The heavy toll of the Troubles on brain health in Northern Ireland

Posted on: 19 April 2023

Professor Brian Lawlor, Site Director, Global Brain Health Institute (GBHI) and Professor of Old Age Psychiatry, Trinity College writes on the impact of The Troubles on the brain health of the people of Northern Ireland.

Conflict, whether at an interpersonal or societal level is most often driven by fear and a sense of threat to some aspect of our integrity and our identity, a perceived attack on our honour, prestige, position or security. This sense of threat can have its origins in a deep rooted belief of difference from the other person or group that we are in conflict with. This difference may be cultural, historical or simply a strongly held difference in position or perspective that if threatened or taken away, risks us feeling exposed and becoming vulnerable.

But what role, if any, does the brain play in conflict and what happens to the brain when we experience it?

A small almond shaped area deep in the brain and located behind our eyes called the amygdala gets fired up in times of conflict and hijacks the rational part of our brain. When this happens, our IQ drops by 10-20 points, our ability to process information and problem solve is affected,  and we become less open to seeking or receiving information that could lead us to the resolution of arguments and fixed positions on issues. We just batten down the hatches and retreat into our caves. While a degree of conflict can be productive and helpful in the short term, particularly if it gets resolved, research tells us that unresolved conflict which persists is bad for our brain health.

Part of our body’s reaction to conflict e.g, increase in heart rate, breathing, release of the stress hormone cortisol is biologically driven but our environment and life experiences, such as adversity, poverty, inequities, can also predispose us to getting into conflict and to responding in more extreme and sometimes violent ways.  And most importantly,  unresolved conflict can have negative consequences for our brain health,  and lead to anxiety, depression and alterations in plasticity and growth, all which make our brains even more unlikely to be able to respond positively and resolve the issues that are driving the original conflict.   

The Troubles have taken a heavy toll on the brain health of the people in Northern Ireland over the past 50 years. This is reflected by the high numbers of people that developed anxiety, depression, post traumatic stress disorder and one of the highest uses of antidepressants in Europe. Similar mental health impacts have been described for children and adults that have experienced the conflict in Colombia over the past half century.

We currently live in a world where the numbers of people fleeing their homes due to armed conflict, violence, fear of persecution and human rights violations is at 100 million and still rising. The impact on mental health and brain health is enormous and for the children and young adults affected now, this will impact on their brain plasticity and cognitive reserve and increase the risk of cognitive decline in later life.   

For all of these reasons, we need creativity and new ways of thinking to tackle conflict in all its forms and to protect our brain health. Creativity helps generate solutions, is characterised by curiosity and openness and can help us to imagine a new future for ourselves. There are a number of strategies that we might use to nudge us in the right direction.  For example, instilling positive feelings about anticipated outcomes, being more open to opportunities, shifting our thinking away from emotions that signal threat, difference and exclusion to one of hope, are creative ways that the brain can move from conflict mode towards resolution. Generating hope at times of conflict is always a good thing as it points us towards information and signals that can open up opportunities for reconciliation in all its forms. We saw this 25 years ago from leaders on both sides of the divide in Northern Ireland who were able to put aside their centuries old differences and use their creative brains to generate hope and help resolve an ancient conflict.

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