Do you often question why your mood fluctuates so quickly? Sometimes you think to yourself, “Why did I explode at something that seemed so miniscule?” Well it’s because your autonomic nervous system is at work trying to constantly take in information and formulate a response based on your perception of the information. Stephen Porges developed the Polyvagal Theory to provide a roadmap of how our autonomic nervous system shapes moment to moment experiences of connection and protection.
Our Autonomic Nervous System has 3 parts, each with its own set of protective actions.
Sympathetic Nervous System: Fight or flight (Mobilizes us to protect ourselves from danger)
Parasympathetic Nervous System:
Ventral Vagal System: Offers the ability of safety through connection and social engagement
Dorsal Vagal System: Most primitive and brings strategies of immobilization. (Freeze) this is when a situation is perceived as “too much
When we are at our best, we are in our Ventral Vagal system, and feel a sense of connection where health, growth and restoration are possible. However, when we get triggered by something or someone in our environment, we often resort to a state of protection, and survival becomes the only goal moving down the ladder to the Sympathetic Fight or Flight, or Dorsal Vagal (Freeze)
When our system is dysregulated for long periods of time, the autonomic imbalance and lack of flexibility leads to physical health problems which include impaired immune function, digestive problems, respiratory problems, diabetes, increased risk of heart disease, stroke, and chronic fatigue (Andersson &Tracey, 2012; Dorrance & Fink, 2015; Mazur, Furgala, Jablonski, Mach, &Thor, 2012; Merz, Elboudwarej, & Mehta, 2015; Thayer & Sternberg, 2006; Vaillancourt et al., 2017; Van Cauwenbergh et al., 2014).
We can also experience psychological symptoms with imbalance such as isolation, loneliness, a vigilance of angry faces, distraction from tasks, inability to discern meaningful cues from trivial ones, and increased depression and anxiety (Grippo, Lamb, Carter, & Porges, 2007; Hawkley & Cacioppo, 2010).
Events of everyday life challenge our capacity to regulate our system and stay in a state of ventral vagus. Illness and traumatic events definitely tax our system, but everyday experiences can also trigger dysregulation i.e. feeling alone, having too many responsibilities in a day, working in a challenging environment, and being in a distressed relationship are just a few experiences that can overwhelm the ventral vagal system and cause us to move to a state of protection.
The good news is you can learn to reshape your autonomic nervous system by therapies. In order to regulate your system, you must be able to recognize how your body responds, and then develop tools to become resilient. As a Certified EMDR therapist, I help clients work through their systems in order to decrease the threat of fight, flight and freeze and live more often in a place of connection.