What Happens with Chronic Overwhelm? The Third Branch of your Autonomic Nervous System
For many, an awareness of the Nervous System has been understood to comprise the two primary branches of the autonomic Nervous System, known as the sympathetic (“fight/flight”) and parasympathetic (“rest/digest”), with an assumption that modern life stresses us out and it’s our job to regulate ourselves back into calmness so we can heal and grow.
And this basic understanding of the nervous system is generally correct! Until clinicians began observing that many of their patients who had undergone significant trauma or who were under sustained states of overwhelm, stress, and sympathetic dominance began demonstrating different traits. These patients showed up with a more dissociated and apathetic attitude toward life characterized by shutting down and collapsing their nervous system, rather than ramping it up preparing to fight or flee.
Steven Porges and the Polyvagal Theory came in to explain the neurological basis of this observable phenomenon. He breaks down the parasympathetic nervous system (rest/digest for those who like the rhymes!) into 2 parts: ventral vagal and dorsal vagal (named for their locations). In other words, we can be calm and connected or calm and dissociated. The dissociation state is what our oldest reptilian ancestors used to “play dead” thus ensuring their survival when under threat and it’s referred to as dorsal vagal.
Traditional neurological models didn’t have a framework to meet patients clinically who were presenting in a dorsal vagal state until the language and neurological basis was discovered. We now understand that, though this world challenges all of us, we don’t all respond the same! Many people are living in a dysregulated (maladapted) nervous system, yet they’re dysregulated in different ways and require different practices to achieve the ideal ventral vagal state.
The ventral vagal state refers to being calm, confident, open, and able to connect with other people socially (a key part of our biology centers on socialization and the ability to feel safe in community!). For those in a dorsal vagal state who are shut down and immobilized, mobilization may be a viable “medicine.” For this patient, I would prescribe more dynamic and active therapies (once safety is established, of course!). Whereas for the classic sympathetic dominant patient, prescribing a more soothing and relaxing form of therapy would be an appropriate “medicine” (also having established safety through verbal cues and environmental features).
Many therapies such as deep breathing, chanting, humming, play, and chiropractic adjustments are shown to improve vagal tone (ie. improve adaptability and resiliency in the face of stressors!). Though outside stressors will always be present, these are some of the best ways we can train ourselves to adapt and navigate easily between the 3 states as needed.
Though all 3 neurological states are available to all of us at all times, we tend to become habituated more into one pattern through inertia. What state do you commonly find yourself in?? Reply to let me know what practices you’ll take to better regulate your nervous system! I’d love to work with you on developing a plan toward optimizing your adaptability to the many stressors of life.
Shameless Plug: Yoga for Nervous System Health at Lizard Yoga Mondays @ 5:30pm