel or Jesus in Luke. As we deal with each situation, our job is to give them over to Him for His will to be accomplished in and through us. This will be very hard for us when we feel completely overwhelmed and have little to no ability to be calm under the assault of those difficult situations. To face situations as the three men and Jesus faced their situations, we need to have the proper tools. Our health is one of those important tools. Reading His Word is another. Praying is certainly another. Trusting in Him is yet another.

Eat the right foods to avoid added chemicals and literal poisons. Add supplementation to your diet after talking with your healthcare provider. Exercise is another way of increasing GABA, but it all starts with food in reality.

Treat your body like it is – the Temple of the Holy Spirit – and God will reward you for it.

[1] Role of GABA in Health and Well-being, by Dr. Mercola, published on-line December 10, 2023 role-of-gaba-pdf

[2] Ibid

[3] Ibid

[4] Ibid

[5] https://www.painnewsnetwork.org/stories/2021/10/1/what-every-intractable-pain-patient-should-know-about-gaba

Theology and Politics from a Conservative, Biblical Perspective